History ComicBook / RedSonja

* FishOutOfTemporalWater: Red Sonja is hurled into the future (again) by Kulan Gath and has to explore present-day New York.

* BreakoutCharacter: Red Sonja rapidly rose to become one of the most popular characters in Marvel comics in the Seventies, not just among ''Conan the Barbarian'' fans.

* BlondeBrunetteRedhead: Invoked -- when Roy Thomas decided to create a DistaffCounterpart for Conan, he wanted to make her a redhead, as the established warrior women in Conan lore were Valeria (blonde) and Belit (Brunette).

* BatheHerAndBringHerToMe: Has happened to her more than once, when some EvilOverlord decides to make her part of his harem. See the ''Sonja Goes East'' one-shot for one such example. ''Birth of the She-Devil'' also opens with a Sultan making this fatal mistake.

* CapturedOnPurpose: In ''The Art of Blood and Fire'' Sonja makes an assassination attempt against Kalayah, motivating him to capture and imprison her, which allows her to break free (with Rat's help) within his compound and set his own animals against him.

* ButtMonkey: In the Gail Simone run; she's been thrown in the mud by bouncers, has a chef turn her down when she's practically begging him for sex, and a swordsman spanks her in the butt before she falls face first in the mud. Finally a barbarian who saw her get humiliated gives her the nickname Mud Sonja. Stuff like this would never happen in the previous Dynamite incarnations.
* CelibateHero: Until the Gail Simone's run retconned it, Sonja was defined by her celibacy vow unless if a man defeated her in fair combat. The nature of her vows and whether or not she would lose her skills should she ever had sex depends on who is writing it. She does show attraction to certain men from time to time, but these never develop into true relationships, though according to her past narrated in ''Queen Sonja'', she did have a boyfriend during her teenage years after her rape without losing her abilities. Its implied that in addition to her vows to the goddess, she also refuses to love any men because she still grieves her beloved's death and wants to NeverBeHurtAgain.

* CombatPragmatist: Especially in Creator/GailSimone's run on the series.
** Sonja uses her ChainmailBikini to distract male opponents.
** In ''Legends of Red Sonja'' she tells a former adventuring partner to spread lies about her cowardice and lack of prowess so a group of hunters tracking her will be caught off guard.
** When it comes to a straight-up fight, she's perfectly willing to put on a suit of full plate armor and pull out all the stops with her swordfighting skills.

[[folder: Gail Simone's Red Sonja (2013-2014)]]

[[folder: Gail Simone's Red Sonja (2013)]]

* INeedAFriggingDrink: Dialed back from Gail Simone but Chu's Sonja still loves a drink. In the storyline where Kulan Gath transports her through time to modern-day New York, her first priority after escaping captivity is food and her second is ale. Sonja pretty much says the trope title while walking around Harlem looking for a bar.

* LikeADuckToWater: Her ability to learn new skills is practically a superpower. Arriving in New York, she quickly figures out how to use a remote control to operate a television and becomes almost fluent in English in 24 hours ... a faster learning curve than Wonder Woman. She somehow also learns how to ''read'' English without being taught and even picks up how to drive a motorbike just by riding on the back of one (with a nasty hangover, to boot).

* BadassNormal: {{Zigzagged}}, Whether Sonja is superhuman or not depends on the writer. Her fighting prowess was divinely granted rather than the product of natural training and under some writers Sonja is acknowledged to be just a mortal fighter on peak female human condition. Others explicitly make her superhuman to a least some degree. She once demonstrated a healing factor and other writers have ranged from being MadeOfIron to giving her [[SuperStrength the strength of multiple men.]] For example, Michael Avon Oeming's Sonja was an unearthly warrior virtually impossible to defeat in combat, whereas Gail Simone's could be beaten in a duel with a skilled swordsman and got thrown out of a bar by a couple of bouncers. Amy Chu's take on the character in the current run is probably the most physically impressive yet. She can take a fall onto bare rock from 30 feet up and jump straight up again, and can leap 15 feet straight up to slash a sauropod-sized demon; she is also swiped by the same demon and hurled hundreds of feet away and immediately jumps to her feet unscathed. She can catch a thrown knife by the hilt in the dark without even looking and can necklift a 250lb man with one arm, with him being unable to break her grip with both hands. Amy Chu has said in a Reddit chat that Sonja [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower developed her abilities through sheer bloody determination and training]] (i.e. without divine intervention, unlike Oeming's version) but that she has the strength of several men and is powerful enough to topple a horse with a punch. The version of Sonja that appeared in 2019's 'Vampirella/Red Sonja' was legitimately superhuman and could smash through a two-foot-thick stone wall with a single punch, taking out several solders on the other side, as well as kicking down a heavy steel door with ease - she appeared to be just as strong as Vampirella. Similarly, the Sonja of the 'Sonjaversal' series appears to be either immortal or to age very slowly and is said to have been blessed with strength and speed greater than anyone else of her world.

