Digger: Difference between revisions

 

Character page [[Digger (Webcomic)/Characters|here]]. Contributions welcome.

* [[Abuse Is Okay When Its Female On Male]]: Starkly [[Averted Trope|averted]] with {{spoiler|Ed being beaten by his mate,}} which is much more of a [[Tear Jerker]] than a source of comedy. Of course, a large part of this has to do with {{spoiler|the usual sexist gender stereotypes being reversed in hyena society}}.

* [[Action Girl]]: Grim Eyes and most of the hyena women. To a somewhat lesser extent, Digger herself. Though really, by hyena standards the trope would be "Action Guy". Amazonian culture at a genetic level...

** She gets better!

* [[Ape Shall Never Kill Ape]]: A hyena dying in the course of a hunt is not a major issue, but if a hyena dies at the hands of another hyena, the dead's honour is determined by who avenges her.

** Think about it though: [[Fridge Brilliance|In this economy, would YOU want to go toe to toe with an accountant?]]

** There are only two unavoidable things in world: death and taxes. In other words, mentioning necromancy and accounting in one breath can be actually plausible.

* [[Badass Adorable]]: Digger, Shadowchild, Ed... Aw hell, 90% of the entire cast.

* [[Badass Normal]]: Forget gods, magic and daemons... [[Battle Cry|REMEMBER TUNNEL SEVENTEEN]]! Grim Eyes and Surka also certainly count.

* [[Battle Cry]]: ''REMEMBER TUNNEL SEVENTEEN!'' Complete with [[Terry Pratchett|Pratchett-esque]] origin myth.

* [[Beneath the Earth]]

* [[Big Bad]]: {{spoiler|Sweetgrass Voice}}. Curiously, though, it only really appears near the climax of the story.

** The best bet is that [http://www.diggercomic.com/?p=437 Boneclaw Mother raised her herself] and used sheer [[Badass]] and [[Cool Old Lady]] age granted wisdom to keep her from becoming like her mother.

*** Said mother is a real special (and by "special" I mean "really, really tragic") example; her sister took advantage of a rough patch in her life (see various other examples of what a rotten bitch Bloodtail is) and ended up driving her to madness that lead her to abuse her husband. But in between her patches of madness she was kind, loving, and genuinely remorseful that she'd just smacked her husband and didn't really understand why she did it.

{{quote| '''[[The Rant]]:''' On the off chance that anybody thinks that this is the end of a dreadfully cunning six-year plan, conceived when first I wrote the lines about the lefthand names of God and purple ink–-let me just say “[[Indy Ploy|BWHAAHAHAHAHA...no]].”}}

* [[Brown Note]]: If you value your sanity, do ''not'' look directly on the face of the Black Mother.

{{quote| "I have this rock, the rock is bad, you thought I was bad, but it's really the rock, and...um...so what's with the rock?"}}

* [[Carnivore Confusion]]: Digger tells the Shadowchild that it is wrong to eat anything that can talk, while hyena people do not share this belief -- anyone not in their tribe, talking or not, is not considered a person, and {{spoiler|their funerary practices involve eating the liver of their deceased comrade, who ''was'' considered a person}}. Chalk it up to [[Culture Clash]].

{{quote| "Since I am capable of neither hermaphroditic reproduction, nor of moving myself about by means of a slime trail, I daresay that slugs can do ''many'' things that I cannot do. I confess, however, that I do not feel any particular grief over this lack."}}

** Really, at least half the cast is a [[Deadpan Snarker]]. It's the reason why there's so much [[Snark to Snark Combat]] in the story.

{{quote| '''Digger:''' "Okay, yeah, maybe, but a really ''crappy'' crossbow. It doesn't have a crank... so you have to draw it... manually... so while you're reloading I can... walk right up... and..." {{[[[Written Sound Effect]] Thud!}}] "Ow."}}

** Given that immediately after, she remains analytical enough to describe having a crossbow bolt embedded in the shoulder as "reasonably excruciating," it is clear that she retains her deadpan even when being improbably [[Badass]].

{{quote| "{{smallcaps|It--is--foolish--to run. We--do not--tire.}}"}}

*** {{spoiler|They are also hyenas. Undead hyenas, which are even worse.}}

* [[Do Not Taunt Cthulhu]]: "Ed is not being sure if taunting ancient evil is being the ''best'' idea..."

* [[Dramatic Unmask]] / [[The Reveal]]: Digger removes the masks from the cold servants [http://www.diggercomic.com/?p=335 here] (SPOILERS, obviously).

* [[Even Evil Has Standards|Even Hungry Hyenas Have Standards]] "Heh. Forgive our manners, little creature -- that we may well kill and eat you is no excuse for rudeness."

