Homestuck/Tropes M-O

>LAND OF MICE AND OVERCOATS

Hey, this looks just like the hall closet, only a lot bigger. It's a good thing the tropes beginning with M, N, and O seem to have tamed the local rodent population. It's said that the legendary hero will take his legendary nap in the Quest Bed on the closet's top shelf... hey, you think you see him there! ...Uh-oh. There's an Imp standing over him while he's sleeping, and he's got a pretty sharp-looking rusty nail... you hope he's not going to... Oh fuck.

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"TG: welp"
 * Mad Libs Catchphrase: "X2 _____ COMBO!" (Note: Sometimes the "X2" follows the blank.)
 * "All of the _____. All of them. Yeah."
 * "_____ DOUBLE REACH-AROUND."
 * Made of Explodium: All robots explode spectacularly.
 * Madness Montage: Here.
 * And another one, several thousand pages later.
 * Magic Feather: Rose's wands, at least according to Doc Scratch.
 * Magic Kiss: This is a SBURB game mechanic. If a player dies (and if they have an intact dreamself), they can be revived if another player kisses their corpse within an unspecified time limit. If time runs out, the wounds propagate to the dreamself, killing them as well.
 * Magic Realism: There is an element of this in the way that no-one seems particularly surprised when Sburb allows you to manipulate other people's houses. Other fantastical elements of the world (particularly the gamelike ones) go unmentioned and unexplained. On the other hand, the existence of magic per se is realistically controversial.
 * Magikarp Power: The Bunny, along with anyone who presumably inherits 'Breath' powers.
 * Dream bubble Dirk mentions the Page class as being this, during his conversation with an unconscious Jake.
 * Major Injury Underreaction: Alternate!Dave looks down to find a Slashed Throat courtesy of Bec Noir. His response?

"Note that I am caucasian, and I draw myself orange. I don’t see no orange kids there! Can’t really pin them down as definitively white, though this is likely the widespread presumption. They are canonically a-racial, and elude concrete bodily proportions through diversity of stylistic representation. You decide what they are! The thing you decide is right."
 * Mascot Mook: Imps.
 * Adorable Evil Minions
 * Mate or Die: When the imperial drone comes to the door of an adult troll, they'd better be able to fill both filial pails or else. As if teenage romantic angst isn't bad enough without all that pressure!
 * Meaningful Name: Lots and lots.
 * Karkat's trolltag is carcinoGeneticist, which fits both his Cancer theme and the fact that he gave the kids' universe cancer.
 * Gamzee's trolltag, terminallyCapricious, fits not only his rather sudden mood swings but also his role in the development of the kid's universe cancer: by planting nightmares into John's subconscious, he essentially brought Bec Noir into existence, causing the cancer to become terminal.
 * The Dolorosa (Kanaya's ancestor) is literally Troll Virgin Mary; Mater Dolorosa means "mother of sorrows" and is one of several names for the Virgin Mary.
 * Doc Scratch is the comic's manipulative "devil figure." "Old Scratch" is an older name for the Devil in American literature; Hussie has said that his inspiration for the character is a mix between the Devil and Doc Holiday.
 * "Scratch" is also the pool term for pocketing the cue ball.
 * SGRUB which is Burgs (City) Backwards and SBURB which is Suburb (Minus the u).
 * Meaningful Rename: It turns out Alternia (as in "alternate") had a different name before the Scratch.
 * Meanwhile in the Future: "Years in the future, but not many..."
 * Mega Manning: Enemies wielding weapons seem to drop the STRIFE SPECIBUS for that weapon. Though to date this has only happened a few times, as the only weapons any of the enemies have been seen wielding are ones stolen from John.
 * John will eventually obtain Rose's Needlekind specibus.
 * Melee a Trois: Appears to be setting up between Axe Crazy Gamzee, God-tier Vriska, and Despair Event Horizon-crosser Eridan -- nevermind, Kanayapyre just nut-shotted an implacable man off a cliff, punched a goddess, and wrecked a dark/light magical boy's shit.
 * Memento MacGuffin: Due to time travel shenanigans, John received the exact same item as a birthday gift from all three of his friends. The final version is a cyborg bunny with gamebreaking weapons in each of the four characters' chosen STRIFE SPECIBUS. Which Jack Noir gets to first, giving him the power to become Sovereign Slayer.
 * Mentor Occupational Hazard: As of the 2/19 update, all of the Guardians are dead. All of them.
 * The Merch: The Hero colors were chosen from available shirt, hoodie, and jacket colors. Sadly Homestuck fans have no Life and are Hopeless -- that is, jackets aren't available yet in those colors.
