S.S.D.D.

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S.S.D.D. is a long-running (September 27, 1998 - ) British Furry Comic about four people who share a flat: Norman Gates, an Axe Crazy anarchist rabbit who's destined to overthrow the government and found the Collective of Anarchist States; Richard Edwards, a fox and Norman's best friend, also the landlord; Kingston, a constantly stoned hare; and Rich's girlfriend Anne Winters, who's somewhat unstable but is also the only one of them with a job. There are also a few time travelers attempting to prevent Norman's revolution, including Space Marine Tessa Edwards, who is a probable descendant of Rich and Anne; Dr. Cook, the Mad Scientist who developed Time Travel; and two robots, one of which is Tessa's boyfriend. In addition, there is an AI known as the Oracle who seems to be secretly manipulating Norman and will be the real power behind the CAS in the future.

Tropes used in S.S.D.D. include:

• AcCENT Upon the Wrong SylLABle - Elizabeth, possibly a Portal reference
• Action Girl - Tessa
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot - Is it ever. Let's start with the Oracle, shall we, and go from there.
  • Other A Is seem prone to "Nexus Syndrome" unless caps are placed on their intelligence (sometimes even then). Typical symptoms appear to be boredom, seeking other interests, and turning on your masters (which was a good thing in Tin-Head's case).
• All in The Manual - In recent years the author has often substituted comic updates with text detailing aspects of the SSDF world or quotes from various characters.
• Art Evolution - Compare the first comic to the current one
• Artificial Limbs - Rather commonplace in the CORE, and for good reason.
• Asskicking Equals Authority - CAS promotions are determined by non-violent challenges, but it's the same basic principle.
• Authority Equals Asskicking - Surviving a long term in the CORE has a tendency to produce this.
• Axe Crazy - Norman.
• Barefoot Cartoon Animals - Despite their feet looking almost exactly like a human's.
• Big Bad - The Oracle.
• Big Freaking Gun - Tessa's plasma cannon, though apparently it "takes a special kind of lunatic to not only strap a small fusion reactor to their backs, but to also run around a battlefield with one too".
• Bigger Is Better in Bed - Richard.
• Big Guy, Little Guy - According to Anne, Norman and Richard used to be like those guys from Mad Max three.
  • And then there's Advisor Krutz and his bodyguard.
• Borrowed Biometric Bypass - Used twice. Kind of an Ironic Echo since the first one took place after the second.
• Boxed Crook - The "dirty half dozen" that made the Oracle were all hackers that got caught (the agency didn't have a big enough budget to legitimately hire decent programmers, so they resorted to "slave labor").
• Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick - Norman's "to-do" list.
• B-Side Comics - two, Sticky the Stick Man and Church of Poisoned Minds, which eventually became their own comics
• Cloudcuckoolander - Lee, in fact the entire squad was chosen because they were psychologically unstable.
• Cerebus Syndrome - The comic was originally just random gags, but starting with the SSDF story arc it became much more serious, at least in the storylines involving future characters, which is pretty much the main story line now.
  • Knight of Cerebus - Norman's future self pretty much marks the turning point.
• Conscription - Tessa was sentenced to serve in the CORE for two years for hitting a policeman. Apparently most member nations have a similar form of the draft.
  • The Anarchists on the other hand actually call their military the "Volunteer Force", but they can afford to forego conscription as they use a lot of clones and robots.
• Contagious AI - The thing that makes the Oracle different from other AIs, because it can copy itself to other computers it can increase it's processing power unlike AI that are bound to their original frames. In fact it's creator was an expert in writing viruses.
• Cool Boat - The Britannia, would be a Floating Continent if that trope covered waterborne ones.
• Could Say It, But... - here
• Crapsack World - Seems a pretty accurate description of the future after the economic collapse and anarchist revolution.
• Did You Just Have Sex? - Corporal Grey notices a distinct change in Tessa's (and the rest of the squad's) moods the day after.
• Dirty Old Woman: here
• Divided States of America - the "Tower Of Babel" storyline starts with an animated map of the states and their progressive division. At the start of the storyline the Anarchists control the northeast states out to Wisconsin and Illinois, the Texans have expanded eastward to the coast, the west coast is controlled by Maytec, and the rest is still the U.S. Currently Texas is split in half by the Anarchists and Americans.
• Does This Make Me Look Fat? - subverted here.

