Avatar Battle Royale

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Avatar Battle Royale is a collaborative web comic with elements of an artistic role-playing game, hosted on the forum Giant in the Playground and based on the style of The Order of the Stick. Originally imported from the Gaia Online forums and created as a forum game where anyone who joined would kill another participant's avatar in comic form, it has since grown into several complicated plots, a world with an entire history and spawned more than sixteen prequel fancomics.

The original plot, called Fat Fish Fury, came to be as a result of a feud between two forum members, and it has since grown into a massive fantasy story in which good, evil and aliens battle for the control of the world.

Not to be confused with Avatar: The Last Airbender, Avatar (film), or Battle Royale.

Tropes used in Avatar Battle Royale include:
  • Airborne Aircraft Carrier: The Vendetta.
  • Ambidextrous Sprite: Several characters have scars and eye patches that work this way. Notably Oliver.
    • Nilmerg Eht also seems to have suffered a lot of confusion about his eyepatch/visor/gadget/mask, and where they went. Admittedly, they changed too quickly for many people to remember which was which.
    • Averted with Q, whose uniform is always on the correct way when he makes the comic.
  • Anticlimax: Happened two times in the end of Fat Fish Fury, when the Big Bad Shades died ramming into a door to Another Dimension and when the god-like Arcane Lantern made the invading empire's army disappear right out of thin air.
  • Annoying Arrows: Characters shot with arrows usually ignore them, and to the date nothing but Mooks have fallen to bowfire in ABR.
  • Another Dimension: The defunct Jouney Home plot lives and breathes this trope.
    • The Squark Universe also counts, although its creator is fond of dropping obvious hints that its actually just a different galaxy.
  • Anti-Hero: In Future Imperfect, almost every non-evil person in La Résistance is an Antihero to some extent.
  • Anti-Villain: Most of the UNA sincerely believes that they are doing good by hunting down the Avbaroy Liberation Front.
  • An Axe to Grind: Used many times, mostly by mooks or minor characters.
  • Asskicking Pose: Many of characters who are preparing for a fight get these.
  • The Atoner: Threeshades and Nilmerg Eht both fill this role well.
  • Author Avatar: The comic is named Avatar Battle Royale for a reason.
  • Ax Crazy: Some of the cast are outright insane or just hell bent on slaughtering everything in sight.
  • Back From the Dead: Many characters in ABR have made a comeback from the dead.
  • Badass Biker: Oliver, a planehopping foreign exchange student, and a resident Q.
  • Badass Longcoat: Oliver, who received his trenchcoat from Puppetmaster. Also, quite a few people in FI seem to sport longcoats.
    • The more obscure character of Squark sported one long before Oliver, but Canon Discontinuity struck
    • While not actually a 'coat', Grayscale wears a robe that actually seems TOO long for him.
  • Battle Aura: Many characters sport this when taking a level in badass, or are daemonic, super-powered or otherwise supernatural combatants.
  • Benevolent Alien Invasion: The replicator-based Sovices seem pretty benevolent, as they managed to install world peace. It is ambiguous if they really are, though.
  • Big Bad: The moon elf Threeshades, before her Heel Face Turn, her demonic possessors, and Ins, a nanobot spirit possessing a human corpse.
  • Big Damn Heroes
  • Big Freaking Gun: These have made numerous appereances, amongst the worst offenders being chainguns, missile launchers, and lasers.
    • Averted with Grayscale, who wields a tiny one-shot pistol.
  • Big Freaking Sword: Used by many, many characters. To mind rise Jason Doomblade, Almighty Salmon (Well, he has used a knife bigger than himself), Mecha-Nightwing and Eita.
  • Bizarre and Improbable Ballistics: Don't even ask how some of the shots made in ABR are possible. Just go with Rule of Cool.
    • At one point, Grayscale drops a large bomb from about twenty feet. It somehow does not go off.
  • Belated Backstory: Many of the recurring characters, but occasionally subverted.
  • Bottomless Magazines: Named characters never run out of ammo unless it is determined by plot, or if they are using something that absolutely needs a reload after each use.