 * Messianic Archetype: The Sufferer, once his life story is revealed, has a distinct messianic nature. He is a social outcast, preaches a radical gospel of peace and forgiveness, has disciples who carry on his work after his death, and in a very direct parallel, he is symbolized by the torture implement he died on, in this case a set of ret hot handcuff irons. Though unlike our J3GUS his idealistic nature turned to pure rage just before he died. He was also raised by the Dolorosa, who, like her descendant Kanaya, has a Virgin Mary motif.
 * Metal Scream: MEOOOOOOOOOOOOW
 * Metamorphosis: Trolls start out as very non-humanoid larval grubs known as wigglers (though they still have humanoid heads), then early in their life go from that stage to their more familiar humanoid stage. Under certain circumstances, they also gain wings.
 * Meteor of Doom
 * Mexican Standoff
 * Mickey Mousing: Inverted: Andrew selects a piece of music from the artists and animates to its beats and any Leitmotifs present. This is taken to its logical extreme in the Descend sequence, which matches every single leitmotif in the song with an appropriate piece of action.
 * Mind Screw
 * Mind Screwdriver: The Recap Episodes and Andrew's comments in the forums, Formspring and Tumblr serve as this.
 * Mirror Universe: In some respects, the Post-Scratch Kids reflect aspects of the Pre-Scratch Kids they correspond to
 * John for a long time had his green slime ghost symbol and blue text, but his Breath sigil ultimately replaced his green symbol. Jane has blue text and a blue PS sprite as her symbol, but her Life sigil (which is an altered version of the Breath sigil) is green. Likewise they have some inverted tastes; John likes Gushers but hates cake but Jane feels the opposite. John was also the last member of his session to awaken his dreamself, but Jane was the first to have awoken, disregarding Dirk since he was already awake. Both are the leaders of their parties because of their "optimism through stalwart skepticism" and for considering themselves everyone's friend, not their leader.
 * Jake fights lusii routinely to survive, as opposed to Jade whose fights with Bec were playful at worst. Also, Jade was awake on Prospit for years, but Jake's dreamself was killed by Courtyard Droll and some peanuts before he even awoke at all. Both have a robot with whom they share the island, but Jade's dreambot is benign and completely passive, whereas Jake's brobot can move actively on its own, and both protects Jake from lusii and ambushes Jake for strifes on a regular basis.
 * Roxy enjoys gaming, hard science like genetics or physics, and writing lighthearted fiction, whereas Rose is one of the least game inclined of the kids, writes darker fiction, and tends to stick with psychology. Roxy is also completely blatant and guileless with her near-constant flirtation, as opposed to Rose, who layers her relatively subdued flirtation with heavy snark. As for their Sburb titles, both are seemingly passive classes, but Roxy and Rose's elements are almost polar opposites, and Roxy wholeheartedly embraces her powers, unlike Rose who went so far Off the Rails that she disrupted her Myth Arc.
 * Dave is associated with crows and favors absurd irony, while Dirk is associated with gulls and favors unsettling irony. Both are artists, with their interests in webcomics, specimen preservation, and photography (and movies), or with puppetry, pornography, and robotics, reflecting this. Dave had a mild phobia of Cal whereas Dirk thinks he's awesome, which is part of why when both awakened on Derse before the game, Dirk ran with it while Dave shut it out. Both have duplicates running around, but Dave is cool with Davesprite whereas Dirk bickers with his AR. Dave's Myth Arc is about overcoming his own self-loathing and being proud of his individuality whereas Dirk's revolves around his incredibly fractured sense of self, and trying to find who he even is.
 * Mission Control: A server player is this to their client player, essentially. Some classes like Seers naturally are this to their teammates.
 * Mission Control Is Off Its Meds: Inevitable. The most common examples are Vriska and Doc Scratch.
 * Mix-and-Match Man: Most of the soldiers and agents of Prospit and Derse are cloned, including DNA from the weird chess pieces. The kids are also cloned from the guardians in this way.
 * Doc Scratch was created by combining a certain genetic code, Lil' Cal, and Vriska's magic cue ball.
 * Money for Nothing: The Boondollars. First, they're just there and serve no purpose. Then they're shown to be an actual currency in the medium. Then the reckoning gets started early and makes it a moot point. Then, during Hivebent, it's stated that they can still be used to purchase deadly "fraymotifs" for the final battle. Then Dave engages in Time Travel Shenanigans, hijacks the local economy, and acquires more boondollars than either the kids or the trolls would possibly ever need. Then that mind-boggling large volume of cash becomes important not for its purchasing power, but for its numerological value: Dave wire-transfers 413 boonbonds to past-Terezi, and that specific value catches her interest, setting in motion the first contact between the trolls and the humans. FINALLY, Then after gaining the higher God tiers, they stop earning Boondollars because that shit is for babies. They now get actually useful Achievement Badges on their KIDDIE CAMPER HANDYSASH. Oh and the ability to actually talk normally.