** Even after [[Jumping Off the Slippery Slope|descending]] into a paranoid, delusional, spiteful [[Knight Templar]], one character still has enough common sense to not want to have kill one of his own {{spoiler|Veiled.}}

** Well, the statue of Ganesh is kind of [[Exactly What It Says On the Tin]]. {{spoiler|It just happens to be Ganesh's avatar on Earth.}}

* [[Eye Scream]]:

'''Digger''': "There's ''more'' like her? that have their-- ''''' {{spoiler|their eyes sewn shut?}}'''''" }}

* [[Eyedscreen]]: All the time. Once with a ''squash''.

* [[The Faceless]]: The Veiled (no surprise there...) and to a lesser extent, Boneclaw Mother.

* [[Face Palm]]: Digger does this [[media:digger-facepalm.png|a lot]]. It's rather hard to blame her, considering.

** And ''he'' had a {{spoiler|deer's head}}.

* [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture]]: The Good Man is fairly clearly based on Jesus, and [[God of Evil|the Black Mother]] on [http://www.miaminewtimes.com/1997-06-05/news/myths-over-miami/ a story about a group of street kids who created a derivative mythology.]

* [[Fate Worse Than Death]]: The hyenas have one. Exiled tribe members have their name "eaten", making them a nonentity in their culture.

** Associating with them is traditionally taboo, but once Digger's gotten to know some of the still-legally-people hyenas, the tribes matriarch expresses gratitude that she's shown him friendship, because the circumstances under which he was exiled were unusual, and hard on everyone.

** [[The Hero]]: Digger

** [[The Lancer]] and [[The Big Guy]]: Shadowchild and Grim Eyes share the two roles

** [[The Chick]]: Murai

* [[Footnote Fever]]: Useful for those hard-to-translate wombat homilies.

** Also, depending on what gender you think of the Shadowchild of ([[Ambiguous Gender|if you think of it as having a gender at all]]), they are a [[Four Girl Ensemble]].

* [[From a Certain Point of View]]: Digger and Murai start their journey around midnight to avoid Jhalm, whom the Statue of Ganesh told they'd be leaving at dawn.

* [[Gods Hands Are Tied]]: the statue of Ganesh does not have the authority to overrule the Veiled as the Veiled serve more than one god. {{spoiler|He-Is}} has his hands ''literally'' tied, and that’s [[It Got Worse|the least of his problems]]

* [[Good Is Not Nice]]: Jhalm and Grim Eyes.

* [[The Homeward Journey]]

* [[If I Can't Have You]]: Bloodtail courted Ed when he was just a young skin-painter, but he didn't much appreciate the fact that she was only courting him because he was a surviving firstborn, which in hyena culture makes him a living good luck charm and status symbol. He fell for her mildly unstable but genuinely loving sister Bloodeyes instead, so Bloodtail manipulated her sister's instability until she posed an active danger to her daughter, forcing Ed's hand; she is to this day incredibly smug that her brother-in-law was made an [[Unperson]] (as the law of the tribe states must be the punishment for killing your spouse), but no one, besides no one, is actually in any way deluded about what really happened. Bloodtail is not a popular lady.

* [[I Owe You My Life]]:

{{quote| '''Grim Eyes''': "If the Elders say I may hunt you again, I will warn you first." <br />

** Subverted, actually. One can't make a prophecy about them directly, but they're still fully covered by fate and won't be breaking any other prophecies.

* [[I Thought Everyone Could Do That]]: Shadowchild doesn't realize that other people can't stretch themselves out into frightening-looking shapes.

* [[Just in Time]]: [http://www.diggercomic.com/?p=787 When Digger et al. return from their mission to the monastery.]

* [[Kill the God]]: {{spoiler|The climax of the story involves performing a mercy kill on He-Is.}}

* [[Lady Land]]: Ursula ''[[Shown Their Work|did]]'' [[Shown Their Work|do her research on hyenas]].

* [[Limited Wardrobe]]: One of the few examples that [[It Makes Sense in Context|makes any sense in context]] -- Digger is trapped far from home, and so only has one vest with her; the veiled all have identical uniforms; the statue of Ganesha has his clothes moulded to his body; and the hyenas' concept of clothing seems to end at [[Loin Cloth]] + [[Bling of War|warpaint + lots of necklaces]] = awesome.

* [[Love Hurts]]

* [[Made of Iron]]: Digger [http://www.diggercomic.com/?p=135 has some aspects of this.] Of course, she regrets it later.

* [[Major Injury Underreaction]]: On occasion.

** Second, Murai shows her [[The Stoic|stoicism]] [http://www.diggercomic.com/?p=771 even with a broken arm.]

* [[Mama Bear]]: Digger and her maternal instinct to Shadowchild.

* [[Matriarchy]]: The hyena tribe are mostly a Patriarchy Flip, though with a few original elements as well. Males can hold important posts, but it is shown to be far from the norm: there is [[Token Minority|only one male]], Owl-Caller, on the Elder council, and he is extremely deferential to Boneclaw, whereas the female elders argue with her as near-equals. [[Justified]], since [[Shown Their Work|this is how]] [[Real Life]] [[Shown Their Work|spotted hyenas operate]], with the highest ranked adult male below all females and juveniles in female's care.