* BookDumb: Despite her mother's efforts, Sonja is only borderline literate. She may have a learning disability; she describes working very hard to develop only crude handwriting. Averted in the current run by Amy Chu where she demonstrates the ability read English signs within 24 hours of arriving in 21st century New York.

** In Amy Chu's run, Sonja encounters a group of mercenaries on a quest and demands to join them. When their hulking leader mocks her in front of a crowded tavern and tells her there's no more room in the party, she calmly chops him in the windpipe and punches him out, before telling his group that she'll be taking his place.

* LikeADuckTakesToWater: In runs where Sonja was granted mastery over weapons by Scathach, she can turn virtually any object into an instrument of death with expert skill. In the current run by Amy Chu, her ability to learn new skills is practically a superpower. Arriving in New York, she quickly figures out how to use a remote control to operate a television and becomes almost fluent in English in 24 hours ... a faster learning curve than Wonder Woman. She somehow also learns how to ''read'' English without being taught and even picks up how to drive a motorbike just by riding on the back of one (with a nasty hangover, to boot).

* NeverGetsDrunk: Type 3a. Red Sonja *can* get drunk and often *does* but her capacity for alcohol is prodigious, probably even higher than Conan’s. In Amy Chu’s current series, having been transported through time and space to modern-day New York, Sonja finds herself a bar, makes friends quickly despite her inability to speak English and ends up in a big drinking session with her new buddies. When her cop friend Max comes by to pick her up, he finds her passed out drunk with a bar tab of 837 dollars to settle. The bartender tells Max it’s all her’s. WordOfGod is that there was a glitch with the calculations … based on the price of beer on the wall, 837 bucks would’ve bought nearly 300 beers but Amy Chu ‘only’ intended Sonja to have gone through 120 beers, equalling the personal best of Wrestling/AndreTheGiant. Bear in mind that Andre was about 7’0’’ and 450lbs at the time and Sonja’s 6’0’’ and 140.

* BarBrawl: A common trope in Red Sonja stories, usually at the start of a story and leading to Sonja getting into trouble. There were a couple of instances in Frank Thorne's run at Marvel and a great one early in the Dynamite reboot, with a fantastic cover by Adam Hughes. There have been instances of Sonja starting brawls because she's been out of sorts but usually trouble will occur when another character hits on her or when they are bullying another character. In such instances, Sonja usually comes out on top, relying on any available weapons. She's cut off the wandering hands of would-be admirers with her sword, she's smashed guys with tankards and she's flattened groups of men with her bare hands. There's a short but neat bar brawl in the current series by Amy Chu, where Sonja picks up a table with one hand and hurls it across the bar like a softball, taking a gigantic thug off his feet ... Chu's Sonja is a cut above most Sonjas and WordOfGod is that she is pretty much superhuman.

* INeedAFreakingDrink: Red Sonja has always been a boozer and this probably reached its zenith under Gail Simone, where she was a full-blown alcoholic who could barely function without booze. Current writer Amy Chu has dialed that back a bit but her Sonja still loves a drink. In the storyline where Kulan Gath transports her through time to modern-day New York, her first priority after escaping captivity is food and her second is ale. Sonja pretty much says the trope title while walking around Harlem looking for a bar.

* AndTheAdventureContinues: Most individual arcs as well as the end of Simone's run ended on this note, with Sonja riding off into the sunset to find more battles to fight.

* AnnoyingArrows: Notably averted, at least in the Simone run. Sonja recognizes archers as a threat (having been one herself) and will write off any plan that requires charging them.
* {{Anticlimax}}: With only a day remaining before her deadline Sonja bashes into an inn and declares she's taking Rakaua with her and slaughtering everyone who gets in her way. The innkeeper happily informs her that they've heard of her quest and are honored to assist. Rakaua still requests he be carried out over her shoulder (for dramatic reasons) but Sonja is underwhelmed by the whole experience.

* ArmedWithCanon: Creator/GailSimone had Sonja encounter Osric the Untouched, a seemingly invincible swordsman who has his skills given to him by the gods and who can only have sex with the person who defeats him in battle. Sonja declares that she has never heard of anything so stupid.
* {{Astrologer}}: Samala believes "the greatest stargazer in the world" is an astrologer, but defined target Plaitius is an astronomer.