 * On a more comical note, certain items of very low quality can actually cost negative artifact grist to make.
 * And here we learn that post-Scratch Dave mass produced them and got rich because they also are of a low enough quality to cost negative money to produce.
 * Monochrome Casting: Despite the entire planet Earth being in peril, the only humans we ever see are completely colorless. (No, the trolls don't count. Neither does Bill Cosby.) Word of God states this is because the human characters are "blank" or "null". You can read whatever race you want into them.
 * Monster Clown: Gamzee and his ancestor the Grand Highblood, whose throne room is painted in a whimsical black-light rainbow pattern. With the blood of other trolls.
 * Monumental Damage: Say goodbye to Lady Liberty.
 * Mood Whiplash: There's a page for them now.
 * Morality Pet: The troll concept of "moirails": particularly unstable trolls naturally gravitate towards nicer trolls that can keep their worst behaviour in check: examples include Equius and Nepeta, Eridan and Feferi, Vriska and Kanaya, and rather surprisingly, Gamzee and Karkat. Can be awkward if one member of the moirallegiance would rather it was matespritship (e.g. Eridan, Kanaya)
 * More Hero Than Thou: Rose and Dave trying to decide who will be the one to sacrifice themselves blowing up the Tumor to destroy the Green Sun. Ultimately subverted on a number of levels: both of them end up going on the "suicide mission", it ends up not being a suicide mission because they die on their Derse quest beds and reach God Tier, and the Tumor's explosion creates the Green Sun rather than destroying it.
 * More Teeth Than the Osmond Family: Jack Noir and Hearts Boxcars, and presumably all other carapeople. Normally Jack just has a row of identical sharp conic teeth, however. The trolls also have mouths full of large fangs of varying sizes that can be regrown if they fall out.
 * Not all carapeople have pointed teeth. WV's teeth are flat.
 * After living in a desert for years and probably gnawing on rocks and anything that appears edible.
 * Also, not all trolls have pointed teeth. Aradia's teeth are flat.
 * Most Writers Are Adults: Whether the kids actually act like 13 year olds is up for some debate. Most however agree John is the most childish. Averted with the Trolls and later the Post-Scratch Kids, who don't conform to human standards and are older respectively.
 * Mr. Exposition: Part of the point of Hivebent was to show how a different session went. Additionally, Karkat, Kanaya, and Vriska all serve as informants to the kids (and the readers) as veteran players of the game, and Feferi and Aradia pass on info either about dream bubbles or learned from them.
 * Mugging the Monster: Tavros really shouldn't have tried to troll Dave.
 * Multicultural Alien Planet: Alternia. Not surprising, since the trolls are very human.
 * Musical Spoiler: If you bought the "Alternia" album, the track "The Thirteenth Hour" is listed in the liner notes as "UU's Theme", which was widely interpreted as hinting at either a 13th troll with an RNA-inspired name. Though she as of yet has no acknowledged connection to the song nor is she explicitly confirmed as a troll, an individual under the chumhandle uranianUmbra did eventually debut.
 * The background audio for "[S] Jade: Wake up" is "Let the Squiddles Sleep", which is on the Squiddles Soundtrack released well before the flash was. So a number of readers could tell just from the music that things were about to go horribly, horribly wrong...for Jade at least. For Feferi it's basically meeting the in-laws.
 * Used in a different sense with Umbral Ultimatum, the music for [S] Jade: Enter, the first few keys of it are played at the very end of [S] Descend, one act prior. In fact, both instances are variations on the primary motif in "Doctor", used for the beginning of Act 4.
 * To those in the know, the second intermission's music instilled instant feelings of dread
 * Mukokuseki: All human characters in the traditional racial sense, also extending to every character in the comic in terms of physical characteristics in general. Hussie has explicitly stated that every character is meant to be physically ambiguous in every way, stating that their physical characteristics are effectively up to the reader to interpret as their personal headcanon. The big exception is Hussie himself:


 * He's also stated that one reference to Bro being white was a mistake that he put in before he'd firmly established the character or his role in the story as Dave's father, so the intention was not to give implications of Dave or Rose's ethnicity through that line, to say nothing of commenting on Dirk.
 * Mummies At the Dinner Table: Grandpa (Pre-Scratch) and John Crocker (post-Scratch) are still presiding over their households as stuffed trophies. Jake is deeply envious.

"EB: how'd you get it then? TG: shenanigans EB: ok."
 * Mundane Object Amazement: Barbasol. "Be careful with that thing! Jesus!!"
 * My Future Self and Me: Dave and Davesprite; Jade and Jadesprite. Also Karkat with his memos.