* [[Mauve Shirt]]: {{spoiler|Skull Ridges}} is a named character who is important in the plot at several points, and is a good friend of Grim Eyes. Oh yeah, and she {{spoiler|dies to save Digger}} before she gets so much as a pixel of screen-time.

* [[Not Making This Up Disclaimer]]: [http://www.diggercomic.com/?p=658 The vampiric squash.] (No, they don't exist, but the legend did before the comic.)

* [[Odd Job Gods]]: Kind of. The Veiled work for all gods, and their specialties are "comparative theology and hand-to-hand combat". Specifically, a few of of the gods mentioned in passing appear to be less-than omnipotent cosmic super-beings, such as Falls-From-Heaven, a god [[Gods Hands Are Tied|so horrified by the evils of man]] that he ''continually faints''.

* [[Odd Name Out]]: Not a name thing, exactly, but Lady Surka, the professional bridge-troll, lists some of her past jobs as dishwasher, assassin, and pirate queen.

* [[Of the People]]: The People, that is to say, the tribe of hyenas who call themselves "The People" consider other races fair game when hunting, but they will adopt others under exceptional circumstances, such as when Boneclaw Mother tells them to and no-one wants to argue with her.

* [[Snark to Snark Combat]]: Since about half the cast is made up of [[Deadpan Snarker|Deadpan Snarkers]], including the protagonist, this happens often. Most prominent, though, are some of the exchanges between Digger and the statue of Ganesh.

* [[Speech Bubbles]]: Most characters have black text on white speech bubbles, but the Shadowchild has white on black speech bubbles, the cold servants speak in white-on-black with their sentences broken up into multiple bubbles ([http://www.diggercomic.com/?p=303 like so]), ghosts speak in translucent bubbles, the god Ganesh speaks in blocky bubbles, the skin lizards speak in an entirely different font from everyone else, and when a character is whispering the edge of the bubble is in dashes.

** Ed too -- ever since he was exiled, he never talked to anyone before Digger came along (presumably because no one but the hyenas would know where to find him, and they consider him to be unclean since [[A Fate Worse Than Death|his name was eaten]] when he was exiled). After seventeen years of silence, he simply ''forgot how to speak'' and the syntax he uses is his best guess at how it works.

* [[Suicide Mission]]: The statue of Ganesh sends Digger and Ed underground to deal with an undead god. He doesn't expect either of them to survive the task.

** Ursula Vernon stories are often large amounts of [[Shown Their Work]] for some of the more ridiculous aspects of biology and mythology.

* [[Tunnel King]]: Digger.

** With the exception of armadillos, of course.

** Also, Ed's true name. {{spoiler|But in the end, he chose "Ed".}}

* [[Verbal Tic]]: Grim Eyes used to [[Trrrilling Rrrs|roll her r's in the beginning,]] but she does it much less often now.

** Judging by Boneclaw Mother in her [[Big Damn Heroes]] moment, they either roll their rs when they're really ticked, or their words partially become growls.

* [[Viewers Are Geniuses]]: The jokes are often pitched with the presumption the readers will know as much about geology, anthropology, comparative theology and pre-modern industry, cloth-dyeing/pigment use, lead-smelting and healing as Ursula. As the comments show, a truly scary amount of the readers ''do'' know this stuff.

** Given the somewhat...odd...tangents the commenters go on, there's a good argument that the [[Viewers Are Geniuses|Viewers Are Also]] [[The Loonie|Loonies.]] For example, when Digger said, "if that's true, then I'll eat my pickaxe. Without salt," Ursula probably wasn't expecting a long list of alternate condiment suggestions from her fans.

* [[Wham Episode]]:

** An early one happens towards the end of the second chapter. Up till then, Digger has been exploring in a rather happy-go-lucky manner, finding out all the weird things about the world she's in, and, though she does brush with danger a few times, she always manages to escape unscathed. But then {{spoiler|she comes across a village that's undergoing a bandit raid, finds an insane priest curled up in a terrified ball, and is shot in the shoulder before her companion eats the shadow of her assailant, knocking him into a fatal coma}}. It's basically the story's way of saying that things are going to get serious and the plot is going to start rolling in full force.

** And then, an even more dramatic one at the very climax of the story... Most fans' reactions to it are probably, " {{spoiler|Ed, you're okay, right? Ed? ''[[Killed Off for Real|ED?!]]''}}"

** Digger asks Murai if humans have something similar, and Murai blandly replies that "[[Raised By Wolves|wolves]] are more common with us."

* [[With This Herring]]: In a bit of a subversion, before setting out on a journey Murai, a veiled monk character, decides to travel extremely light, bringing little with her but a begging bowl. Digger, on the other hand, spends hours packing, checking and double-checking her supplies, armed with knowledge of exactly what lay ahead, all the while worrying that she was underprepared. {{spoiler|She was.}}

[[Category:Fantasy Webcomics]]

[[Category:Digger]]