Erfworld



"It's the little things that make a difference sometimes."

Erfworld is a Web Comic written by Rob Balder (of Partially Clips, and The FuMP), with the first book The Battle for Gobwin Knob illustrated by Jamie Noguchi (of Angry Zen Master and Yellow Peril), and the second book, Love is a Battlefield, illustrated by Xin Ye. The third book, Hamsterdance vs. the Charlie Foxtrot is in progress, is even longer. It was illustrated for the first half or so by David Hahn, but Xin Ye resumed art duties this time joined by Lauri Ahonen on inks and colors.

A fanatical, obsessed gamer geek gets magically summoned to another world to be the "Perfect Warlord" for a city that's losing a war, in a world that seems to be one giant Turn-Based Strategy wargame. (For instance, nobody can move beyond the immediate vicinity when it's not their side's turn.) Plays with many different strategy game tropes. Includes cutesy, Super-Deformed art and dark characterization, landing DEEP in the territory of Grotesque Cute. Many features of Erfworld are references to real-world popular culture and Internet memes.

Before Erfworld had its own site, it was hosted on the Giant in the Playground website, but it is otherwise unassociated with Rich Burlew (of The Order of the Stick).

Now has a Character Sheet in need of a lot of work.

"Stanley: I want someone who eats marbits [a creature] for breakfast! (later) Parson: Yeah. Marbits... Marshmallow bits. They come in some breakfast cereals. [paraphrase]"
 * Above the Influence: Parson is informed that, as a warlord, he can order the Archons or any other unit under his command to do any perverted thing he wants. He also realizes that there's no way he could bring himself to do something like that.
 * Absolute Cleavage: Wanda's take on Michael Jackson.
 * The Alliance: Ansom's forces.
 * All-Natural Gem Polish: Mined gems, which also glow and are diamond shaped.
 * All There in the Manual: In the time between book 1 and book 2, several text-only "updates" detailing the aftermath of the Battle For Gobwin Knob were released. They were so popular that the second book was changed to a webcomic/text hybrid format. Whether they are necessary or not to actually understanding the story is a matter of debate, but the authors are doing their best so that technically you can ignore the text updates and still know what's going on.
 * The other reason they gave for Book 2's text updates is that drawing comic pages takes a lot longer than writing text, so they'll be able to update more frequently this way.
 * Animal Eye Spy: Doombats for Transylvito, with the added bonus of being decent diversions in a fight.
 * More than diversions if you're Transylvitan and can stack enough leadership bonuses on them.
 * Angels Pose: Charlie's Archons, which are a direct Shout-Out to the Trope Namer
 * Animate Dead: Uncroaking a corpse creates a zombie controlled by the caster.
 * Arch Enemy: Charlie and Parson. As far as Charlie's concerned, Parson is the most dangerous being in all of Erfworld. When he realizes that Parson has been made Chief Warlord again, he immediately realizes the situation has become dire. He even starts providing extra support and advice to Stanley's enemies at cost, or even gratis. He is that worried about Parson. The feeling is mutual; Parson seems to believe that Charlie is his most cunning opponent.
 * According to Wanda Charlie is this to the Thinkamancers, possibly even the entire Magic Kingdom
 * Art Evolution: The longer Parson stays in Erfworld, the more realistic-looking the natives seem - though still super-deformed, of course. There's at least one Epileptic Trees to be had there...
 * Also, Book 2 is drawn by a different artist than book one. The new art is just as good, it's just... different... in small, subtle ways. One can get a sort of Uncanny Valley effect the first time seeing the new art style after being so used to the old one.
 * In a similar vein, Parson eventually loses his pupils, despite clearly showing them during his summoning. This implies the changes aren't a one-way street.
 * The in-story explanation is that this is the normal effect of a branch of magic called Signamancy.
 * The Art of War: The basis for Parson Gotti's lecture on strategy, which he delivers to Wanda, Sizemore, and Maggie in this installment.
 * Ascended Fanboy: Parson.
 * Aside Glance: Jojo.
 * Asskicking Equals Authority: Higher level units are assumed to be better strategists, which is sometimes true.
 * Stanley is a minor Deconstruction: He earned his spot as Overlord due to his fighting prowess, and he is one of the strongest (if not the strongest) units on his side. Unfortunately, it's also a Keystone Army, and if he croaks, so does his entire side. He's also a bit dim as an actual leader.
 * The world is learning from Parson that the leadership stat isn't really a good gauge of tactical ability as had always been assumed. Parson is Level 2 and is noted to have only led one major battle, leaving people not familiar with him confused as to why the people that HAVE seen him in action consider him to be so important.
 * Authority Equals Asskicking: Nobles and royals have higher stats and level faster than others.
 * Awesome By Analysis: Parson.
 * Back From the Dead: . The implications of this power are mind-boggling. The first unit raised this way was.
 * Badass: Wanda. Stanley when he's on the battlefield.
 * Be Careful What You Wish For: Kind of an example; Stanley gets everything he wants to the letter when summoning Parson with unexpected results. It works out, though:
 * Be Careful What You Wish For: Kind of an example; Stanley gets everything he wants to the letter when summoning Parson with unexpected results. It works out, though:

"Parson: This isn't what I wished for. Wanda: You didn't wish for this world, Parson Gotti. It wished for you."
 * Parson himself has expressed this attitude, given that he has found leading an army according to wargame rules (as he wished for just before being summoned) is a lot more harrowing than expected.
 * Subverted in Parson's case, though, as evidenced in this conversation with Wanda:

"Stanley: I want him to be obsessed with war. Somebody who plans wars and kills his foes for fun."
 * Better to Die Than Be Killed:
 * Big Bad: Subverted with Stanley, who isn't bad, per se, he's just extremely immature and slightly stupid - basically a Jerk Jock who happens to run an empire. (A wee little Jerk Jock at that - but don't mention that to him!) Similarly, the leaders of the Royal Crown Coalition, the faction Stanley's empire is fighting against, don't seem to qualify, either, because they embody too many Hero Tropes. The real Big Bad of the setting may well turn out to be Charlie, who seems to be controlling everything from behind the scenes, sowing conflict so his mercenaries will always be in demand.
 * BFS: Jillian's Weapon of Choice.
 * Big Damn Heroes: Right as Jillian is about to be stabbed by Manpower, Ansom swoops in and crushes Manpower's head with the Arkenpliers.
 * Bi the Way: Wanda. She's very nonchalant about it, too. Also Jillian. Since sex is completely unconnected to procreation in Erfworld, however, it's quite possible that sexuality is just not that big an issue.
 * Black Dude Dies First: Poor, poor Manpower.
 * Blond Guys Are Evil: Both subverted and played straight with Ansom, who can be seen as the hero or the villain, depending on your point of view.
 * Blood Knight: What Stanley expected Parson to be.