 * After the Post-Scratch Kids enter the Medium, the heroes of the previous acts plan to meet up with them, with Jade even bringing the Lands and Battlefield of the Beta session. Jane is the only one who understands this, though not entirely.
 * Locked Out of the Loop: Roxy and Dirk believe they're going to resurrect their parents and then meet their children, not realizing they're rather off the mark on both counts. Jake however is just flat out clueless.
 * Several trolls speak with their future and past selves through Trollian, which allows for Time Travel chatting. The trolls traveling through the Furthest Ring also meet Alternate Timeline versions of themselves through dream bubbles.
 * Myth Arc / Coming of Age Story: Players in Sburb have one related to their title during their adventure. For example, Knights have to overcome their lack of self esteem, Seers have to deal with some sort of trauma caused by a sun, and so on. This also applies to the second part of their title as well; Heroes of Breath are initially weak but end up very powerful, Heroes of Light are dubiously heroic and reckless loners who ultimately can be very self destructive and hurt their team, Heroes of Space organize the session and awaken on Prospit beforehand, and so on.
 * Mythology Gag: Many to Andrew Hussie's other works.
 * John's rejected name, "Zoosmell," is an older, shorter webcomic Andrew wrote.
 * John also owns the games of the three other MS Paint Adventures: Bard Quest, Jail Break, and Problem Sleuth, as well as one for one of Hussie's older works: And It Don't Stop.
 * An upgraded form of the Pumpkin Appearifier from Jailbreak is used by WV.
 * Three unfulfilled objectives in Problem Sleuth are finally achieved: toppling a sacred urn (Nanna's), defiling a hallowed tomb (Jaspers the cat's), and desecrating mystic ruins (the Frog Temple).
 * The name "Lil' Cal" was first used in an old comic by Andrew's brother called Say What?. Really, these keep continuing.
 * Early on, John is ordered to fondly regard cremation. This is a reference to Godhead Pickle Inspector in Problem Sleuth - after he was ordered to ascend to godhood, he refused to obey any order other than 'fondly regard creation'. Cue many times where people tried to order him to 'fondly regard' something that rhymed with 'creation', such as fondly regard crenellation or fondly regard crustacean.
 * May double as Fridge Brilliance when you realize what tier John reaches later in the story.
 * Wayward Vagabond has built a fort in his Skyship Base. Forts were a key mechanic in the beginning of Problem Sleuth.
 * A few more are revealed in this formspring question. Namely, a lot of Equius is based on his Humanimals comic. Dave's puppets are based on some muppet comics he made on the MSPA forum. The wizard fics in Rose's house are based on his own wizard fic satire from years ago.
 * Kanaya's lipstick is quite simular to the lipstick from Problem Slueth
 * Dirk's alterations to a Pony Pals book are very much in the same vein as Hussie's own forays into humorous defacing of books.
 * Dirk's Shade (rhyme) and Groove (theme) TECH-HOP MODUS and literal rap battle with Squarewave is a shout-out to And It Don't Stop.
 * The three-skull door puzzle in LOCAH is a call back to a similar puzzle in Problem Sleuth.
 * Jack starts a Jailbreak adventure.
 * My Own Grandpa: Mind-boggingly, every human and troll except for John and Jane's adoptive dad / biological son.
 * Nakama: Homestuck, proving that Internet friendships can be Nakamas too...
 * Negative Space Wedgie: The Scratch.
 * Neuro Vault: How the first guardian code is hidden.
 * Never Live It Down: In-Universe. No one will ever let Karkat forget his godawful, hilarious shipping diagram.
 * New Game+: Essentially what John and co. are doing by bringing their Battlefield and Lands into the post-Scratch universe with them. Good thing, too, since the Alpha session isn't going very far without them.
 * Nice Hat: COURTYARD DROLL. Click next page about three times.
 * And his Alternate Universe hat.
 * Not to mention his new Alpha session hat.
 * Prior to all that, John made a Bunny Sassacre fedora.
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Due in part to the circular nature of time in this comic, pretty much every major problem in the story has come about because of this trope. Of particular note:
 * Dream!Jade sees a vision of Dream!John about to face Sovereign Slayer, so she sends him a weapon to help him when that happens. Said weapon falls into Jack's hands, allowing him to become the Sovereign Slayer.
 * Karkat accuses the kids of doing this to the extent that it ruins the trolls' session. They did. Rose recorded the MEOW code, John helped Dave make a copy which got stolen to create Bec, and Jade's aforementioned Prophetic Fallacy led to her prototyping dilemma that led to Bec prototyping himself, making Jack Noir a Reality Warper just like Bec.
 * And then realize that this came about due to the trolls' interference, Karkat included.