* BackForTheFinale: Not quite the finale, but the penultimate plot has Sonja's friends show up to say goodbye as she lies on her deathbed. Ayla and Nias, Gribaldi and Avena, Plaitius, Rat, Rakaua, Osric, and even [[spoiler:Annisia]] all appear in addition to a mob of nameless extras claiming to represent villages that Sonja protected.
* BackFromTheDead: [[spoiler:Dark Annisia]] joins Sonja's friends for their BackForTheFinale mourning party.
* BadassBoast: In the Gail Simone version she throws these before or halfway through almost every fight. Apparently it's much more successful offscreen.
-->'''Osric:''' Do they ''always'' run?\\
'''Sonja:''' I'd say it's about half and half.

* BatheHerAndBringHerToMe: Has happened to her more than once, when some EvilOverlord decides to make her part of his harem. See the ''Sonja Goes East'' one-shot for one such example.

* {{Bookends}}: Gail Simone writes them for her run on the character: the first page of ''Queen of Plagues'' shows Sonja sleeping in the woods about to be attacked by three men while the last page of ''The Forgiving of Monsters'' shows Halayah recording the same encounter for posterity.

* CapturedOnPurpose: In ''The Art of Blood and Fire'' Sonja makes an assassination attempt against Kalayah, motivating him to capture and imprison her, which allows her to break free (with Rat's help) within his compound and set his own animals against him.

* DarkAndTroubledPast: Dark Annisia endured the fighting pits alongside Sonja. Annisia was driven mad, hearing the ghosts of everyone they were forced to slaughter to stay alive and constantly promising to deliver more company to them.

* DefiantToTheEnd:
** Plaitius the stargazer. He faces torture and execution for his observations defying the divine writ of the rector, but refuses to recant even to save his own life.
** Death offers Sonja a job as Death's personal enforcer, seeking glory in battle for eternity. Sonja refuses, mostly to prove that she can.

* DiscontinuityNod: Gail Simone's relaunch dispenses with the "can't have sex unless the man defeats her in battle" aspect of her origin. Instead, a very horny Sonja meets a swords'''man''' who won't have sex with anyone unless they defeat '''him''' in battle. She declares it to be the stupidest thing she's ever heard.

* DuelToTheDeath: Invoked by Sonja to beat Osric, the greatest swordsman in the world. Turns out he ''is'' a better swordsman in a duel, but if death is on the line her steely nerves hold up where his fail.

* EvilCounterpart:
** Crimson Katherine from ''Giant-Size Red Sonja'' #2. She is a woman with a backstory virtually identical (orphaned, made a compact after her family was killed, redheaded female barbarian hero) but was empowered by the Goddess of Vengeance. They initially team up before Sonja realizes she's just too extra.
** Dark Annisia in ''Queen of Plagues''. She is a gladiator who befriended Red Sonja in the battle pits of Zamora before they both escaped. Dark Anissa was driven to madness by the deaths of all those fellow slaves she killed, however, and coped by becoming a KnightTemplar.

* FireForgedFriends: The ''Art of Blood and Fire'' arc has Sonja collecting six artisans. As they journey with her they band together so that when she is captured, they all contribute to her escape (except for the dancer, who was the last to join).
--> '''Sonja:''' They could have lived lives of endless surplus. They chose friendship instead.

* FunnyBackgroundEvent: While Gribaldi, Rat, Aneva, Osric, and Plaitius are fighting for Sonja's freedom, Rakaua is lost in his dancing in the background.

** In the Gail Simone run, she and Dark Annisia used to be slaves fighting in an arena for the King of Zamora's amusement until they were rescued.

* HealingPotion: The alchemist of ''Queen of Plagues'' develops one, but is killed shortly thereafter. The last few drops he manufactured are delivered to Sonja as she lies dying.

* INeedAFreakingDrink: Red Sonja has always been a boozer and this probably reached its zenith under Gail Simone, where she was a full-blown alcoholic who could barely function without booze. Current writer Amy Chu has dialled that back a bit but her Sonja still loves a drink. In the storyline where Kulan Gath transports her through time to modern-day New York, her first priority after escaping captivity is food and her second is ale. Sonja pretty much says the trope title while walking around Harlem looking for a bar.
* IShouldWriteABookAboutThis: The final page of Simone's last issue shows Halayah carefully chronicling Sonja's adventures (starting with Simone's first) for the Citadel of All Knowledge.

* LostFoodGrievance: Sonja likes ale, and does not like absence of ale.
** She objects vehemently when Gribaldi uses Cimmerian ale to cook instead of drink.
** It's reversed when Sonja uses Gribaldi's artisanal soup as an improvised weapon.