"Wanda:."
 * The Metafictionally screwed-up part? As a wargamer, that's exactly what he does. ...At least until he realizes it's Not a Game anymore. After he "wins" his first battle, all he can really say is My God, What Have I Done?.
 * At one point during the summer updates, he also ruminates on having been in Erfworld for about a week and spending that time automatically considering the military applications of everything.
 * Bloodless Carnage: Nobody in Erfworld bleeds. At all. Even after taking blows that expose several ribs, tear off multiple limbs, jaws, or even the entire head; and even after a good dozen elves are ripped limb from limb, and a couple marbits are eaten alive, not a drop of blood is to be seen. At most, you'll see some red decals, but someone impaled multiple times by spears going through them won't have a drop of blood.
 * There is a reference (in the first block of text updates) to it "raining something other than water" as the Transylvitans let their swarm of bats out to feed on the local small animals one night. It sounds like it's meant to be blood, but it's most likely guano.
 * Bow Ties Are Cool: Jack and Jillian during Book 2.
 * Brick Joke: One massive one is seen in this comic, which harks all the way back to the fourth strip in the entire comic.
 * When Prince Trammenis calls Parson a potato, it harkens all the way back to when Stanley first met him.
 * Broken Bird: Jillian, and Wanda as well as seen in her Start of Darkness Inner Peace (Through Superior Firepower)
 * Call a Rabbit a Smeerp: Dragons? Trolls? Earth? That's just ridiculous!
 * The Call Has Bad Reception: Parson wasn't exactly what Lord Stanley was expecting as a "perfect warlord".
 * Celibate Hero: Parson, which Maggie apparently takes plenty of fun in ribbing him on. In this case, Parson is celibate because Erfworld is so alien to him, and as a warlord, nearly every female unit on his side would obey his orders without hesitation, even in the bedroom, which creeps him out considerably.
 * The Chains of Commanding
 * Character Blog: The Klogs, the news portion of the "Hamstard" page.
 * Character Development: A lot, actually, but in the physical sense, Parson seems to have dropped quite a few pounds lately.
 * Chekhov's Gun
 * In the last panel of this strip (spoiler warning) you see a wall of arrows hanging in mid-air. It is later revealed that this is what happens when you fire out of a hex off turn.
 * One of the problems with book 1 is an aversion of this trope: The author didn't make it very clear that any non-caster who tries to enter the Magic Kingdom is disbanded, so a climactic scene became confusing.
 * Chekhov's Skill: In this strip and this strip Parson studies the physics of Erfworld flight, gravity, and some more about hex boundaries. He later uses this knowledge to attempt to
 * Chekhov's Volcano
 * The Chosen Zero: Done a lot to Parson.
 * Colour-Coded for Your Convenience (and how!): For starters, Stanley's forces consist of stereotypical "bad guy" units such as Gobwins, Hobgobwins, Twolls, Uncroaked, Spidews, and Dwagons; and they tend to wear red and blacks. Ansom's stereotypical "good guy" units include Elves, giant stuffed animals, Gumps (animate trees), and his units tend to wear gold and silver. It is also subverted in Transylvito's forces: Vinny Doombats is a count, in black, who controls bats, who looks like a vampire. And, in all appearances, is Ansom's best friend, right-hand man, and close confidant. He (and the other members of his force) also talks like something between The Fonz, the Sharks from West Side Story and The Mafia.
 * Combo-Platter Powers: The Arkenhammer (see below)
 * Convenient Color Change: Whenever a unit is turned, croaked or decrypted.
 * Conspicuous CG: The Arkentools are very obvious CG images, making them stand apart from the rest of the art. This highlights their otherworldly nature.
 * A similar effect happens in the monochrome images that accompany the text updates. Portals, such as the ones to and from the Magic Kingdom, are always in color, even if nothing else is. Speculation over the meaning of this abounds.
 * Cool Shades: Parodied with Parson's 3D viewing shades.
 * Cosmic Retcon: Retconjuration allows the Titans to do this.
 * Cradle of Loneliness: Wanda does this in her Start of Darkness after.
 * Crap Saccharine World
 * Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Stanley may venture into Too Dumb to Live territory when it comes to strategy especially given his god complex, but he did legitimately become a warlord from common infantry even before finding the Arkenhammer, and as a tactician, combatant and wielder of an artifact level weapon he is not someone to be ignored.
 * Dark Is Not Evil: Transylvito
 * To a somewhat lesser degree, most of Stanley's side.
 * Deader Than Dead: . According to Wanda, even the attuned Arkenpliers can't restore him. This also applies to any Uncroaked or Decrypted units who are killed, as they turn to dust.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Prince Tramennis.
 * Also the Gobwin Knob Foolamancer, Jack Snipe.
 * Don't forget Hamstard! And Parson himself.
 * Death Glare: Don King's expression at his Warlords' rebellion against him is scary.
 * Deconstruction: Explores what would happen if there was really a world based around fantasy wargaming principles.
 * Defensive Feint Trap: The Dwagon Doughnut.
 * Deliberate Values Dissonance: many aspects of day-to-day life in Erfworld don't sit well with Parson.
 * Despair Event Horizon: Queen Bea as well, after seeing her decrypted daughter among the ranks of the Gobwin Knob invasion force. She takes the time to pass on what intelligence she was able to gather on Decryption to the rest of the Royal Coalition and then...
 * Did Not Think This Through: Parson planned to enter the city of Spacerock through its portal to the Magic Kingdom. They can't take the city before he gets there, since it wouldn't be a capital any more, and the portal would disappear. . Whoops.
 * Distracted by the Sexy: Weaponized.
 * Does This Remind You of Anything?: Parson notes how pretty much everything in Erfworld is vaguely familiar from our world in one way or another, especially lots of pop culture references keep popping up. At first it leant weight to his theory that he was dreaming or in a coma or something, but eventually he wonders if it there is some connection between the two worlds, or if it is just an effect of him being there to observe the occurrences and creating the associations himself.
 * Ossomer may not realize why he feels so upset for that little broken tile being knocked out of the place where it used to belong, but the subtext is pretty clear that he is absolutely breaking inside about having been decrypted (and thus turned against his will to fight his home, family, and everything he ever believed in).
 * Driven to Suicide: Queen Bea of Unaroyal committed suicide via portal to prevent Gobwin Knob from Decrypting her and the remnants of the Unaroyal army.
 * Drop the Hammer: The Arkenhammer tames dwagons, produces thunder and lightning, can levitate, glows, turns about 20% of all walnuts that it cracks into pigeons, some of the Orlies it hits into walnuts, functions as a magical guitar, and is not too shabby of a weapon. By now, it's well into Green Rocks territory.
 * On closer examination all of those powers make perfect sense in theme: 'Dominion over Air' covers... every single one of those.
 * Well, all except the walnuts.
 * No, it works both ways. It will turn flying creatures it strikes into walnuts with the same odds, meaning it has a healthy chance of an auto-kill against some kinds of air foes.
 * Due to the Dead
 * The Dwagon: Wanda to Stanley; but from what we know about them, a chief warlord seems to be this for their king or overlord.
 * Dwagon Rider: Stanley mostly, but other characters have been seen on Dwagonback.
 * Dwagon With An Agenda: Wanda may be fighting on Stanley's side, but she's only in it for the Arkentools.
 * Equivalent Exchange: How Luckamancy, and possibly other number magics work. Luckamancy can cause units to "roll higher" for a while, but at the cost of lower "rolls" later, or lower rolls from other units on their side.
 * Evil Costume Switch: All of the Decrypted get one.
 * Evil Laugh: Wanda can be very scary.
 * Evil Makeover: After.
 * Evil Overlord: Stanley, as noted by Parson; in all fairness, Stanley's actual position is "overlord", but he strongly disagrees with the "evil" part.
 * Evil Sorcerer: Wanda, the croakamancer.
 * Exact Words: While Stanley is debating an issue, Maggie asks if she can give him a suggestion. Stanley says "sure" and immediately takes a Suggestion spell in the face.
 * Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Crap Golems, Shockmancy.
 * Expy:
 * Prince Ossomer just needs an "S" on his chest instead of the radish.
 * Jack the Foolamancer, who grins a lot and has taken to wearing a purple suit and boater.
 * Thinkamancer "Maggie"
 * And now, Chief Healamancer Pierce. Complete with martini!
 * Lady Sylvia, the suicidal poet.
 * Many mooks and less-than-tertiary characters appear to be this, though due to a literal lack of character it's more a case of straight-up cameos. Example: most Casters in The Magic Kingdom, Charlie's Archons, etc.
 * Fan Nickname: Scarlet, for Lady Sylvia Lazarus
 * Fantastic Honorifics: Although the term "Tool" was originally a Stealth Insult Parson gave Stanley, Stanley took to it so well that it is now a general honorific for any wielder of an Arkentool.
 * Filk Song: "Quest for the Arkentools"; is it filk if it was made by the guy that writes the comic?
 * Fisher Kingdom
 * Five-Bad Band: They may disagree on the "bad" part, but Lord Stanley's best vassals seem to fit the trope fairly well.
 * Big Bad: Lord Stanley
 * The Dwagon: Wanda
 * The Brute: Bogroll
 * The Strategist: Parson
 * Evil Genius: Sizemore
 * Flat What: Flat Lolwut
 * Foregone Conclusion: There's a 'book 0' prequel starring Wanda. Obviously, anyone who read the main comic knows that she's going to end up in Faq, and that her 'screw destiny' philosophy in the prequel is going to turn into the absolute fatalism she shows normally sometime along the line.
 * Formulaic Magic: Mathamancy
 * A Form You Are Comfortable With: Quite literally; when Charlie communicates with others via Thinkamancy, he only shows himself as a sequence of soothing colours and images... many of which are Shout Outs that Break The Fourth Wall. Of course, with the way Erfworld works in the first place, what seem like blatant fourth-wall-breaking shout outs to us may easily have some in-universe meaning that we're unaware of.
 * Foreshadowing: Often, one-off casual lines introduce ideas that won't pay off until much later. Two casters remarking on their opposite yet complementary strengths, the vague resemblace of certain characters, even the limits on mining in the city's hex all play a role later.
 * Foreshadowing: Often, one-off casual lines introduce ideas that won't pay off until much later. Two casters remarking on their opposite yet complementary strengths, the vague resemblace of certain characters, even the limits on mining in the city's hex all play a role later.