 * Kanaya gives Eridan a science wand as a joke. She doesn't appreciate the punchline.
 * Not to mention when Karkat ran the program that doomed him and everyone he would ever meet, meaning that he potentially caused everything bad that ever happened in Homestuck after that, or even possibly prior.
 * Bec's attempt at destroying the enormous asteroid heading for Jade is implied to cause the worldwide devastation seen by the exiles.
 * Aradia thrashes Vriska within an inch of her life. Losing the last inch of it on a Quest Cocoon pretty much makes a god of her.
 * A case shared by Terezi and Vriska in a doomed timeline: Terezi lets Vriska leave the trolls' hideout, and Vriska does so by flying. The first thing she does is confront Bec Noir. Instead of fighting Vriska, Noir decides to follow Vriska's sparkly God-Tier trail backwards -- right back to the trolls' hideout, where he kills, apparently, Karkat and Terezi.
 * Reality Ensues: Doc Scratch's narration at this point points out that Jack is going for efficiency more than challenges, which is why he didn't fight Vriska, preferring to go follow the trail before it went cold.
 * And now, adding on to this nice little list, it's Karkat's fault that The Tumor got into the kids' session in the first place. In his hurry to beat the Black King, he ordered Kanaya to stop searching for the final frog, meaning the Genesis Frog was missing a critical sequence in its DNA. And it wasn't just The Tumor as the cancer. It's also Bec Noir, meaning that it's Bec's fault for prototyping himself as much as it is Karkat's that everything went to hell.
 * Dave shows an Insane Clown Posse-themed internet troll a certain miraculous video he might appreciate. He doesn't and taps into his rage-powers to create nightmares for Dave and John (and probably Jade and Rose) and make the tumor at the center of Dave's universe terminal. To be fair, Dave was tricked into this by Betty Crocker, one of English's agents.
 * The Summoner tried to spark a revolution against Alternia's elite and was so nearly successful that the Empress decentralized the empire and left the young'uns to fend for themselves.
 * Someone should have told Hussie that self-inserts are a bad idea: after he breaks into the comic to take the narrative from Doc Scratch, he winds up turning Scratch into a puppet. Unfortunately, killing Scratch allows Lord English to enter the universe, which is very bad news...
 * So, the Tumor they were going to use to destroy the Green Sun? Well, it ended up created the Green Sun in the first place. Suckers indeed.
 * The underlying catch to all of these is that the timeline the kids are on can only unfold one way and any attempt to change the predetermined course of events is fruitless.
 * Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
 * Terezi attempted to trick John into getting himself killed by a high-level enemy. This fate was narrowly averted, and as a result of the whole episode, John ended up with a fully-functioning Rocket Pack, Dave got a bunch of gear and his own alternate future self as his sprite, and Rose's dream self became fully awake.
 * Pretty much anything the trolls do will result in this.
 * Jack Noir appears to have pulled one of these himself by sticking to the bargain he made with PM. He probably thought it was funny after all the damage PM had caused to fulfill her end of the bargain. He's probably regretting it now. Check. With the events of Cascade, this went from "not very smart" to "Enjoy your self-inflicted stay in hell".
 * Vriska sure seems to think she's done this by combining Jack with Bec: The challenge will make John a better hero and she's (over-)confident that she'll be the one to kill Bec Noir. Amazingly if she was allowed for fight him she might have succeeded, but at the cost of all her friends.
 * Bec Noir destroys Derse. This causes Aradia's Dreamself to wake up, get God-Tier powers, and freeze Bec Noir in time.
 * Courtyard Droll killing Jade with the shaving cream bomb, causing Bec Noir to take her to her quest bed and resurrect her as God Tier with added First Guardian powers. And there was Jade wondering how she was going to save the Kids' sessions' planets...
 * Courtyard Droll again, blowing up the Battlefield in the post-scratch Skaia...while Rose describes their need for a "blank" Skaia to put the Battlefield Jade is bringing into. This one's a gray area, though, since Rose also mentions that both sides of the conflict are actually gunning for this outcome.
 * Nightmare Fetishist: Do you have any idea how many Sober Gamzee shippers and fangirls there are? Not to mention any form of Jack Noir.
 * In a more humorous note, god-tier Aradia seems to show shades of this.
 * Nintendo Hard: Sburb. The authors of the walkthroughs before Rose's all seem to die before entering the medium, and Karkat mentions countless null sessions with empty incipispheres.
 * No Can Opener: Such is the starving Wayward Vagabond's dilemma as he has come across a small fortune of canned food. He (politely) asks John for one to no avail.
 * No Celebrities Were Harmed: Colonel Sassacre is pretty much just Mark Twain with a wizard hat on.
 * Strongly averted with ICP and Guy Fieri.
 * No Escape but Down: An imp absconds via umbrella.
