Girls with Slingshots/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Abandon Shipping: The Hazel/Zach ship was abandoned completely when many people got tired of Hazel's behavior. Zach breaking up with her was met with cheers by many readers.
    • Thea/Angel was all but obliterated after Angel cheats on Thea and acts incredibly assholish over it. The fandom latched afterwards to Thea/Mimi.
  • Author's Saving Throw: After the whole backlash against Hazel's behavior, with many pinning her as a Jerk Sue, the author rectified this by making Zach break up with her because of her behavior, suffering several setbacks afterwards.
    • The final arc finally has Hazel realize her awful behavior, with the strip ending with her vowing to become a much better person. For some, it worked. For others, it's far too little, far too late.
  • Base Breaker: Hazel. While she's hated by most of the fanbase for reasons mentioned below, some fans still love her or at least don't mind her.
    • Angel becomes this after her and Thea's messy breakup. While many still love her attitude and counseling, others can't forgive her cheating on Thea and abhorrent behavior after that.
  • Designated Hero: Hazel.
    • Jamie has some of this going on, but it's generally accepted because of her adorable bubbliness and the fact her Designated Hero moments are usually aimed at Hazel, which comes across as well-deserved Kick the Son of a Bitch moments due to Hazel's reputation.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: Thea became such a case of this she got upgraded into main character status.
    • Mimi is beloved by the fanbase by her lovely behavior, cute design and the fact she proves to be a sweet and supporting girlfriend to the insecure Thea.
    • Jim was intended as a creepy Entitled Bastard, but he became more of a woobie, which endeared the fans.
    • Erin, Jamie's girlfriend, for being a respectful portrayal of Asexuality while still being an endearing and well-developed character.
    • And McPedro, of course.
  • Fan-Preferred Couple: Jameson/Maureen is the beloved Beta Couple of the strip.
    • Even moreso is Thea/Mimi, to the point they got more screentime and endearing story arcs.
  • Funny Aneurysm Moment: Every strip featuring Hazel and Zach's Will They or Won't They? scenario and the moment They Do is this, considering how their relationship is going to turn sour in later arcs. The same goes to Thea/Angel.
  • Ho Yay: Jamie and... pretty much everyone female.
  • Moral Event Horizon: Candy, twice, first with her attempted rape of Chris, and then later when she attempts to sabotage Jameson and Maureen's wedding. Thankfully, she gets epically put in her place in the second one.
    • Hazel comes dangerously close to this when she plans Vincent's crush on her to get him to support her financially. Thank God Jamie called her out of this before it could happen.
  • The Scrappy: The webcomic would be hell of a lot more enjoyable with its Ensemble Cast if not for its protagonist Hazel. She probably aims at Jerk with a Heart of Gold Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist, but she fails at that miserably, and comes off as a dull, boring and unlikeable bitch whose repetitive antics get tiresome and hogs the spotlight for much more sympathetic and likable characters.
  • Take That, Scrappy!: While portrayed as sad in he webcomic, Zach breaking up with Hazel after getting fed up of her immature bullshit was met with cheers by many readers. It could also count as an Author's Saving Throw.
    • And then there's her not getting her dream apartment due to her own past behavior. Karma Houdini Warranty at its finest.
    • Candy getting put in her place after crossing the Moral Event Horizon in Maureen and Jameson's wedding. Hell. Yes.
  • Unintentionally Sympathetic: Jim, Corsetto intended to portray him as a hypocritical Dogged Nice Guy, claiming so on one of her tweets; unfortunately the scenes that resulted from her "research" put him next to Chris who was just bragging about getting laid, painting him as a loser to whom is ok to brag that you are getting what he is not, and if that was not enough, when Jim snaps for this he is then portrayed by other guys as making the false dichotomy that since a Nice Guy can't get laid then all guys who do must be Jerkasses.
  • Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Hazel, Hazel, Hazel. The author deliberately wrote her as a flawed character to make her more relatable, but she just comes off as borderline unlikable. It doesn't help other characters are indeed flawed and relatable and come across as much more likable and interesting, while she spends almost the entirety of the comic actively resisting any sort of Character Development, and her antics became more and more tiresome for the readers to bear. By the time she does get her Character Development (which is never really explored upon due to being the final arc), very few people cared anymore.
  • The Woobie: Thea. Loses her job: check. Sister has cancer: check. Girl she's taken with uses her for sex and exposes her to an STD: check. And if that wasn't enough, she has a chalk board tally of girls she has turned straight.Thankfully, things went up when she met Genki Girl Mimi, and it just got better from there.
    • Jim. The worst part is that he wasn't intended to be one, but came off as this anyway.
    • Jerkass Woobie: Hazel during her breakup with Zach. She was pretty shattered.