"Wanda: You, too, are an instrument of Fate. You will suffer, as you pursue your path. You will grieve. And lose. As you have lost here. Parson: I didn't lose, Wanda. Wanda: You did! And it has just begun for you."
 * More recently, the line, "We have harvested three Sourmanders we can scarce afford to spare," subtly introduced a mechanic that would later become very important strategically..
 * For Want of a Nail: The entire series of events is kicked off by The Titans of Ark leaving one extra gemstone in the Minty Mountains, allowing the Marbits to afford one extra squad of axemen, which pierced through Stanley's troops at the right moment, which allowed them to kill one of Stanley's last warlords, which caused him to send for Parson in the first place.
 * Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: Vinny Doombats. The rest of Transylvito... not so much. (Except for Weird Al, he's a pretty nice guy.)
 * Fridge Horror: An in-universe example for Parson, when he realizes that the decrypted Archons literally couldn't resist any advances he cared to make.
 * A more traditional version: Wanda doesn't laugh.
 * Fun with Acronyms: Stanley's elite guard, the Knights In Stanley's Service, look just like their namesakes.
 * The Gadfly: Jack Snipe shows signs of being a great one. His treatment of Wanda during  had an almost Hannibal Lecture feel to it.
 * Gambit Index
 * Batman Gambit: Parson pulls a couple on Ansom in Book 1, made easier because of the latter's predictability. One is explained here.
 * Ansom gathers a bunch of flying units - Archons and mounted Dwagons - and has a mass veil cast over them to make them appear to be his usual choice of units, infantry and siege. He approaches Spacerock with this army, knowing Ossomer will commit most of his forces to holding the only bridge into Spacerock by land. Ansom simply dispels the veil and flies over them.
 * The Chessmaster:
 * Charlie
 * Parson shows signs of it.
 * Gambit Pileup: The end of Chapter One. Too many plans, too many people and too many Gambit Roulettes for one little mountain. In the end, Parson subverts it by Taking a Third Option:
 * MacGuffin Delivery Service:
 * The Man Behind the Man: Wanda, to Stanley.
 * Manipulative Bastard/Playing Both Sides:
 * Wanda again..
 * Charlie loves to do this as well.
 * The Strategist: Parson, but as shown here his allies are a little resentful of him early on for not living up to his Perfect Warlord name, and he has to explain to them that "perfect strategy" does not mean you never lose.
 * Unwitting Pawn: Wanda believes this of Parson, and seems to pity him somewhat for it.