 * No Fourth Wall: At the end of Act 5, the kids literally escaped a collapsing universe/reality by riding a spaceship through the fourth wall, into the the meta-level one plane removed from the actual story itself, co-existing with the author for a span of 3 feet, and then crashing through another fourth wall into another universe/retelling of their story. It's almost like a cyclical loop of how many meta levels removed from the story Hussie can try to get at this rate.
 * No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Aradiabot gives Vriska a thrashing that leaves her a bloody, dying mess. On the bright side, it woke her dream self up.
 * Doc Scratch delivers one to Spades Slick when his God-Tier clock is destroyed, throwing the latter out of the building.
 * Non-Mammal Mammaries: Despite the fact that Troll reproduction and life cycle has more seemingly in common with insects than primates, including a very insectoid larval stage, female trolls have breasts. Andrew has confirmed this is mostly so readers can identify with them.
 * No-Nonsense Nemesis: Jack Noir.
 * No Sneak Attacks: Subverted, for which John can vouch. Well, not really.
 * Non-Indicative Name: Some of the titles are confusing vague. Light powers are actually over luck because apparently "Light is the essence of fortune", Heart is about souls or "the essence of being," and the Seer of Mind knows about alternate universes via synaptic causality.
 * Non-Mammal Mammaries: Female trolls and chess pieces seem to have breasts, even though the former's reproductive cycle doesn't require breast-feeding and the latter's reproductive cycle has yet to be explained.
 * Noodle Implements: The buckets are far too taboo a subject for there to be a description of how they're filled. We only know that there are two and a troll's life depends on filling them both.
 * Noodle Incident:
 * "Cirque du Soleil once filed a restraining order against your father. You were never so embarrassed in your life."
 * Jane's version of Dad had a similar incident in which cops were not pleased with him roughing up street thugs as a vigilante.
 * How Future Dave acquired Fear No Anvil.

"GC:1T W4S WH3N 1 GOT CLOS3 3NOUGH TO SM3LL 1T UND3R YOUR SK1N PL34S3 K4RK4T, DO NOT PR3T3ND TH4T YOU FORGOT 4BOUT OUR L1TTL3 MOM3NT CG: WHOA CG: YOU MEAN CG: DURING CG: FUCK."
 * Addressed a few acts later. Dave nearly got killed by the denizen, so he used his captcharoid camera to take a picture of the hammer and then ran.
 * Karkat and Terezi share one.

""When in doubt, be sure to pronounce everything in the least affected manner possible, from an American perspective. ""
 * Given Andrew's propensity for skipping large tracts of time, a great deal of the unexplored adventures have become Noodle Incidents. Though the frequent flashbacks mean that sometimes what seems at first to be a Noodle Incident will be depicted or explained later.
 * Noodle People: Noticeable whenever the kids are drawn as opposed to appearing as sprites. As seen here. The adults and the exiles don't have this though.
 * Probably justified in that they're all 13(or some equivalent thereof), hitting puberty and getting growth spurts.
 * No Pronunciation Guide: Trolls. Averted, for their first names, at least. Hussie gave pronunciations on his old Formspring account, though he says that he doesn't care if other people pronounce them differently.

"color:red:TG: skepticism is the crutch of cinematic troglodytes TG: like hey mom dad theres a dinosaur or a ghost or whatever in my room. "yeah right junior go back to bed" TG: fuck you mom and dad how many times are we going to watch this trope unfold it wasnt goddamn funny the first time i saw it TG: just once id like to see dad crap his pants when a kid says theres a vampire in his closet TG: "OH SHIT EVERYONE IN THE MINIVAN" TG: be fuckin dad of the year right there"
 * The Noseless: Virtually every single character (with the exception of John's Dad, who interestingly enough has nothing but). This is one of the few tropes Hussie has invoked (almost entirely) without lampshading.
 * After the post-AlterniaBound Art Shift, when a panel is in a more detailed style the characters are sometimes drawn with noses.
 * Not Me This Time: Terezi automatically pins the murders of Feferi and Kanaya on Vriska, although even she admits this doesn't make much sense and is largely due to her own fixation on her. When she confronts Vriska, the latter is adamant that she is only guilty of Tavros's death.
 * Not Now, Kiddo: Inverted, John states his suspicion that there are monsters in his house to Dave, who is Genre Savvy enough to believe him.

"color:purple:TT: John, I'm about to throw a bath tub through your wall. TT: Watch out."
 * Not So Different: Cause even though you got all these highfalutin morals and fancy reserv8tions, you know as well as me that a killer is a killer is a killer!
 * Of course, it doesn't work.
 * Jade realises that her raging against Jadesprite is basically the same thing as Karkat's argument with his future self.
