Awkward Zombie / YMMV

Arc Fatigue:
- A story arc where Roy comes back went on for six strips, which, after the one week break after part four, was seven weeks in real life.
- On October 26 of 2015, Katie published a comic on Metal Gear Solid 3, in which the author's note stated "I hope you're excited for six months of nothing but comics about METAL GEARRRRR". Following that comic, at least one comic out of every two for the next two years was on Metal Gear Solid. Katie herself lampshades the long stretch of Metal Gear in the December, 4th 2017 author's note:
  Katie: I hope everyone who likes the games enjoyed METAL YEAR, even if it was actually two years. This goofy series means a lot to me, apparently. And to everyone who doesn't care about them at all: SORRY, YOU CAN COME BACK NOW
- The Kingdom Hearts comics have taken up just as much time, since it covers nearly all installments.
Broken Base: The aforementioned Metal Gear comics. While Katie made it so every other week wasn't from the series (except for multi-part ones), many people had gotten sick of the massive amount of them after they started at the end of October in 2015. However, some people didn't mind, either due to being big enough fans of the series or having a higher tolerance of its over-representation.
Crosses the Line Twice:
- The best way to follow up burning someone alive? Confetti!
- Samus refuses to let Ridley in Smash because he killed her parents. Ridley's defense? He only killed her parents "one time!"
- Venom using a riot gun to tranquilize a zebra is funny enough, but Katie's justification?
  I don't know why you'd include a riot gun and a zebra in the same game if you don't expect me to interact with both of them at the same time.
- Corpse explosion.
- The Zubat in Tricks of the Trade has an utterly suck-y life, just wanting a partner but being stuck in constant wonder trade limbo for being a Com Mon. When it does find a trainer in Katie and eventually evolves to a Crobat, the punchline of the strip reveals she was doing it just for Pokedex completion before dunking it into the PC, presumably indefinitely. The look on Crobat's face is an expression of utter betrayal, and it's as hilarious as it is sad.
Fridge Brilliance: The Alan Wake parody has Alan try to exploit Rewriting Reality by pulling a happy ending out of his ass, which fails to work. A big part of the game's Meta Fictional musings is that a story can't have a happy ending "just happen," it has to be true to the plot (ie, earned) or it's no good. The "real" Alan didn't even consider trying that because the Dark Presence shores up plot holes by exploiting them.
Hilarious in Hindsight:
- In the "Porcum Iacio" short (based on MythBusters), Katie shows the gang attempting to build a cannon made out of duct tape (to fire a pig). While they didn't fire any pigs, guess what the MythBusters later built on their show?
- This strip turns out to be spot on in Investigations. See for yourself. This one is actually hinted at in the 5th case of the first game, where you can visit Edgeworth's office and examine everything within... including a Steel Samurai figure.
  - Hinted at even earlier on, in one of the main series' games, Edgeworth has the Steel Samurai theme music as a ringtone.
- This strip was made before an Ace Attorney game (directed by Shu Takumi, creator of the franchise) was announced to take place during Meiji-era Japan, making it eerily prophetic, if not hilarious.
- This comic contains Marth and Wolf fighting on a Super Mario Galaxy-themed stage. Although Wolf wasn't playable in Smash 4, a Super Mario Galaxy stage is present in the Wii U version. This stage also returned in Ultimate, and so did a playable Wolf.
- This comic claims that no one may come back to Smash after leaving the roster - except for at least two Links, Dr. Mario, and Mewtwo. Years later, the fourth game features the return of Dr. Mario and Mewtwo after their absence from Brawl. Even better, Ultimate includes both Toon Link and Young Link, who were previously thought to be mutually-exclusive characters. And Marth's line "Nobody actually left, did they?" is a lot more accurate now that Everyone is Here.
- Pretty much any strip about Roy not being allowed to return to Smash is this now that Roy has been revealed to be making his triumphant return as DLC in the fourth game.
- This cartoon, which is the page image to the Popularity Polynomial page, predicts the Pokémon GO phenomenon six years in advance.
- This strip features the Pokémon trainer defeating Lysandre's Pyroar by sending out all six of their Pokémon at once, using Lysandre's genocidal intention as justification for breaking the rules. About two years later in Pokémon the Series: XY, this is how the climatic battle between Ash and Lysandre went, albeit 7 Pokémon (with Alain aiding Ash) against 2. Lysandre's Pyroar even went out the same way thanks to a combination of different attacks from Ash's Pokémon at the same time.
- Wild Ditto being disguised as other wild Pokémon, only being revealed when captured, was the plot of a post from 2010. Pokemon Go eventually implemented Ditto into the game in this manner.
- This strip, which ended up serving as the Page Image for Alternate Character Interpretation, sees Katie struggling with the fact that Marth's personality in the comic is so different to how he is in the games. Seven years on Fire Emblem Fates gives us Leo, who famously looks like Their Marth, but whose personality is more in line with Our Marth.
- One of the earliest comics poked fun at the Fridge Logic of why rock-eating Gorons needed a mine in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Ten years later, come The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, it turns out the comic was Right for the Wrong Reasons, as Gorons actually don't like the taste of gemstones and trade them to other cultures as a by-product, instead.
- This strip from 2014 reasoning that Ridley wasn't made playable throughout the Super Smash Bros. series because of his much darker and vile nature (plus a more personal grudge from Samus) in comparison to other Nintendo villains (barring Ganondorf) becomes a lot more hilarious now that in Ultimate, not only is Ridley part of the roster, he's just as dark and sadistic as in his home series.
  - Mario is also one of the two people in that strip to speak up in defense of Ridley. What is one of the first things Ridley does in his official Smash introduction? Kill Mario, and steal his hat. Fox should probably count himself lucky he was busy with Starlink at the time.
