YMMV / The Croaking

• Adorkable: Ky is a Gentle Giant and endearingly socially awkward. He's also very protective of his friends and a bit clumsy. While there are frequent implications that some of this might just be a facade he puts on, there is still a lot of genuine goodness in him that endears him to readers.
• Alternate Character Interpretation:
  • How much of Ky's good-natured, kind personality is a mask he puts on to get information and how much is genuine? He seems to really care for Scra and Ree, but if push comes to shove, would he really put them over whatever his end-goal is? He has been going behind their backs to report to director Imperius.
  • Is Reamer a Noble Demon or just a rich Jerkass? He admits several times that he's not a fan of the current system, but that seems more because it's currently inconveniencing him personally, not because it is fundamentally unfair. Is he being honest when he says he just wants to by Ky's friend or is he just using him to play a twisted mind-game with his overbearing, controlling mother? Add to that that he's very much a racist. His first appearance has him and two of his friends torment Scra.
• Jerkass Woobie: Del is a racist jerk and a bully whom nobody really likes. But he's also revealed to have an extremely abusive father who frequently makes it clear he doesn't care about him and considers him a disappointment. He gets hit with Laser-Guided Karma hard in season 1, ending with him getting seemingly murdered by Scra during the finale. Del was by no means a good person, but you can't help but wonder if things really had to go that far.
• LGBT Fanbase: With the main trio all being LGBT+ and the comic often broaching the subject of relationships, it's really no surprise.
• Paranoia Fuel: The church of Icarus, a prime example of a Corrupt Church that has the government in the palm of its hands. They're powerful enough to get away with kidnapping and maiming. And they don't like it when people go against their teachings. No matter who you are, if they catch wind of you behaving blasphemous, you'll be a few limbs short faster than you can look.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: With The Croaking 's setting already being a Crapsack World where no one is truly happy, the characters themselves are probably the only thing that keep most readers going through all the pain. However, even the main trio risks crossing into the Eight Deadly Words, especially in season 2, with Scra being so angsty it can get old, Ree being an alcoholic insecure mess who refuses to deal with her problems and Ky being a mole who regularly spills out Scra's deepest secrets to a malevolent higher power.
• The Woobie:
  • All three of the main characters qualify.
    • Scra is the only crow in an academy that still teaches racist beliefs about his species, frequently the target of bullying and harassment and has to juggle playing both for the Roost and the Blackash Murder. Before that he had to live on the street after his previous murder was wiped out and his childhood friend abandoned him to join the murder responsible for it.
    • Ree is heavily implied to have had no actual friends before Ky and Scra came into her life. She is also still struggling with the loss of her friend, maybe even girlfriend, to the point of hallucinating about her several times. Another one of her old friends also seems to hate her guts now.
    • Ky is under a lot of pressure from being the director's spy, he struggles with his feelings for Scra and it's heavily implied the only reason he works with the Roost is because they're currently holding his little sister hostage.

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