 * Not-So-Harmless Villain: Jack Noir, pencil pusher turned destroyer of worlds. Also Eridan and Gamzee.
 * Not Worth Killing: Jack apparently didn't think Vriska is worth killing at the moment and opts to follow her trail to kill the other Trolls first instead.
 * Now You Tell Me:

"GC: MUCH 4S 1T P41NS M3 TO 4DM1T 1T, YOUR FRUITY OR4NG3 F4IRY SU1T SM3LLS... D3L1C1OUS."
 * Number of the Beast: Rose's THORNS OF OGLOGOTH cost 666 units of tar to make.
 * Ocean Punk: Roxy and Dirk hail from 2422 AD, where the Condesce has melted the polar ice caps.
 * Off the Rails: As of this page, Rose has decided to screw how the game is meant to be played by destroying her first gate. On a similar note, Jack Noir has done a similar thing in killing the Black Queen and King and then starting the Reckoning early.
 * It's even worse in the Alpha Session - it's implied that The Condesce/Betty Crocker has taken over Alpha Derse, and she's sending Jack Noir and his agents to kill off the player's dream selves before they even enter the game.
 * As of Prince of Heart: Rise Up, The Condesce is confirmed as the new Queen of Derse.
 * Off with His Head:
 * Spades Slick decapitates Crowbar and two Sawbucks with a single stroke of his RAPIER WIT. His alternate-session counterpart the Sovereign Slayer does the same thing to the Black King.
 * Parcel Mistress cuts off Hegemonic Brute's head with the Regisword. Seriously, don't mess with the mail.
 * Vriska puts her giant spider lusus out of her misery with her Fluorite Octet, summoning the Guillotine de la Marquise.
 * Equius punches the head off of a monster on the way to his second gate.
 * Nepeta cuts off both the heads of a bicyclops-prototyped ogre.
 * Inverted when Grandpa Harley shoots the Tar Basilisks. Their heads are the only things left.
 * Hearts Boxcars successfully eats Eggs.
 * Bec Noir likes this one. In [S] Cascade, he decapitates AR and WK.
 * Dirk handily hacks of the head of HB before the latter's attempt to kill him succeeds.
 * Post-Scratch Dave fights the juggalo presidents Jay and Dope. One dies this way, the other is Half the Man He Used To Be. In a single slash.
 * Oh Crap: Rose's laptop battery dies.
 * Jack's reaction when he finds out that the bunny is on John's side.
 * Vriska's facial expression after reading this on the Cue Ball.
 * And AGAIN, when Karkat manages to get a hold of Gamzee, only to find that he's lost his absolute. Fucking. MIND.
 * After getting the most scared in his life, Karkat opens a memo, that leads to three of these from us readers: One-He may have heard Gamzee ready to kill, with his trademark honk inside the room, possibly from the horn pile; Two-Knowing this, he plans to attempt to revive the dead Feferi and Kanaya, despite creepy Gamzee's stalking, and possibly planning ahead to kill at this moment from reading the memo; and three-In writing this memo, he ignored the advice and STILL has his back to the bodies! Sweet merciful Gog...
 * Karkat dragging the unconscious Sollux through the lab when he hears Gamzee’s honk nearby, helping him lose focus dragging Sollux, and fall down the stairs with him, while a louder, closer noise can be heard from nearby where they were as if Gamzee’s stalking them, coming closer to their location.
 * Karkat messages a busy Terezi, telling her to put back on her computer glasses. Gamzee replies with a honk, freaking Karkat and the readers with Terezi getting caught by Gamzee. The next day, readers learn she is still alive, and that she left her computer glasses at a crime scene, but the updates ended that day implying her capture at the snapped troll, with his response through her glasses.
 * Wow, Sollux feels good after losing to Eridan, chatting with Terezi that he and Karkat are okay...wait, Terezi senses something brighter approaching. Cue Sollux going aw shit no... at the possibility of Eridan and his White Wand approaching.
 * Seer: Ascend. The look on Mindfang's face when she realizes Redglare has a dragon is priceless.
 * Even Lil Cal gets this expression when the last prototyping happens in front of him.
 * Bec Noir after PM appears in the troll's session. Fully prototyped and carrying WV's body with her. Needless to say, she is pissed off. But it's possibly subverted when it's shown Bec Noir's developed a crush.
 * Hussie himself gets one of these when he finds out Lord English is in his study.
 * Ominous Latin Chanting: All: Behold glory of Zillyhoo
 * Well, Ominous English Chanting, at least. The lyrics are just "Warhammer of Zillyhoo".
 * Ominous Music Box Tune: Several examples, but the most ominous plays for Rose as she descends into grimdark
 * Once More, with Clarity: The scene at the end of Act 5.1, where the trolls are about to claim their prize, is revisited during [S] Jade: Enter, when the nature of the threat that prevented them from doing so is finally revealed.