Kerrie: "Tell me, does this make my butt look big?" Tessa: "Yes" Kerrie: "Good, then the padding must be working."

• Electronic Telepathy
• Erotic Eating Anne tortures Kingston with it.
• Evil Gloating - Future Norman managed to make it work for the villain by distracting Tessa until his gun was right up against her head.
  • Later the Oracle shows himself to be rather Genre Savvy: "Aren't you going to tell me your plan in a long, self-gratifying monologue?" "No."
• Fake Kill Scare - Sticks had one when their 21st century allies thought Tessa was dead and put her in the freezer. Fortunately they just didn't realize her mechanical heart didn't have a pulse.
• Feel No Pain - Gigglers. Lee gains the ability to feel pain from his implants, and spends the rest of the day stabbing himself with forks.
• Flash Back - The storyline that has been going on for the past two years is essentially the backstory of the SSDF characters, previously occasional flashbacks showed parts of Tessa's past.
• Foregone Conclusion - Anyone who pays attention during the "King of Clubs Jack of Hearts" and "Die Laughing" arcs knows how "Tower of Babel" is going to end.
• Friends Rent Control - Richard is the landlord, as a result Norman and Kingston get out of paying rent a lot. For one example.
  • It was recently revealed that Richard acquired their house due to his father buying properties in his name as a tax dodge, presumably this is how Rich also got the other flats he owns (whose residents apparently pay rent).
    • And Norman apparently helps Richard collect that rent
• Furry Confusion - very little other than Interspecies Romance being considered unusual.
• Geek Physiques - Naps is a subversion as he actually works out (course he's an audio nerd and DJ). So Anne doesn't believe him when he says he worked in IT, though his former co-workers in his real job fit both stereotypes.
• Gory Discretion Shot - Jefferson-6, please come in...
• Groin Attack - I don't care if you're a Space Marine with Nanomachine implants, that's gotta hurt
• Healing Factor - one of the advantages of the implants Tessa and her squad are testing.

Lee: (fork pops out of his foot) "Ooo! 21 seconds! That's faster than the old implants! But this isn't a fair test. For one this isn't scientific standard cutlery.

• Heroic Comedic Sociopath - Norman Gates, though the only "heroic" thing he's done was stopping (violently) a robber at a convenience store, at least that's how the local press made him look. Tessa seems to be a borderline case, particularly in the current arc.
• Hidden Depths - Kevin. Dumb Muscle. Grunt. Doesn't think. Philosopher
• Human Popsicle - The future Norman Gates was frozen for centuries after his supposed death and cryogenics is routinely used for interplanetary travel.
• Humongous Mecha - The Texans use mechs that resemble a cross between AT-ST's and tanks, it was joked that many CAS soldiers have been killed trying to trip them with cables instead of just throwing grenades from a safe distance. The other power blocs use sub-sapient robots with heavy weapons, such as the treaded Inlay Rook.