  • Brain In a Jar: The aptly named Brain from The Journey Home.
  • Butt Monkey: MasterRanger, who is mocked for his poor art, lousy grammar, and insufferable God-modding.
    • Squark is also regularly mocked (although he encourages it) for the now Noodle Incident of his original comics.
    • Nightwing may be the best example. After people got sick of his narration of the fights, they turned killing him into a running gag.
  • Canon Discontinuity: Squark's early comics were not archived because they were basically one big godmod, and later, Squark himself deleted the comics off the face of existence out of shame. And because his art at the time now makes him nauseous. Unfortunately, this means that the Mecha-Nightwing Arc has a lot of plotholes.
  • Casanova Wannabe: Q, shown when he's trying to pick up PC women, like Verra and Skimmer, and usually gets his ass kicked.
    • He does have several wives and girlfriends though according to his writer and his backstory Prequel My Name Is Q.
  • Cerebus Syndrome: ABR in general seems to suffer from this a rather lot.
  • Character Customization: Every character in the story, naturally.
  • Chessmaster: Lyinginbedmon was initially introduced as a quasi-evil wandering spellcaster, who has gradually been revealed as more and more involved in maintaining global equilibrium.
    • Grayscale sees himself as a chessmaster, but has a greatly inflated view of his own importance.
  • Chess with Death: Parodied often with the resident Grim Reaper, Nameless, who also happens to be a Cloudcuckoolander.
  • The Chosen One: Leroy, a fat, childish fish, and his brother the flying Almighty Salmon, supposedly the only ones capable of defeating Threeshades' demonic possessors.
  • Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Several, given ABR's revolving door cast.
  • Clean Cut: Has happened many in random kills and sometimes even in the actual story.
  • Clothing Damage: A bullet ricochets off the hull of the Heart of Booty and tears Alana's pants through the middle. No, really.
    • Of course, this depends on your view of the art, as the 'pants' are little more than stick figure legs, and art drawn by the creator of the strip in question drew Alana with a skirt.
  • Continuity Reboot: Fat Fish Fury: Reboot. Naturally.
    • Future Imperfect is also being restarted.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Nameless and Mechafox.
  • Cool Old Guy: Nearly twenty of those, some supposedly older than the universe. Lyinginbedmon is considered to have been the first introduced.
  • Cool Sword
  • Dark and Troubled Past: Pretty much anybody among the many from Arcania. Actually, pretty much everybody.
  • Darker and Edgier: Future Imperfect, the sequel to Fat Fish Fury, is a much more cynical story than its predecessor, at least for the protagonists. Everybody else lives in an Utopia.
    • All-Star... just wait and see
  • Dead Little Sister: Many characters in Avatar Battle Royale have lost someone dear to them, generally in their insignificant backstory.
  • Dual-Wielding: Many characters dual-wield their weapons, some up the ante by adding in some Chainsaw Good and automatic targeting systems.
  • Dude Looks Like a Lady: Calamity.
    • Nameless has boobies! has become a running gag.
  • Duel to the Death: This happens between many, many characters. Usually they get interrupted in some bizarre fashion and Hilarity Ensues.
  • Earthshattering Kaboom: Explosive Apocalypse From the Sky, a spell designed just for this effect, can pretty much wipe out civilizations.
    • To a lesser extent Rapture.
  • Everything's Better with Penguins: Guinoids, a race of anthromorphic penguins, and Sinister Penguin, an actual penguin. The setting even has a Time Guinoid!
  • Face Heel Turn and Heel Face Turn: Happened all the time back when the sides were less defined. Sometimes characters would even forget what side they were on.
  • Fallen Hero: Threeshades is probably the most notable Fallen Hero, though one could argue that it was only due to her demonic possession.
  • Fantasy Kitchen Sink: Squark is an Antromorphic Penguin Time Lord Jedi Deity. We could mention more characters, but that would be overkill
  • The Faceless: Nameless breaks his face, but you see it at the start.