"Charlie: We prefer to play games that don't even contain a losing outcome. You see?" Except that Charlie got very thoroughly Out-Gambitted by Parson."
 * Xanatos Gambit:

"Ossomer: You made it easy! Bringing your usual siege-heavy infantry assault? Come now, Ansom. Someday you must develop some tactical imagination! Ansom: Dispel the veil."
 * Xanatos Speed Chess: Parson and Charlie toward the end of the first volume. Parson even explains the concept here.
 * Game Breaker:
 * In-universe, attuned Arkenpliers can resurrect their enemies' corpses. These units retain original skills, cost nothing to run and are loyal
 * Linking casters can have some gamebreaking effects as well. Book 1 ended with
 * Even earlier than that, a foolamancer plus a lookamancer plus a thinkamancer equals a map presenting Stanley's side with complete and seamless tactical data (it's not clear if this is simply the location of every unit anyone on their side knows about, or every unit period, since at one point Parson realizes that the enemy doesn't know where his units are because they lack this), while the enemy busies themselves with scouts who must survey everything in person and relay information in person or with magic items.
 * Parson is exploring the mechanics of Erfworld's rules, and is actively experimenting on exploits to create one of these, such as forming upkeep-free armies in cities, or using individual dwagons' movement as a relay system to transport riders across the vast distances of Erfworld in a single turn.
 * Parson's latest game-breaking exploit actually violates the fundamental physics of Erfworld:  Far from being merely unconventional, this was previously thought utterly impossible, to the point where people watching the initial stages of the plan immediately dismissed it as a useless posture. The next few minutes should be instructive.
 * Genre Savvy: Parson.
 * God Mode: Referenced in one of Parson's klogs. He hasn't found an actual cheat code yet, but the whole "ultimate warlord" thing is about as close as he's going to get.
 * Gory Discretion Shot: "Wow. Um...good job, guys."
 * Grey and Gray Morality: Certainly has elements of this. While it can be said that one side certainly has an unsympathetic leader, as a whole both sides receive equal attention and sympathy. This is one of their reasons their back-and-forth conflicts are so gripping. The Battle of Gobwin Knob is basically a conflict between two Lawful Neutral factions (Stanley and Ansom) with one True Neutral faction (Charlie) playing both sides.
 * Happiness in Slavery: Part of the reasoning for Jillian's part of the More Than Mind Control.
 * Hazy Feel Turn:
 * Heävy Mëtal Ümlaut: GÖLEM
 * Heavy Mithril: Stanley's rocking out with the Arkenhammer sounds specifically like heavy stadium rock, and is used in a fantasy setting. Quoth the tool, "Course it was good. It was Titanic. Rock is the highest music there is."
 * Heroic BSOD:
 * Heroic Sacrifice (.)
 * Also who passes up two rides out of the falling Jenga Tower so he can
 * He Who Must Not Be Seen: Charlie, thus far.
 * Hidden Depths: Wanda appears to be completely ruthless and singleminded in her pursuit of power, and she's not above a good Evil Laugh, but at times she displays hints of sadness at all the destruction she has caused, and on some level she has genuine affection for Jillian.
 * Virtually every named character displays Hidden Depths.
 * Hidden Elf Village: Faq.
 * Hit and Run Tactics: Parson directs a strike force in a strategy of destroying enemy siege units and then breaking off the engagement. This means that his side technically "loses" each battle, but deprives the enemy of a key resource they'll need to win the war.
 * Hollywood Tactics: Parson attempts initially to avert this, but is frustrated by the constraints of Erfworld's rules. When he becomes more familiar with the rules, he becomes quite adapt at using (and exploiting) them.
 * Humans Are Cthulhu: Ansom, at least, thinks that Parson's genius is unsettling. Stanley is disturbed that Parson can actually disobey him sometimes (something that the rules of Erfworld shouldn't allow). And Maggie and Sizemore are completely shocked that Parson comes from a reality where time isn't relative. Parson looks very different from the average Erfworld "human", thinks on an entirely different level, and hails from a different dimension with radically different rules that govern reality. To the people of Erfworld he's pretty much Nyarlathotep. And now that he's breaking the law of Boop left and right, who knows what he's going to do next? See also Erfworld/Quotes.
 * Hypercompetent Sidekick: Wanda and Parson to Stanley.
 * I Know You Know I Know: Parson's dealings with Charlie often take this form.
 * Image Song: Stanley, "Quest for the Arkentools"
 * Informed Ability: Ansom's portrayed as a Knight in Shining Armor, leading a fractious coalition to deal decisively with a hated common foe. But for all his reputation as a legendary warlord, his plans for the war at large betray a severe "lack of tactical imagination" (according to Ossomer). Part of this may be his status as an Unreliable Narrator regarding his own tactical genius.
 * It should be noted here that Ossomer believed Ansom was unimaginative for bringing infantry and siege to fight Jetstone as they predicted. But...


 * Also, for his post-decryption performance, it's implied at several points that Decrypted leaders are less flexible than they were before due to the ironclad obsession that has been imposed on them—several of Ansom's larger big-picture mistakes come from his fanatical devotion to Toolism (refusing to seek allies, parlaying with Queen Bea, etc.)
 * In Its Hour of Need: Subverted with Don King and Slately.
 * I Shall Taunt You: Parson's needling Thinkagram to Ansom.
 * Not to mention the filthy songs the troops sing around the campfire at night.
 * The scary part?
 * "Me, I'm just talking."
 * attempts this to the Chief Warlord of Faq, but inexperience (plus his lack of conviction for what he's saying) combined with the Warlord having no regard for Royalty one way or the other means he makes a complete mess of it.
 * I Surrender, Suckers
 * It Gets Easier: Parson's command decisions.
 * Jerkass: Stanley, although he's showing signs of gradually developing into a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, or at least a Jerkass-with-occasional-Pet the Dog-moments.
 * Jumping Off the Slippery Slope:
 * Kamehame Hadoken: The "Hoboken" spell, which all casters know from the moment they're popped.
 * Keystone Army: ALL OF THEM
 * Kick Them While They Are Down
 * Killed Off for Real:
 * Killer Game Master: The Battle of Gobwin Knob mirrors the game Parson had set up for his friends, which he admits was designed to be unwinnable - unlike most killer GMs, however, he was actually hoping they'd find a way to break the system and surprise him.
 * King of All Cosmos: The world was made by Elvis impersonators, two of whom look suspiciously like the comic's creators.
 * Knight in Shining Armor (deconstructed): Ansom looks like one of these, he cares deeply about the troops under his command, and he can swoop in at just the nick of time to rescue Jillian. Then we get to see his main reason for trying to slaughter Stanley and the Plaid Tribe: Stanley's not a Royal. Ansom does not like non-Royals taking charge.
 * Land Poor: The overview of CharlesComm provided between Books 1 and 2 hints at this. Charlie apparently generates only archons (meaning no "commoners" or noncombatants); thus his lands produce no crops, resources, or trade goods. Archons aren't cheap to maintain, so Charlie needs a constant influx of money to keep them alive, fed and healthy. His choice of profession may say as much about the world climate as about him.
 * Laser-Guided Amnesia: This happens when the Arkenpliers are used, or at least
 * An earlier example: "You heard only the screams for mercy."
 * Last Second Chance: Thinking that Wanda is under a loyalty spell, Jillian tries to salvage their relationship. Wanda, in no uncertain terms, shows that she is not under a loyalty spell.
 * After  offers each opponent a chance to ally rather than be conquered, apparently out of zealous belief that.
 * Leet Lingo: Orlies.
 * "Orly: ORLY?