* MarkOfShame: In the ''Queen of Plauges'' arc Sonja's face is marked with one after she contracts the plague.
* MasterSwordsman:
** Red Sonja is dangerous with a bow or improvised weapons, but she's most deadly with her sword.
** Also Osric the Untouched, a duelist so named because he's never been touched by his opponents' blades.

* OmnidisciplinaryScientist: Plaitius the stargazer is learned in physics to conduct his craft, but he also claims to be an expert in "potions and powders", i.e. biology and chemistry.

** Poison is used by the villains of ''Queen of Plagues'' to kill off enemy militaries before a fair fight even starts. The men in question are depicted as cowardly and unnatural.
** The same arc sees one of them heroically poisoned by his own attendant at risk of her own life.
** In the next arc, a chef poisons an evil king when he reneges on his bargain with Sonja.

* {{Retcon}}: Happened partially when Dynamite first re-introduced Red Sonja. While almost all the other details have been kept the same, her age had been reduced to tweeny-hood in her origin (perhaps to increase the believable length of her adventuring career) and she was made to be the youngest child not the oldest. In the latest Gail Simone version, her origin seems to be retconned again, this time making her successful revenge against the killers of her family come from her own childhood skills as a hunter rather than being powered-up by a goddess and there seems to be no rape.

* SanitySlippage: Over the ''Queen of Plagues'' arc Dark Annisia transitions from a competent and fearsome general protecting the world from dangerous plague to a bloodthirsty executioner driven mad by the weight of deaths she's caused.

* SchmuckBait: Gribaldi announces his first appetizer to his captor as Khitaian mushroom pate, which the man happily eats. Minutes later Gribaldi announces that any gourmand would know Khitaian mushrooms are poisonous.
* ScrewTheMoneyIHaveRules: Samala empowers Sonja to get the cooperation of the six greatest artisans in the world for his party by offering any amount of money. None of them accept the money, but Sonja persuades them by other means.
** Gribaldi the chef is just happy to repay Sonja for his rescue from the cannibal tribe.
** Rat the beastmaster likewise repays Sonja for ending Kalayah's BeastlyBloodsports.
** Avena the courtesan is willing to help secure the release of Samala's slaves.
** Osric the swordsman agrees after Sonja defeats him in a duel.
** Plaitius the stargazer wants a platform to educate people on his observations of physics.
** Rakaua the dancer finds Sonja's quest noble and interesting.
* TheSecretOfLongPorkPies: Inverted by Gribaldi among the cannibal bogmen. By day they captured travelers and brought them to him to cook for dinner. Instead he cooked foraged foods and released the travelers.

* SiblingTeam: The Red Sisters in ''Queen Sonja'' and Ayla and Nias in the Simone's 2013 run.

* SupremeChef: Gribaldi, renowned as the greatest chef in the world. It's implied that his skills were either the reason the bogmen allowed him to live as a slave or else why they captured him in the first place.
* TheStraightAndArrowPath:
** This is shown as the first weapon Sonja used when she avenged her family, having practiced hunting rabbits.
** Ayla and Nias are also expert archers due to their hunting backgrounds.

* ThroughHisStomach: How Gribaldi earned survival from the bogmen. It helps that they have palates sensitive enough to appreciate his work; Sonja certainly doesn't.

* TrueCraftsman: Gribaldi the expert chef, who cannot prevent himself from turning forage into gourmet meals.
* VillainousBreakdown: Dark Annisia is dangerous as the general of an army cleansing plaguebearers. When the plague is cured, she refuses to believe it and executes healthy people violating quarantine. When the plague's true cause is finally revealed she snaps completely into bloodthirsty madness.

* WellIntentionedExtremist: Dark Annisia is fighting to stop a mysterious plague from spreading throughout the land. She does so by massacring any population with signs of infection.
* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: Gribaldi cooks and eats eggs and baby LizardFolk without realizing their intelligence. He is genuinely penitent when he realizes his mistake.
* WhereItAllBegan: ''Queen of Plagues'' quickly flashes back to Sonja's past as a slave gladiator in the king of Zamora's arena with Dark Annisia. The end of the arc sees them return to the same arena to fight with the king of Zamora watching.

** Crimson Katherine from ''Giant-Size Red Sonja'' #2.
** Dark Annisia in ''Queen of Plagues''.

* BarbarianHero : Rare female version.

* BrokenPedestal: In the Brian Reed's run, Scathach reveals that Sonja was created from the blood of Kulan Gath, saying that and that his hair is red due to the blood of Gath that runs in his veins with each reincarnation and to make matters worse, Sonja discovers that Scathach let her family be massacred and she be raped purposely only to use it as a weapon to destroy Gath forever. Sonja renounces the your devotion to Scathach for her betrayal is revealed by the goddess herself.