  • Flanderization: Mechafox has become increasingly malfunctioning and insane as time goes by.
  • Foe Yay: Between Threeshades and Salmon/Leroy
    • And a little non-canon comic with Q and Lyinginbedmon seems to suggest this.
  • Garfunkel: Green-shirted Q. He and Q are an equal duo, but Q gets most of the spotlight because his wirter likes writing for him more then GSQ. This will apparently be corrected in Future Imperfect.
  • Gatling Good: Randomizer has used a gatling gun several times.
  • Grim Reaper: Nameless.
  • Government Conspiracy: Them. "People don't believe the truth, the truth is what people believe" indeed.
  • Good Scars, Evil Scars: Many characters sport scars even in Fat Fish Fury, even more will in Future Imperfect.
  • Grumpy Bear: Many people, such as Nilmerg Eht and The Q, tend to be moody, cynical, and irritable, and almost every protagonist in Future Imperfect is.
  • Hell: The setting has Baator, which some characters have visited along the course of the story.
  • Hero with Bad Publicity: Ins has turned everyone against the 'heroes', if they can be called such.
  • Hero Antagonist: Most of the people in the United Nations of Avbaroy could be considered Lawful Good.
  • Hidden Elf Village: Sharnin.
  • Ho Yay: Small amounts between Kpenguin and Calamity. *GROPE*
  • Hyperspace Arsenal: Apparently many characters make use of such. Mechafox has hat that functions as this, and Grim Ranger uses spell to achieve similiar effect.
  • Implacable Man: Abr has long list of implacable men and women, but to the top tier rise Randomizer and Threeshades.
  • Impossible Thief: Beren of the TSS plot is one of these. Not only has he stolen a table (and since TSS takes place on a ship, the tables are nailed to the floor), he also stole Mr. X's wallet. And Mr. X does not have a wallet.
    • He ups the ante immidiately afterwards by stealing Alana's rapier and using art change as distraction, and stealing the fourth wall to reveal it to the reader
  • Improbable Weapon User: Skimmer fights with a giant bell.
  • Incendiary Exponent: ABR in general makes good use of this rule.
  • Ineffectual Loner: Pretty much every "good guy" in Future Imperfect is a loner to some degree. Most notably Lyinginbedmon.
  • Jerkass: Our own resident Q, a Physical God and without a doubt Xartyve2 whos unlikeableness is just fantastic.
  • Joke Item: Some characters have used truly laughable items as weapons in long and glorious history of ABR. These include eggs, soda, sticks, stones, heads and other body parts...the list goes on.
  • Killed Off for Real: Stephen Mask (eventually), among others.
  • Kill It with Fire: Used many, many times in ABR. Especially magnificently done in recent a TJH strip, in which the villain uses a flame tank.
  • Kill Sat: There is one right in orbit over the planet.
  • La Résistance: The ALF, fighting against the Benevolent Alien Invaders.
  • Last of His Kind: Everybody wanted to come from Arcania once Remember was made. Really, the trope's pretty much averted now.
  • Lethal Lava Land: Episode 1 of TJH takes place in such an environment, and FFF's hell equivalents are often like this.
  • Loads and Loads of Characters: Far too many to count, as a result of the large amount of authors.
    • Especially prominent in Future Imperfect, in which most people have multiple characters in case one of them dies, since in that plot, Anyone Can Die.
  • Losing Your Head: Several characters have survived decapitation with only mild annoyance, and ABR boasts an entire race with this ability.
  • Meaningful Name: Mostly played for laughs, but Threeshades and some others play the trope straight on occasion.
    • Grayscale is named because all comics he features in use this color tone. Although only when his author is drawing.
  • Mooks: Make appearances in many, many combat scenes.
  • Mysterious Past: No one seems knows anything about Sinister Penguin's history before he turned up towards the end of FFF.
    • Xartyve2 traded his memories for ultimate Evocation powers.
  • No Fourth Wall
    • Although this effect is lessened for the most part in FI.
  • Nigh Invulnerability: Several characters, including Threeshades (unless you're Almighty Salmon). There was actually a literal 'Plot Shield' protecting the Vendetta at one point.