 * This seems to happen a lot. For example, one scene from the the End of Act 3 flash revisits a detail from the End of Act 2 flash, revealing that WV's ship was the cork of a giant wine bottle.
 * In [S] Jane: Enter, many of the buildings and scenery first seen in [S] Act 6 are revisited, showing how they change after a Time Skip. It then reveals that some of the images in [S] Act 6 - the ones involving the interior of Dirk and Roxy's houses - were actually from after the Time Skip, showing that Dirk and Roxy were living in the future all along.
 * One-Gender Race: Played with. The trolls' reproductive cycle simply involves the mixing of two individuals' genetic material in a bucket, then dumping the resulting slurry into the womb of the Mother Grub to be amalgamated with countless other couples' DNA. This means that reproductive couples need not be of the opposite gender (see Everyone Is Bi). So, theoretically, all trolls could very well have the exact same reproductive organs. By our standards, this would qualify them as a genderless species, however their gender dichotomy is likely based on different qualities such as breasts or vocal pitch.
 * One-Man Army: To some extent, all of the kids. Jack Noir takes it Up to Eleven after killing the Black Queen and King. In Real Life, Andrew's doing the workload of an entire animation team, including ridiculously intricate flash animations with sound. As of now, Homestuck has what may be the highest update rate of any webcomic in existence, and it's still rising.
 * One of Us: Andrew isn't a big fan and in particular has a few qualms with our methodology, but he has mentioned that he likes some of TV Tropes' articles (although he thinks "fanon" is a stupid word, but that could just be from typing it so many times in one formspring answer).
 * One Steve Limit: Last name variant: As of Act 6, we now have Lord English and Jake English. The story plays this up by having the latter reference the former.
 * Averted with chumhandle abbreviations since the Alpha kids share TT, TG, & GG with the Beta kids. Possibly zig-zagged though, now that the Beta group can speak without them.
 * The One Thing I Don't Hate About You: When Terezi attempts to bring Vriska to justice, she briefly pauses to give a compliment:

"Hussie: Moving for me is a multi-annual tradition, much like killing John has become."
 * Onion Tears: Dave, stewing in a cauldron of boiling water and surrounded by hungry crocodiles, blames the tears running down his face on the sliced onions the crocs assail him with. Terezi thinks he's just lying (though if she is being honest, onions don't cause trolls to cry).
 * Online Alias: All the main protagonists have "chumhandles" that they use in their in-universe instant messenger clients. All of them reflect the user's interests or personality, or foreshadow their role in the series.
 * Only Six Faces: By default, every troll and kid has the same body and facial structure. Going further, the beta kids have the exact same face as their alpha counterpart (though with Jade and John's counterparts switched due to their genders, and Dave and Dirk with different sunglasses).
 * Only the Author Can Save Them Now: Deliberately invoked when Hussie personally rescues the Handmaid from Doc Scratch and Spades Slick from the destruction of the universe (though ultimately subverted with the Handmaid, as she ends up falling into Lord English's hands soon after.
 * Orcus on His Throne:
 * The Black Queen doesn't seem to do much besides look sexy --REGAL! We meant regal, and harass Jack. The King however, commands on the battlefield.
 * Jack averts this in spades.
 * The Other Rainforest: John's hometown is Maple Valley, WA.
 * Our Angels Are Different: For one they have no faces, and resemble snakes. They seemingly are associated with Heroes of Hope and are seemingly evil. Angels have also been said to serve Paradox Space. Eridan ended up attacking the angels that appeared on his land for most of his game, but ended up being nurtured by them to become more evil.
 * Jack Noir and PM also evoke a lot of angelic motifs.
 * Our Hero Is Dead: A good way to look at this is from Hussie's own news post.


 * In the Alpha universe Jake has already died on Prospit and mourned with whispers of "Our Page is dead" "Our hope is lost".
 * Our Vampires Are Different: Alternian "rainbow drinkers" are most active during the day and glow in the dark, as opposed to sparkling in the light.
 * Our Zombies Are Different: Alternian zombies crawl up from the sand at sunrise.
 * Overdrawn At the Blood Bank: Vriska is shaping out to be this.
 * Overly-Long Fighting Animation: Quite a few in Jade's strife with Bec.
 * Overly Long Gag: This takes Goddamned Bats to a whole new level.
 * Shooooooosh pap HOOOOOOOOOONK
 * The arrival of John's message-in-a-bucket. And Karkat's reaction.
 * Out of the Inferno: Grandpa always knows if Jade is snooping through his parlour, and will always stand silhouetted in front of the fireplace. Without fail.

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