- One comic for Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies involves a fake case where the butler obviously did the murder. Come Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice, the DLC case has the butler indeed do it.
- The final panel of this strip has Chrom wondering why Robin set Nowi up as a wyvern knight (or as Chrom said, "Why is our dragon riding a different dragon?"), which became funnier in Fire Emblem: Three Houses, which has a wyvern-riding character (Seteth) whose true identity is Saint Cichol; in other words, a dragon who canonically rides another dragon.
- The 700th strip is this once you learn that Katie drew it before Sephiroth was announced for Smash. It also becomes this post-publication after Pyra/Mythra were revealed to be the next DLC characters after Sephiroth.
  - Even more hilarious after the reveal that Daisy's counterpart has a sword of her own in her upcoming game. Maybe she was on to something, after all!
- This strip jokes about all of Fódlan's barbers being conscripted into the war, which comes off as prescient considering all of the jokes about how terrible the new hairstyles look in Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes.
- The Smash-themed strip titled "Rat King of Fighters" was drawn three months before the Smash series announced its upcoming The King of Fighters representation.
- The final panel of this strip has both Byleths not understanding the concept of Tandemaus being considered as one guy despite being two guys. About three weeks later, Duo Byleths were announced in Fire Emblem Heroes.
- "The Flames of War" is about how political people on the internet are triggered by anything, even an adorable animal video. Six years later, the White House posts a video of its new cat, and the news saw that the comments were basically exactly the same:
  Jay.rutland.77: The cat was probably sacrificed for some demonic ritual
  Patsygram: They'll euthanize the cat when it scratches someone. Poor abused cat.
  Jenirunsdisney: Grow a brain and think for yourself instead of being in mango Mussolini’s cult. Can’t wait to see you cry in November. Or sooner when your orange overlord is in prison.
  sharonxxrose: Biden will be in jail or dead and a Republican will take over again… either Trump or Ramaswamy. No more corrupt Biden’s trying to throw their opponents in jail. Get your safe space ready.
  _jesslev1981_: Can’t people just enjoy the cat?!
  Kro5tanussey: Me thinking this was a cute video and the comments would be civil.
Memetic Badass: Katie's dad, if the forumites are to be believed.
Memetic Mutation:
- According to comments on Know Your Meme, Katie is the master of facial expressions and every comic she draws spawns at least one reaction image.
- In the comic's forums, there are a number of Awkward Zombie comics that have turned into memes that people like to edit into the latest comic. These include the impossible-to-catch Entei (often accompanied by someone shouting "ARGRARJGHH DARGHRAUGH"), Nowi's Age-Inappropriate Dress, long-neck Caesar, and bread. It has gotten to the point where people are making meta edits about these popular edits (for example, these◊ ones).
- "One time!" ^Explanation
- "Eat your hamburgers, Apollo."^Explanation
Nausea Fuel:
- The "Gut Reaction" strip depicts what Guts Man's weapon should logically be: a stream of literal human internal organs.
- "Zip of the Iceberg" has Sora decide to unzip Donald Duck's Kingdom Hearts III hat and find out the hard way that it was keeping his brains from spilling out.
One-Scene Wonder:
- Ridley, for five years, had only appeared in a single comic and only had one line of dialogue in said comic, but the sheer hilarity of the punchline made him leave a very lasting impression until his return in 2019.
- Technically, by now he's a Two Scene Wonder, but for the longest time Katie's dad qualified as this due to his unusual method of trying to find out where policemen get gasoline.
Paranoia Fuel:
- Health Class. Better make sure you're getting your Vitamin C!
- Anyone could be a Ditto. Even your closest loved ones.
  It's always the person you least expect.
Squick:
- Played for laughs in this comic.
  Stop reading my comics, mom and dad.
- This comic hangs a lampshade on the rather...iffy relationships one can form in Fire Emblem Fates. Corrin seems to think this way, too; she goes off to join a monastery rather than marry either of her brothers.
Tear Jerker:
- Believe it or not, Situational Gravity is a minor one. Anyone who's played Skyrim knows how unforgiving the physics are, and that poor Khajit just looks so depressed in the final panel...
- Poor unloved, unwanted Zubat. And when it finally finds a trainer who seems to love it, the poor guy gets stuffed in the PC.
Unpopular Popular Character:
- Roy. He often comes across as crass and rude, and most of the Smash Bros. contestants either barely remember him or barely tolerate his antics. Despite this, he's one of the more popular characters in the comics, and is often cited as one of the main reasons they wanted Roy to come back into Smash at all. Crosses into Fridge Brilliance for Fire Emblem fans. Roy is something of a Low-Tier Letdown, as his stats make him one of the worst lords in the entire franchise.
- Speaking of which, Marth applies as well. He's a narcissist and an Upper-Class Twit, making him an easy Butt-Monkey for the antics of the Smashers. Peach is known to get into Cat Fights with him, Samus finds the concept of giving him respect to be laughable, and the only person who likes him that isn't a complete idiot is Lucina. It's exactly this characterization that makes Marth one of the comic's most iconic characters, simply because he's so fun to abuse.
Viewer Gender Confusion: If her name weren't Katie more people would probably mistake her Author Avatar for a guy, it doesn't help that she almost always wears the male protagonists' outfits in her Pokémon strips.◊ Anyone who was still confused for some reason finally got the answer shoved in their faces with the Kickstarter video, which shows her in person. Her new haircut doesn't help either.
Wangst: Poor Their!Marth. The other Marth's wangst is even funnier.
What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: The comic has a cutesy art style, but many of the jokes involve M-rated video games.
The Woobie: The Zubat from Tricks of The Trade. Poor, poor Zubat.

YMMV / Awkward Zombie

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