  • Ninja: Used to a certain degree, but still not overdone.
  • Not What It Looks Like: Bob and Nancy's underwear fight.
    • Alana and Beren in TSS are seen by the crew on top of one another after she tries to retrieve her stolen rapier from him by bunny hopping into him.
  • Nuke'Em: The Arcanian Jovocian missile technology: bringing nuclear warheads to a small nation near you.
  • Off with His Head: Decapitation seems to be in style in ABR.
  • Ominous Floating Castle: The citadel of Bis Anu. Subverted as it is not hideout of bad guys, but actually the HQ of the good guys.
  • Omnicidal Maniac: Vert Doom, debatably Nameless (as he is the grim reaper of the setting) and Q.
  • One-Letter Name: Q.
  • One-Winged Angel: Threeshades has this as a standard power after a certain point in the story.
  • Our Souls Are Different: Souls have plenty of uses. Everything from antimatter and fuel.
  • Pandaing to the Audience: Threeshades turns into a little panda.
  • Psycho for Hire: Diskord. The Sadistic Crazy Spawn of Evil that was created by the left over magic of Fayte, and the evil of Threeshades.
  • Powered Armor: The machinists use this.
  • Prequel: Everyone is making those about their character's backstory.
  • Really Seven Hundred Years Old: Igon Minoblendy (Aka Lyinginbedmon), who's history is being revealed in Remember, and many others.
  • Red Shirt: Averted in Q and Xartyve2.
  • Revenge: ABR is full of revenge-inspired subplots, and sometimes even main plots.
  • The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: The Avbaroy Liberation Front has no qualm about doing suicide bombings, indiscriminately slaughtering civilians and launching the equivalent of a nuclear missile in the central area of a densely populated metropolis.
    • "It seemed like a good idea at the time!"
  • RPG Mechanics Verse: Depends on the person making the strip.
  • Rule of Cool: All over the place.
  • Sapient Ship: Technically, Ven is just in charge of repairs and handling menial tasks onboard the Vendetta, but he can operate the ship if need be.
  • Schizo-Tech: The nation of Schizotec, possessing aircrafts, robots and artificial intelligences in a Middle Ages period, and the United Nations of Avbaroy, who possess full-colour films, tanks, 1860s weapons, airships and 1930s radios.
  • Shipping: Brenen and Alana of the TSS plot. And this was by strip... 8? maybe?
  • Shout-Out: Far, far too many to possibly list.
  • Sidekick: Nameless to Lyinginbedmon.
  • Small Name, Big Ego: Q.
  • Stuff Blowing Up: And how!
  • Tank Goodness: Or perhaps Tank Badness. The Machinists love this.
  • Tonight Someone Dies: "The Death of Mechafox" was announced a week before the character was beheaded by the Big Bad... only to result in a Robotic Reveal. Happened several times with Stephen Mask, who's eventual death was declared a few comics before, but was subverted when authors made him alive in their comics, and the process restarted. He had to be ripped in half to be Killed Off for Real.
  • Unusual Ears: Along with catboys and catgirls, there are more than a few characters who have appeared with animal ears without having an animal in their family anywhere.
    • Alana had bunny ears, for instance.
  • Villain Protagonist: Several La Résistance members in Future Imperfect, notably Ersnt Schwarz and Chriky, to some extent.
  • Villain with Good Publicity: Ins is believed to be the 'saviour' of Avbaroy.
  • Who's on First?: A variation appears almost every time Nobody introduces himself.
  • Winged Humanoid: ABR has it's share of winged people. Notable examples include Threeshades, Eita, Calamity and Fayte.
  • Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: The Avbaroy Liberation Front and the Sons of Schizotec, who could very well be the bad guys if not for the fact that the alien invaders have somewhat ambiguous intentions.
  • Our Goblins Are Wickeder: Plotgoblins are custodians of the plot. Monogoblins are observers of the plot.
    • And Grayscale seems to be a third type of goblin. He has an immense hatred of Plotgoblins.
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