* TooDumbToLive: Fengar Tolt in the ''Black Tower'', not only was this thug trying to rape a woman in front of Sonja (this is the hugest BerserkButton for her), he also jabs his finger into an exposed part of her breast. [[FinGore He loses a finger as a warning.]]

* MistakenForProstitute: This happens to Sonja on a semi-regular basis; largely due to her habit of hanging around seedy taverns in her ChainMailBikini. This usually ends badly for the person making the mistake, although she always gives them the opportunity to apologize before kicking their ass. They seldom take it.

* LikeADuckTakesToWater: In runs where Sonja was granted mastery over weapons by Scathach, she can turn virtually any object into an instrument of death with expert skill. In the current run by Amy Chu, her ability to learn new skills is practically a superpower. Arriving in New York, she quickly figures out how to use a remote control to operate a television and becomes almost fluent in English in 24 hours ... a faster learning curve than Wonder Woman. She somehow also learns how to ''read'' English without being taught and even picks up how to drive a motorbike just by riding on the back of one(with a nasty hangover, to boot).

* AdaptationalAttractiveness: Thulsa Doom in the Dynamite run look more like his movie counterpart than the original, skull-headed necromancer from the original Kull stories.

* BrokenPedestal: In the Brian Reed's run, Scathach reveals that Sonja was created from the blood of Kulan Gath, revealing that and that his hair is red due to the blood of Gath that runs in his veins with each reincarnation and to make matters worse, Sonja discovers that Scathach let her family be massacred and she raped purposely only to use it as a weapon to destroy Gath forever and Sonja renounces the Scathach for her betrayal is revealed by the goddess herself.

* RevengeRevealStory: In ''The Black Tower'' arc, Thraxis chooses one of the Sisterhood of Thraxis girls and after he tells her his origins, she gets her revenge for [[spoiler:Sonja's death]].
* RewardedAsATraitorDeserves: In the Brian Reed's run, Sonja's sister Verona sides with Lord Lucan Martur with whom she has been having a secret affair and they send a crew of pirates to kill Sonja and her husband Daniel Dorn. Lucan ends up selling Verona and their baby into slavery for money and Verona is ultimately murdered by Sonja after her treachery is revealed, with her baby being given by Sonja to a kindly woman who wanted a daughter of her own. In issue #49 of the Brian Reed's run, Sonja takes revenge on Scathach for the revelation she made in issue #29, without first making Lucan her champion in having her killed and drinking his blood.

* BrokenPedestal: In the Brian Reed's run, Scathach reveals that Sonja was created from the blood of Kulan Gath, revealing that she is adopted and to make matters worse, Sonja discovers that Scathach let her family be massacred and she raped only to use it as a weapon. Sonja renounces the goddess for her betrayal.

* RewardedAsATraitorDeserves: In the Brian Reed's run, Sonja's sister Verona sides with Lord Lucan Martur with whom she has been having a secret affair and they send a crew of pirates to kill Sonja and her husband Daniel Dorn. Lucan ends up selling Verona and their baby into slavery for money and Verona is ultimately murdered by Sonja after her treachery is revealed, with her baby being given by Sonja to a kindly woman who wanted a daughter of her own.

* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: A villainous version of this appears in the 2nd issue of Red Sonja: The Black Tower. After maiming the thug Fengar Tolt in the previous issue, he becomes a mighty warlord and captures Sonja. Not only that, he also has [[EyeScream one of her eyes cut out]]. None of these events are shown on-panel.

On television, Red Sonja makes an appearance on the ''Series/ConanTheAdventurer'', in the episode, "Red Sonja". She is on a mission to rescue a young wizard who was kidnapped. When one of Conan's partners sarcastically asks why the village didn't send their best warriors, Sonja replies, "They did send their best warrior, mulebrain!" She was played by Angelica Bridges.

On television, Red Sonja makes an appearance on the ''Conan'' TV series, in the episode, "Red Sonja". She is on a mission to rescue a young wizard who was kidnapped. When one of Conan's partners sarcastically asks why the village didn't send their best warriors, Sonja replies, "They did send their best warrior, mulebrain!" She was played by Angelica Bridges.

Red Sonja has become the archetypical example of the fantasy figure of a fierce and stunningly beautiful female barbarian in the utterly impractical ChainmailBikini (in her case, the bikini is actually scale armor, not chainmail, if we're splitting hairs).

She was played by Creator/BrigitteNielsen in the 1985 film ''Film/RedSonja''.