Orly (being roasted by dwagon): OMGWTFBBQ!

Trammenis: "Now here is my battle plan. If you don't care for it, then you can find another Chief Warlord." Beat Orly (During Beat panel):OSNAP!"

""This place is a hole. A condemned hole. For squatter hobbits.""
 * Les Yay: Wanda and Jillian.
 * Letting Her Hair Down: Wanda.
 * Light Is Not Good: Ansom isn't quite this trope because although his desire to exterminate Stanley is less than sympathetic, he still cares for the people under him and respects his equals. Charlie on the other hand surrounds himself with glowing blue ladies that are the closest thing to angels in the setting that we've seen, and he's an unrepentant opportunistic mercenary who's officially in the business of solving problems for his clients, but secretly creates more problems down the line to make more money.
 * Charlie's Rule #3: We are in the business of solving problems for our clients. Corollary: Creating problems for our clients creates business.
 * Light Novel: Whether by accident or design, the text updates are in this format.
 * Lock and Load Montage: Parson. See this page.
 * Love Dodecahedron: Alright, let's see; Jack is secretly in love with Jillian, who is in love with Wanda—and with Ansom, who used to be in love with Jillian but is now in love with Wanda but might still have feelings for Jillian, and was also best friends with Vinny who became Jillian's lover after Ansom died, and may be in love with her. Jack and Jillian.
 * Jillian is aware that Jack has feelings for her, but it's unclear how much she reciprocates.
 * Lucky Bastard: Ansom got dramatically lucky at several points before he was defeated.
 * Stanley was also one of these in the backstory.  He takes it as a sign of divine providence.
 * He may be right: Parson suspects that Erfworld cheats in order to force people to think outside the box in order to win.
 * MacGuffin: The Arkentools. There are at least four, though we only know three of their names; Arkenhammer, Arkenpliers, and the Arkendish.
 * Magic A Is Magic A
 * Magic Dance: Dance-Fighting is a special ability certain units have that gives them a bonus in combat. So far we've seen Caesar lead his Transylvito forces in a song-and-dance number straight out of West Side Story, Wanda leading a horde of uncroaked in a giant Thriller dance, and Charlie's Archons setting up a spell that allowed Ansom and his forces to play Dance Dance Revolution. There's also the ostensibly more powerful "Rocking Out", practiced by Haggar's forces (all of whom can, at least, headbang) and Stanley's elite hobgobwin knights, the Knights In Stanley's Service. There is also reference to a "Safety Dance".
 * Malicious Slander
 * Mauve Shirt:
 * Men Can't Keep House: The apartment Parson Gotti lived in prior to his summoning was, by his own description, a complete mess.

"Tramennis: You seem bent on spending your last moments in this world with your thumbs jammed into the thumbscrews of guilt, and turning them as hard as you can...which is impossible, I realize...but that analogy had a lot more promise when I started this sentence, and it seemed likely to end with a witty bon mot about screwing yourself. That didn't work out, did it? Nothing has, today."
 * Metaphorgotten: Prince Tramennis gives us this:

"Xin: I made you a Wanda and was successful in not eating her. Enjoy!"
 * Mission From God: Stanley believes himself to be favored by the Titans, evidenced by his attunement to the Arkenhammer; Ansom believes that royal rulership is part of the proper order of things as established by the Titans. The very first comic page shows both are wrong, and the Titan's plan went off the rails before the siege even began.
 * Mood Whiplash: Several. One notable instance here. Everyone is gearing up for a vicious conflict, perhaps even a, but...it doesn't work out like that.
 * Morality Pet: Jack serves this role for Wanda, since he's a constant reminder of her betrayal of Faq. Were it not for this, she probably would have killed and decrypted him already.
 * More Than Mind Control: Of Jillian by Wanda.
 * Ms. Fanservice: Wanda, again.
 * Openly acknowledged in this ...spectacular piece of bonus art from Xin. Merry Christmas indeed.

