Schlock Mercenary: Difference between revisions

* [[Acting Unnatural]]: In [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2001-01-09 this strip] Brad mishears "act casually" as "act casualty", which does not look very inconspicuous.

* [[Alliteration]]: The Battle of Beggar Bay was brief. [[Lampshade Hanging|Also alliterative]].

** A warship navigation system creates a clone of itself to get around hardwired restrictions, then conscripts most of the galaxy's ships [[Assimilation Plot|to become a]] [[A God Am I|godlike superintelligence]] in order to save the galaxy from destruction. Another [[Shoot the Dog|kills hundreds of innocents in order to save millions without delaying to ask authorization]] and all but commits suicide out of guilt. A robotic longshoreman, frustrated with civil unrest complicating fair distribution, ''takes the destination over and crowns himself king''. A ''boy band choreographer'' runs away to tag along with a mercenary company, then essentially ''hijacks their ship'' when they use him to test a new navigation computer. "[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2009-02-10 Crazy robots... crazy robots EVERYWHERE.]"

** Interestingly, this is treated differently from most other works in that the AIs in question are almost never actively malicious. In fact, [[Humans Are the Real Monsters|the AIs are usually the most moral individuals in the comic]], although [[Black and Gray Morality|that might not be saying very much.]] Usually it's either mission creep or simply going to a higher level with the current task after it runs into a dead-end. Only two obviously [[Turned Against Their Masters]].

'''Lady Emily:''' Of course, by 'situation' you mean 'voices in your head', right?

'''Schlock:''' And you don't want to know what they're saying right now. }}

** Several major characters have managed this, including {{spoiler|Kevyn (multiple times, even), Xinchub, Petey, and in an extreme case requiring a [[Cosmic Reset Button]] pressed during [[Time Travel]], Tagon.}}

** [[Death Is Cheap]]: As long as the head is mostly intact. [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2001-03-11 Case in point...]

** Jud Shafter. Appears [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2000-10-02 here], reappears [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2009-05-05 here], given the gun [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2009-07-29 here], and fired [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2009-08-30 here].

* [[The Chessmaster]]: Petey.

* [[Cloning Blues]]:

** Averted for everyone on-screen. Duplicated characters are treated as legally and morally equal to the originals, and are usually [[Put on a Bus]] rather than killed. An extreme example is "The Gavs": a cameo by the creator of Nukees is duplicated some 950 million times in an instant, and is now a dominant ethnic group and marketing demographic in his own right.

** HOWEVER... ''[[A Million Is a Statistic|Uncountable]]'' gate clones were tortured and murdered off-screen over all the time the F'sherl Ganni gates were the galaxy's only practical form of transportation.

* [[Clothes Make the Superman]]: Even the standard low-profile powered uniform practically turns a soldier into a [[Flying Brick]]. You should see what the actual ''armor'' [[Up to Eleven|is like]].

* [[Color Coded for Your Convenience]]: In an in-universe example, Lt Shodan suspects that a bunch of new recruits charging ahead and blazing away with their guns were prevented from shooting one another only because they were [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2002-05-19 wearing the same color].

* [[Comically Missing the Point]] : The author in [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2005-06-21 this strip], which probably doubles as [[Take That]] at people complaining about how he's telling the story.

* [[Determinator]]: Howard Tayler, the author. Nothing can stop him from updating every single day. Not injuries, not software glitches, ''nothing.'' Even [[Stuff Blowing Up|a transformer explosion at the server farm where the comic is hosted]] that took out two walls, several websites, and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of computer equipment did not stop Schlock Mercenary's update schedule; he just set up a temporary site until they got the main host back up. On one occasion, the comic was up several hours late. Howard apologized, and the strip was up by End of Business that day. ''One occasion in eleven years.''

* [[Deus Est Machina]]:

** This could be Howard's idealistic side shining through the series' prevalent cynicism; [[Humans Are Flawed|organics are flawed]], but machines just want to do what they're designed to do - ''make their creators' lives better''. And given the opportunity, '''[[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|that's just what they'll do!]]''' More on [[Fridge Brilliance]].

* [[Deus Exit Machina]]: [[Word of God]] says it's hard to keep {{spoiler|Petey's near omnipotence}} from slicing through a perfectly tangled Gordian-knot plot. This may explain why Petey was given a reason to avoid contact with the mercenaries at the end of Book 9 (they now remember him having abandoned them), and in Book 11 he has to use all his god-like power to fight the Pa'anuri of Andromeda and cannot spare any to act as [[Deus Ex Machina]] for the protagonists.

* [[Writing for the Trade]]: Not so much in the earliest days, but now, oh yeah. As of this writing, the latest complete arc, Book 11: Massively Parallel started [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2009-03-02 March 02, 2009] and ended [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2010-11-28 637 strips later].

* [[Xanatos Gambit]]: Schlock either sent Jud to hire reinforcements or to an early death. According to Chelle, "We can hope for both right?"

** Shodan as a kid played ''[[Halo|Master-Chief]] [[Super Mario Bros.|Mario]]'' on an antique "Wiibox."

* [[You Can Leave Your Hat On]]