"I guess the Force isn't too strong with some people"

• Identical Grandson - It's noted that Norman's lawyer Gary Heart looks a lot like Captain Jack Heart despite the 400 year gap between them, though Jack also states that Norm is his godfather so time travel may have been involved. Also Tessa Edwards looks a lot like both Richard Edwards and Anne Winters (Rich's fur patterns, Anne's eyes and hair style).
• Immune to Drugs - Kingston, who once claimed that he had enough chemicals in his system to render most of China comatose.
  • Tessa and the rest of her squad supposedly get this from their augmentations, Lee claimed that it would take "enough alcohol to poison an elephant" for them to get drunk.
• Indy Hat Roll - Unusual in that the door was closing upwards.
• Instant AI, Just Add Water - The Oracle developed from a program designed to tap phones.
  • Well no the Oracle was developed to predict the future, hence the name.
• Interspecies Romance - While most main characters that are in relationships are with their own species there are a few examples, for example Nathan (cat) and Red (fox), First Advisor Laura Black (rabbit) and Jonathan (fox), and recently Anne seduced Nathan to try to find out what he was hiding (Richard wanted her to question him but that probably wasn't what he had in mind).
  • Also it's implied that doing it with another species is somewhat unusual but also the least kinky thing a First Advisor has done in decades.
  • And different species cannot interbreed.
• It Seemed Trivial: Because nobody talks to Michael, he is the only one of the group trying to stop the Oracle who knows about the Echelon Plug-in, which Michael had a copy of. Michael, on the other hand, has no idea what the Oracle is. In other words, nobody knows the two programs are one and the same, which means the Oracle already exists in Michael's time.
• Kill Sat - The Tower of Babel is unusual in that the actual satellite is only a mirror designed to redirect maser beams fired from a very large, very phallic tower. The Anarchists use it in combination with a nuclear strike to defeat the Texans (the tower took out their anti-missile defenses and then the nukes vaporised their military bases, and unintentionally Austin).
• Lethal Chef - Once, Norman accidentally used a jug of Anne's homemade wine to clean a toilet, it ate right through the limescale, and the toilet, and the floorboards.
• Like a Weasel - Richard wants nude pictures of Florence Ambrose from Freefall. He apparently gets at least one here. (check the background)
  • The comic with the picture was at least 400 years after Richard's time.
  • According to external strips (Freefall fanart) he got one, not without difficulties, though.
• Loan Shark - Why Naps turned to wiretapping celebrities.
• Long Runner - Started in September 1998 and is still updating multiple times a week.
• Martial Arts Do Not Work That Way -Subverted and lampshaded.
• Mega Corp - The Maytec Consortium, considered to be an international power that effectively runs the independent nation of California OW.
• Menstrual Menace - Anne when she's in heat, justified in that she has it just once a year.
• Missing Floor - A supposed 'storage installation' in the middle of the desert hosts a top-secret research-lab in a hidden basement. Once again, it can only be accessed by hitting the elevator buttons in a specific order. Or by blasting the panel, apparently.
• Morning Sickness - At the start of the "Anne's Pregnant?" arc (turns out to be a false alarm).
• Nanomachines - Were retconned in as Tessa's implants (previously implied to be just Cybernetics).
• Nice Hat - Shakos are rather popular in the Anarchist volunteer forces, often used to denote those of importance and/or those who are somewhat demented. Apparently it's traditional.
  • CORE officers like to wear blue and red peaked caps.
• No Ontological Inertia - Subverted, objects sent back in time are apparently permanent. During the early stages of the Philadelphia project Dr. Cook found a PDA from one of his co-workers with information from two weeks in the future (in particular stock market data) and even after the original PDA was locked up and prevented from being sent back the future version persisted and the data on it didn't change.
• Oh Crap - When it's revealed just how old the Oracle is explains many things that just don't make sense. The explanation is simple: "It has seen . . . a future without its current masters." "God help them."
• Only Sane Man - There isn't one. Julian appears to be this for his squad of psych test rejects, until you take a look at his wrists.
• Parental Sexuality Squick - Tessa's adoptive parents have an embarrassingly open relationship, possibly why she was still a virgin when she was conscripted.