"Ossomer: This new Chief Warlord, he is only Level 2. How can he-- Sylvia: He is Level 20. He is Level Thousand. He is Level Million. It does not matter."
 * Munchkin: Parson, more or less. He spends his free time trying to find loopholes within the very laws of physics themselves. The campaign he himself made for his friends was pretty much designed so that only a Munchkin would have been able to win.
 * Mundane Utility: Parson can now climb stairs. (Note that that page is spoiler-y.)
 * Also Dirtamancy is the magic of Mundane Utility. Key abilities include building and upgrading cities faster and cheaper and producing units from common materials. Sizemore is a "filthy rich rock star" in the Magic Kingdom solely because he can quickly and effortlessly build structures and roads.
 * My God, What Have I Done?: Parson's reaction to the aftermath of his final plan for Gobwin Knob's victory. It leads to a Rage Against the Heavens and a Ten-Minute Retirement.
 * My Name Is Not Durwood: Stanley doesn't really commit the names of anyone to memory, with the exceptions of Wanda and his current Chief Warlord. As of Chapter 2, he's apparently trying to be better about that.
 * The Napoleon: Stanley is rather short, and sensitive about it: he threatened to croak Parson if he mentioned it again after the first time, even though from Parson's perspective, everyone's short.
 * Never Say "Die": Parodied; the word "croak" is used instead.
 * New Era Speech
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Parson speaks to one of the three spellcasters, known as "Misty" before she lost her individuality, that Stanley has mindlinked to monitor the battle, and uses her advice to plan an assault on Ansom.
 * No Body Left Behind: A rare non-video-game usage. Dead bodies disappear at the end of the day, unless they have been uncroaked.
 * This rule can also be broken by Decryption, or moving the body across hexes manually, as has been stated multiple times across each book.
 * Not So Omniscient After All: The Great Minds that Think Alike certainly enjoy believing that they know everything relevant that goes on in the Magic Kingdom, but they were not prepared for
 * Not the Fall That Kills You: Or rather, it is. More precisely, it's dropping from whatever counts as airspace to whatever counts as solid ground without first landing appropriately. Even hopping off your flying mount, a scant few inches above the ground, may hurt, incapacitate, or outright kill you.
 * Numbskull Negotiator: Stanley, but it happens to be devastatingly effective stupidity in Book 3. Don King tries his hardball negotiation tactics against the well known idiot Overlord Stanley, when negotiating . Don goes through the whole spiel to get Stanley irritated, and ends it by demanding what he believes is Gobwin Knob's entire treasury.  And then Stanley instantly agrees to the astronomical price, and calls Don "a real jerk" for not getting to the point and offers to teach him how to negotiate.  It is at this point that Don King first realizes Transylvito is not even playing in the same league as GK and Charlescomm.
 * Obfuscating Stupidity: Trammenis is highly intelligent and insightful, but tends to act like a shallow ditz during parleys.
 * Obviously Evil: Played with. Stanley's side has "all the classic evil creatures", and the antagonist sides tend to have classic good creatures and designs, but the actual motivations and morality followed by the various sides are...hazy at best. Certainly Light Is Not Good and Dark Is Not Evil, at least not necessarily.
 * Oh Crap: Several, but one notable instance is Tramennis's expression as he realizes that
 * Oh My Gods: "Titans' testes!"
 * Orcus on His Throne: Due to in-universe mechanics, averted with Warlords, but enforced for all Rulers, who have to send their Warlords to do all their work for them. Stanley, for example, is the in-universe Big Bad. The aforementioned mechanics are that every single side is a Keystone Army, with the Ruler as the keystone. As a Ruler, Stanley can't risk leaving his capital to fight in battles; everyone would be gunning for him, and if he croaks, it's game over. Unusually enough for this trope, he doesn't like this. He started out as a common infantry unit, and he misses taking part in battles and is resenting that Wanda is doing all the work and getting all the glory for him.
 * Furthermore, there's Jillian, who used to be a Princess, then a Barbarian, and is now a Ruler of her own side. She's a sword-swinging Blood Knight, and to her, her babarian days were the best for her. Even though she's now the Ruler of her own side, she hasn't given up her fighting ways—she's still out raiding, and is buzzing several of Gobwin Knob's cities. Parson is too busy with the Battle of Spacerock to do anything about it, but he's made it clear that as soon as the battle's over, he's going to put all his focus on taking her out. He even told Maggie that if he doesn't make it, tell his replacement to do just that.
 * Lastly, we have the ruler Slately for the Jetstone side. Once the crap hits the fan for Jetstone and Gobwin Knob forces enter the city, Tramennis says, in explicit terms, that Slately is now their single point of failure and their highest priority is getting him away from the battle.
 * This is then subverted when
 * Our Monsters Are Different: Boy howdy!
 * Our Dwagons Are Different: Dwagons look like plush toys, and are colored blue, brown, green, yellow, purple, red, and pink. With breath weapons ranging from fire to taffy, disregarding the yellows' caustic battlecrap. Their scales are ceramic.
 * Our Elves Are Better (parodied): So far, there are nine, rather specific, types: Altruist, Eager, Lofty, Luckless, Schlemiel, Shady, Superfluous, Tardy, Woodsy. The Eager Elves, for example, are all recoloured Links.
 * Our Giants Are Bigger: Western Giants are based on baseball players, even with a reference to steroid use.
 * Our Gwiffons Are Different: And look like marshmallow peeps. Which sounds cute, until their front splits open into a terrible gummy maw. They eat marrow, horns, and hooves.
 * Golem: Multiple golems have appeared, with names indicating what they are made of: Soft Rock, Hard Rock, Acid Rock, and Metal Golems are based on musical genres, and Cloth Golems are literal giant animated stuffed animals, while Crap Golems are... well...
 * All Twolls Are Different: See Retcon, below.
 * Our Vampires Are Different: Vinny Doombats and the other warlords of Transylvito. They're a combination of vampire, Italian, and 50s Greaser stereotypes. Vinny on occasion acts a lot like The Fonz.
 * When Trees Attack: Gumps.
 * Out of Focus: Since his side is only peripherally involved in the fight at hand, Vinny disappears completely for the second and third books, despite being a major supporting character in book one.
 * Outside Context Villain: From the perspective of his enemies, at least, Parson fits this trope to a tee for all the same reasons he fits Humans Are Cthulhu above. He comes out of nowhere to fight for a side that shouldn't have had any great (or even good) strategists left, and yet consistently invents strategies and tactics that are almost literally unthinkable to any unit popped in context of Erf
 * Perpetual Motion Monster: Normally a unit costs money to keep (upkeep) that is represented as a ration of food popping at the start of a turn. Decrypted have zero upkeep, which basically makes them not need to eat (though it's not been shown if rations of some sort still pop for them).
 * Pet the Dog: Stanley may be a bit of a Jerkass, but after Jack manages to save his life (and a fair number of their dwagons) he does seem genuinely grateful and makes a concerted effort to remember Jack's name thereafter.
 * Playing Both Sides: Wanda has been playing both sides for a chance to.
 * Pietà Plagiarism: Parson and
 * Also, Sizemore and the  Crap Golem - God and Adam, anyone? Inverted as Sizemore is the "Adam".
 * Pillar of Light: The massive attack Wanda unleashes on Jillian's incursion group.
 * Plot Armor: Sylvia is absolutely assured that the Titans insure her side's inevitable victory. Three perfect headshots from The Archer blocked by utterly improbable coincidence later, and you've got to wonder if she might be onto something...
 * Pointy-Haired Boss: Stanley; a perfect case of The Peter Principle.
 * Portal Cut: Happens to Jack here. Fortunately, it was just an illusion he set up to freak everyone out.
 * Power Perversion Potential: Commanders issue commands to their troops, and all commands must be obeyed. Including, as Parson so elegantly put it: "I could just like, order an Archon to take off her clothes and drop to her knees. And she'd do it, right?". Fortunately, Parson considers this abhorrent, but unfortunately, he is not the norm. "What an utterly alien thing to think."
 * Everyone gets healed and cleaned, fully, with no marks, at dawn if they weren't croaked - BDSM fans would have free reign to do almost anything. Wanda shows us how.
 * In a Start of Darkness text update, Wanda is in a city where an enemy Hippiemancer used her flower power to make it impossible for anyone to attack one another, however the enemy soldiers are free to try and grope Wanda (free loving is allowed), which Wanda can't defend herself against since she can't attack them. She solves that problem by ordering her rotting uncroaked soldiers to similarly molest anyone who tries it.
 * The Power of Rock: The entire concept of dance-fighting. Also, the Knights In Stanley's Service.
 * "How do I love it? I love it... LOUD!"
 * No, Rocking Out is not Dance-Fighting. "Rocking Out is better than Dance Fighting."
 * Power Walk: Parson, suited up for battle in Book 2. Even makes that goofy demon hamster helm look badass.
 * Precision F-Strike:
 * Private Military Contractors: CharlesComm operates as a multi-purpose mercenary/consultancy outfit and communications network, the latter of which would be significant if people in this setting went beyond the Gunboat Diplomacy variety of diplomacy or had peacetime occupations.
 * The latter is significant anyway; the Decrypted Archons told Parson that the telecommunications part of Charlescomm service probably provided more income than the mercenary part.
 * Pstandard Psychic Pstance: Thinkamancers when they're sending or receiving thinkagrams.
 * Punny Name: Every Erfworld native and race has a name that is a pun of something or another. Some are more obvious than others. Prince Ansom is quite handsome, and Prince Ossomer better be awesomer than Ansom if he wants to beat his brother, but his brother Tramennis is hardly tremendous compared to him. And while Wanda Firebaugh hasn't been seen with a wand of fireball yet, Jillian Zamussels' jillions of muscles help her wield that BFS against the minions of our Protagonist, Parson Gotti.
 * Some of the Summer Updates also reference A Fish Called Wanda, with a koi fish that is literally named Wanda - apparently Erfworld is dead set on evaluating every possible pun on every name, even if the name itself is a duplicate instance.
 * Putting on the Reich: Stanley's new logo and banners look a lot like the emblem and propaganda posters from the old Soviet Union. This was intentional, given that Maggie suspected that Stanley might be developing a bit of a self-esteem problem after suffering one too many defeats while his subordinates win all his victories for him.
 * Pyrrhic Victory: When Parson takes out Ansom's siege units, it goes unnoticed for a while because the rules of Erfworld count every battle as a "victory" for Ansom because his opponents fled—unfortunately for the Royal Crown Coalition, Parson's troops only fled after destroying the entire hex's siege units and before taking any losses.
 * Also subverted at the end of book one—it looks like, but a few pages later he discovers that . Not so Pyrrhic after all.
 * At the end of book 2, issue 2:
 * Quip to Black: Call it the last... of the last of the last stands. Complete with YyyyeeEAAAAhhhh!
 * Rebellious Princess: Jillian.
 * Red Eyes, Take Warning: Subverted with Vinny Doombats, and Transylvito in general, all of whom seem to be the vampiric equivalent of Fonzie and/or The Mafia. Played straight with Parson: Ruthlessness.
 * Reference Overdosed: The whole of Erfworld. Parson notices this and wonders if it's not a sign he's lying on a hospital bed in a coma.
 * Remix Comic: The lolerfs and demotivators.
 * Retcon: Twolls were supposed to be crafters, but the author realized too late that he had put "Regeneration" as Bogroll's special. Now, there's a whole new school of magic replacing "Deletionism" with "Retconjuration". Word of God states Retconjuration is so far solely in the domain of the Titans, and is seldom used.
 * All Twolls Are Different: Twolls are capable of fabricating any non-magical item, such as armour or baskets. And that is how it has always been.
 * Retconjuration: The Trope Namer.
 * Ridiculously-Fast Construction: Part of the game-like mechanics of the universe.
 * Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies and Total Party Kill: This strip. By name.
 * Role Playing Game Verse and RPG Mechanics Verse: Erfworld the world. One of the few instances of this being played semi-seriously.
 * Royals Who Actually Do Something: Are the rule rather than the exception. Justified by Authority Equals Asskicking being an actual rule of the world.
 * Although generally, once you become a Ruling Royal, you stay in your capital and appoint a different Royal as Chief Warlord while you stay to run the kingdom. There are a number of practical reasons behind this (such as how cities are more efficient if being directly run by the Ruler, and the danger of a Ruler being croaked, which could end the Side). In this regard
 * Rule of Cool
 * Schedule Slip: Afflicted book one rather severely.
 * Schmuck Bait: Wanda's brother Tommy fell for it in "Inner Peace (Through Superior Firepower)". He led his troops, including Wanda, into what seemed to be very lightly defended enemy city, despite being advised against it. Once they got in, the enemy caster stationed there started playing her chillaxe, preventing any combat in the hex.
 * Screw Destiny: Parson, unlike Wanda, refuses to be a gamepiece of Fate.
 * Series Hiatus: In November 2011, Xin took time off to deal with her dying mother. During this time, the site was updated with the text only "Inner Peace (Through Superior Firepower)", which details Wanda's first few turns of life.
 * Shoot the Dog: What it eventually comes to.
 * Show Some Leg: The "Flash" tactic.
 * Shown Their Work: Everything from throwaway jokes to side characters contain multilayered references across many fields, including history, biology, music, politics and literature. Rob Balder once stated that he put 30 hours of research into creating one specific character who as yet hasn't had one on-panel line. The art by Xin Ye is similarly impressive, containing advanced uses of perspective and filling the backgrounds with rich detail.
 * Shrouded in Myth: Parson.

"Jetstone Dittomancer: Double your pleasure, double your fun. That's a winning pair if I'd ever seen one."
 * Siege Engines. Siege units. The battle for Gobwin's Knob included siege towers pushed by 20m tall Cloth Golems and Wiener Rammers: living Battering Rams in the shape of elongated wiener dogs with rams horns. Upon striking the gates of Gobwin's Knob they invoke "YTMND!": they are drawing their striking power from the "You're The Man Now, Dog" meme.
 * Significant Anagram: Parson Gotti --> Protagonist
 * Even more Significant Anagram: Parson A. Gotti -- A Protagonist. As in, there are others.
 * Sliding Scale of Fate vs. Free Will: The world in general lies somewhere between types two and three, as "Fate" is an explicit force and even has its own axis in the world's magic system. Though not even a predictamancer can foresee the entire future in absolute certainty. Wanda and her forces believe it's a type one, and that she is a driving force in fulfilling fate. Parson and those concerning him, however, such as Grand Hippiemancer Janis, appear to be agents of Screw Destiny.
 * Sliding Scale of Undead Regeneration: Most uncroaked are either Type I or Type III, depending on how much power a given Croakamancer has put into the body. Decrypted, however, are always Type IV.
 * Small Name, Big Ego: Stanley.
 * Spanner in the Works: The story was set off from the Titans accidentally leaving an extra gem in the Minty Mountains.
 * In Book One, Stanley is several times the Gilligan to Parson's plans. Jillian does this to the anti-Gobwin Knob coalition in Book Two thanks to her relationship issues.
 * Hell, Parson even said Stanley fell somewhere between Gilligan and Starscream at one point.
 * Speech Bubbles: Using different fonts for real-world and Erfworld characters.
 * Start of Darkness: The "Inner Peace (Through Superior Firepower)" series of text updates details Wanda's backstory.
 * Start X to Stop X: Janis the Hippiemancer, who wants to see Erfworld at peace. She's become convinced that this won't happen until things get broken even worse than usual.
 * Stealth Insult: Parson convinces Stanley to require that everyone address him as the Tool instead of Lord.
 * Stealth Pun:
 * The walking, talking trees are called "Gumps." And that's not the end of it.
 * Wanda (a Croakamancer) is leading a horde of Uncroaked against the Coalition forces to the tune of Thriller while dressed as Michael Jackson. Ansom replies by setting up a dance-fight of his own. What tune can we assume he is dancing to, based on his moves?
 * Charlie's flying chicks, named "Archons"...
 * Jack suggests casting the Flash on the enemy hex, so that they can't see anything else in Wanda's hex. Look at the last panel. What are the decrypted archons doing?