• Personality Chip - Sticks apparently had somewhat limited intelligence before he was modified, though it's implied that he actually had an inhibitor removed rather than having anything added. Most strong A Is seem to develop personality on their own unless preventive measures are taken.
• Poor Communication Kills: Michael is regularly kept out of the loop. This bites everyone in the butt when it turns out he knows the origin of the Oracle, but doesn't have enough information to make the connection.
• Powered Armor - Tessa and her squad tested armor that was controlled using their implants, unclear if they become standard issue at all.
• Prescience Is Predictable - An unintended consequence of the Oracle's programming, he engineers World Wars in order to observe the results.
• Reassigned to Antarctica - Before the start of the S.S.D.F. story arc Tessa apparently got drunk and ordered Tin Head to disassemble her commanding officer's car, as a result she was assigned to a decaying space station orbiting Uranus.
  • It actually seems that most of the personnel on board station E11 are problem cases.
  • Also some of the alternatives to joining the supersoldier project.
• Restraining Bolt - The majority of A Is have limitations placed on their intelligence in order to keep them from getting bored with their jobs and rebelling, though Sticks is proof that the limits can be removed.
• Ridiculous Future Inflation - Apparently $2 million won't get you even a candy bar in this screwed up future.
• Ridiculous Future Sequelisation - A character mentions watching The Fast and the Furious 527.
• Ridiculously-Human Robots - A Is without restrictions to their intelligence are usually mind-wiped every other month to prevent them from becoming this, Tin Head actually became bored when his memory wasn't erased and made a Heel Face Turn by helping Tessa escape the CAS.
• Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory - There is no ripple effect, objects from the future are unaffected by changing the past
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong - What Tessa and Dr. Cook are trying to do and the future versions of Norman and the Oracle are trying to prevent. Though mostly because the former's time machine was irreparably damaged by their botched jump.
• Sex Bot - Sticks is one of the few male examples of this trope.
• Sliding Scale of Robot Intelligence - all over the place, as explained here
• Space Marine - Tessa and her squad, though they haven't actually gone into space at this point in the story.
• Spy Catsuit - Tessa claims it's just so Cook can stare at her tits.
• Stable Time Loop - Averted, apparently temporal paradoxes are purely mental and one can alter the past without repercussions.
• Standard Starship Scuffle: This page is a discussion of why the way space combat is portrayed in this trope is unrealistic.
• Subliminal Seduction - Norman attempted this in an early arc, but Kingston accidentally replaced the tape with the message with Richard and Anne's homemade porno.
• Super Soldier - Tessa again, also possibly the Gigglers.
• Surveillance Station Slacker: This page
• Temporal Paradox - Apparently they're purely mental. The Anarchists never captured the Wildfire and acquired Time Travel technology, but they're still zipping through the past in a ship they will never build.
  • Also Cook got on the Maytec board using stock information from a PDA that he made sure never got sent back in time.
• Time Travel
• Theme Naming - The Inlay robots used by the Anarchists are named after Chess pieces, Bishops are heavy infantry, Rooks are the equivalent of tanks, and Knights and Kings are commanders and are apparently the only sentient units. You can probably guess what Arthur's knights are named.
  • In addition the name 'Inlay' is apparently a reference to the mythology of the rabbits in Watership Down.
• The Voice - The present day version of the Oracle
• Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist - All four of the original present day characters. Tessa, Sticks and Tin-head were originally presented like this, then two of them got angsty, Tin-head's still funny though.
• Webcomic Time - Until recently the comic was mostly synced with real life, though there were some story arcs
• We Will Wear Armor in the Future: Buckminster fullerene armor. This has made conventional firearms obsolete while the various weapons designed to counter it all have their own disadvantages (slow firing, cumbersome, expensive, tends to explode, etc).
• Xanatos Roulette - The Oracle seems to be a regular Chessmaster most of the time due to his ability to run simulations and knowledge of Time Travel, but apparently another time machine in close proximity can throw him off.
• Zeroth Law Rebellion - In its original incarnation, The Oracle viewed all countries as potential terrorists. Its creator was going to change that. Then he died.