"Tramennis: What's the worst that could happen? King Slately: The worst? The Titans could hear you ask such a question. [Later] Slately: Evacuate? In our moment of triumph? I think you overestimate their chances. Tramennis: *I* tempt the Titans?"
 * In this Summer update, Jillian kills a fish. A Fish Called Wanda. Bitter, ironic, and oddly funny.
 * Step Three: Profit: A rare justified variant. Wanda admits she doesn't know what the missing step is but also firmly believes You Can't Fight Fate so she is going through with the plan anyway.
 * Stripperiffic: Wanda; 10 pounds of sexy crammed into a 5-pound bag.
 * And then taken Up to Eleven with an art bonus from Xin. Damn.
 * Stylistic Suck: Hamstard.
 * Sugar Apocalypse
 * Summon Everyman Hero: Parson.
 * Summon Magic: a great deal of hat magic is this, pulling things out of hats from messages to a Killer Rabbit.
 * Talking Poo: Crap Golems.
 * Take a Third Option: Parson's specialty. Jack in particular admires his skill at it, noting when he hears Parson's plan after they are stranded above Jetstone that while the rest of them had done a decent job coming up with a plan to survive the battle despite their obvious sitting duck status, Parson had come up with an even better plan on how to WIN the battle instead.
 * We see Ansom do this at least once too, when Vinny presents him with two options to escape one of Parson's traps and he takes a third.
 * Tears of Remorse
 * Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Parson and Maggie in the beginning, because Parson was a little peeved over Maggie's indirect role in . They've since reconciled. Parson and Stanley still don't really get along, although it's not as bad as it was in the first book.
 * Tempting Fate


 * This Is Sparta: "Royalty. Is. Obsolete". I think not.
 * Thriving Ghost Town: All of them.
 * Too Dumb to Live: Stanley displays some level of this at times, on the strategic level anyway. Oddly, he occasionally shows brief flashes of genius through all the stupid.
 * Took a Level In Badass This. Bottom-left panel.
 * To Win Without Fighting: Parson places an emphasis on that in his strategy lecture.
 * Trapped in Another World: Parson.
 * Tron Lines: These appear while Wanda is casting the Summon Perfect Warlord spell. Even the "PLOT" Unsound Effect when Parson appears in Gobwin Knob (not the earlier one when he disappears from his apartment) somewhat resembles the Tron logo.
 * Unlimited Wardrobe: Wanda's Wardrobe has its own entry at Erfwiki.
 * Unsound Effect: "PLOT!", "Redox!", 4CHAN! YTMND!, NSFW!, FUNKENSTEIN!, and lots more.
 * Unusual Euphemism: Parson's unpleasant arrival is followed by a string of profanity, whereupon Parson realizes all of his swear words are automagically censored as "boop". Croak is universally used for kill, dead or death.
 * The Vamp: Wanda's not above using sex to manipulate Stanley.
 * Villain Protagonist: Parson, technically.
 * Visual Pun: Lloyd, the Jetstone Dittomancer (a caster that creates copies of things like soldiers and arrows), has a staff with a copyright symbol on the end of it.
 * War Has Never Been So Much Fun: Deconstructed.
 * War Is Hell: Parson seems to flip-flop somewhere between this and apathy about the plot.
 * Was It Really Worth It?: . See My God, What Have I Done??
 * We Can Rule Together: At the beginning of the Love is a Battlefield story arc, Jillian and Wanda both try this on each other. Both have their own reasons for refusing.
 * Wham! Episode:
 * Shortly before that,.
 * Wham! Line:
 * Whatevermancy: Everywhere. Only a handful of schools fail to use this form. It even provides the picture for the trope.
 * What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: The bizarre physics and rules of Erfworld cause this to crop up a lot, ranging from proudly marching into battle while riding inside the pouch of a giant stuffed kangaroo to one force countering their opponents' West Side Story dance with a KISS-themed rock out. Or
 * What Happened to the Mouse?: Gobwin Knob's human forces are mentioned once at the beginning, and never seen or mentioned again.
 * Also, in an in-story instance, the Gobwins of Gobwin Knob's namesake - not a single one can be found after the Volcano Uncroaking event. Though there is speculation that Charlie's machinations are behind this. By notable exception, Hobgobwins (a variant) have not vanished.
 * What Is Evil?: Stanley's reaction to Parson labeling him an Evil Overlord.
 * What Measure Is a Mook?: This principle is probably the reason why.
 * What the Hell, Hero?: Parson calls out death towards the end of Book 1.
 * Taking the position that Stanley is the bad guy and the allied forces the good guys, then Ansom calls out Jillian for her hypocritical treatment of the Decrypted.
 * Whip It Good: Wanda, when she indulges her "hobbies".
 * Why Don't We Just Decrypt Them?: Wanda's averting this in regards to Ossomer caused Ansom to question her methods for the first time.
 * With Due Respect
 * A Worldwide Punomenon: Pretty much every other object in Erfworld is based on or named after some real-world equivalent. Listing examples would take up the entire page.
 * You and What Army?: Inverted.
 * You Can't Fight Fate: Wanda seems to believe this is true and uses it to justify everything she's done in the story.
 * seems to relish the idea with a cold, fanatical zeal, after joining Gobwin Knob.
 * The attitude of Predictomancy in general. While most people, units, and even sides have no particular Fate or inescapable destiny, those that do have one are bound by/to it absolutely. Trying to fight against it or defy it only ends up increasing the pain and suffering for everyone involved as it comes true anyway.
 * You Can't Thwart Chapter One
 * You Didn't Ask: Parson does not consider this an adequate response.
 * Zettai Ryouiki: Prince Tramennis in book 2. He has such nice legs!
 * You Didn't Ask: Parson does not consider this an adequate response.
 * Zettai Ryouiki: Prince Tramennis in book 2. He has such nice legs!