The Dragon Doctors: Difference between revisions

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[[File:dragon_doctors-kittyhawk.jpg|frame|The doctors as drawn by [[Sparkling Generation Valkyrie Yuuki|Kittyhawk]]. From left: Sarin the wizard, Aki (their nurse), Goro the surgeon, Kili the shaman, and Mori, the scientist and leader.]]

 

 

Some of their major patients so far range from a sentient tree to a girl that is mysteriously invisible to a man suffering from a horrible sentient cancer. Various minor cases crop up that are even more bizarre, such as a man who cannot pronounce any word with the letter "E" in it or a woman trapped in slow motion from birth. Others are odd by our world's standards but considered commonplace by theirs, such as performing voluntary transformation services (like enlarging a pixie to human size so she can live among humans, or rejuvenating the elderly).

 

The comic is sometimes compared to ''[[The Wotch]],'' due to its inexperienced artwork and recurring transformation theme, but its story, tone, and premise are decidedly different.

 

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* [[Apologizes a Lot]]: The ''artist,'' who often laments not being better at drawing.

* [[After the End]]: Civilization is said to have fallen four times during the two thousand years between modern times and the Doctors' time (The "Breakings").

* [[And I Must Scream]]: Rina. For ''two thousand years.'' Mercifully, she fell asleep eventually, but not after [[Go Mad From the Isolation|going a little crazy]].

* [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking]]: Tanica tried to kill Sarin, made her waste her one-of-a-kind magic seed, and is now blocking the window.

* [[Attractive Bent Gender]]: Subverted/Inverted from the norm with Mori, a short, fairly plain woman who changes into a tall, buff guy, and averted with Aki's father, who's just as overweight as a woman. The aversion is Lampshaded when Aki's dad admits "Not everyone gets to be a babe when they jump the gender fence."

* [[Backstory]]: Chapter 12 is all about Mori. It's right there in the title.

* [[Badass Boast]]: A few.

'''Goro:''' Never underestimate a guerilla defending their turf. This is a hospital. ''You're in my jungle now.'' }}

* [[Badass Labcoat]]: Mori usually wears a white double-buttoned affair, like [[Doctor Steel]].

* [[Little Miss Badass]]: Poor, poor Goro, though this changed at the end of the thief arc.

* [[Baleful Polymorph]]:

** Sarin's master put him through this as training. The first step of said training was spending a couple years as a tree in a forest.

** The same thing happens to Tanica the assassin when she's hit with Sarin's seed. Duration is "somewhere between six months and four years".

* [[Beauty Is Never Tarnished]]: Averted. Goro suffers {{spoiler|1=[http://www.drunkduck.com/The_Dragon_Doctors/index.php?p=809354 severe burns] fighting Mr. Smith.}}

* [[Beast Man]]: The [[Petting Zoo People|anthropomorphic animal-people]] who have appeared are all collectively referred to as "beastmen." They include catgirls, bugmen, and one instance of a lawyer who looks like a buffalo. The author has said this is partly because of the fantasy setting, which allows more diversification to help avert [[Only Six Faces]].

* [[Bi the Way]]: A common and readily available enchantment specifically modifies sexuality to be "compatible" with another person. Useful for a village where all the men are gender-bent permanently against their will.

* [[Bittersweet Ending]]: Not all the Doctors' cases end perfectly. Take Priscilla, for example. {{spoiler|They manage to stabilize her, but she's permanently blue and covered in tattoos that are keeping her from blowing up.... and they'll only work for a year, max, at which point they will have to forcibly regress her back to a child and let her grow up again, this time hopefully not gaining the condition in the first place.}}

** To give an idea of just HOW strong her spirit vision is, when her powers first went out of control, she saw the ultimate embodiment of decay, chaos, and entropy, who sits on a throne AT THE ABSOLUTE EDGE OF THE UNIVERSE, waiting for the end of existence. The guy is so terrifying that after seeing him once, Kili's hair went pure white.

** Also, her tattoos can completely nullify the powers of a regular shaman. She's ''still'' the best shaman with them.

* [[Body Horror]]: The Crax, a sentient cancer that devours its victims' minds and bodies. {{spoiler|Later revealed to be the physical manifestation of a man who chose the path of [[Immortality Immorality]].}}

* [[Body Snatcher]]: Again, the Crax. A couple of sub-tropes, too.

* [[Catch Phrase]]: Sarin seems to have adopted "I am a total magical badass."

* [[Catgirl]]: One of Marty's employees. A few others have shown up sporadically in the backgrounds here and there; there's also been at least one catdude.

** This may have more to do with their roles than their genders, though; Mori's the leader and also a scientist, two things that require a level head, and Kili's shaman/therapist dual job also requires her to be considerate and calm.

* [[Clothing Damage]]:

** Weaponised as another effect of Mori's Spell Gun.

** Sarin also uses this as punishment for a very nosy magic user, permanently making it so the woman's magic causes her to destroy any clothing she's wearing. ( {{spoiler|Although Sarin is bluffing in order to torment the mage, it'll only last for a week. Or at least, it's only SUPPOSED to last for a week... }}) She also uses it to disable {{spoiler|Elizabeth}} in a hostage situation. As she girl says, "she loves that spell."

** In a subversion of the usual transformation clothing damage, Mori explodes her shirt when she turns into a man.

* [[Deconstruction]]: A minor mini-arc in the middle of the "Messenger of Death" chapter has Sarin being approached by the astral projection of a wizard who wants to recruit her for some grand purpose. Sarin, who is usually quite cheerful, refuses to play ball, growling at the recruiter for the presumptuousness of showing up unannounced to give a "You Are [[The Chosen One]]" speech and pointing out how creepy it is to spy on someone with magic. She loses her temper completely when the recruiter says "[[Stock Phrase|My name is of no importance]]" and slaps the recruiter's ''astral projection'', which both shows off Sarin's indignation as well as hinting just how powerful she really is. Sarin continues to rip the recruiter a new one verbally and [[Cherry Tapping|finishes off]] by zapping the recruiter with a curse that [[The Nudifier|makes her clothes disintegrate]] whenever she uses magic.

** The main reason that Sarin refuses? It's because, by her words, people who paint in broad strokes make big mistakes, and Sarin is much happier helping people on a one on one basis than trying to help millions and accidentally killing thousands. Given how powerful some magic can be, more than likely, someone has tried this before, and probably was the cause for one of the Breakings.

** See [[Clothing Damage]].

** This was how {{spoiler|Elizabeth}} was finally defeated - granted, it wasn't so much the [[Clothing Damage]] that did her in as it was the spell that caused it also getting rid of her gun.

* [[Deus Ex Machina]]: Averted, but lampshaded in the strip title when {{spoiler|Tomo arrives at the end of the Crax Arc}}.

** {{spoiler|Tomo is making a habit of this, showing up to help Kili defeat a missummoned [[Eldritch Abomination]] that was going to kill her. It's implied that Tomo is spending her [[Guardian Angel|afterlife watching over Kili from the spirit world.]]}}

* [[Discount Lesbians]]: The inhabitants of Agri Village, and in the main cast {{spoiler|Aki and Goro}}.

'''Spirit:''' Pfft. Like I care about technicalities. }}

** The {{spoiler|Aki and Goro}} pairing is especially strange because, in one regard {{spoiler|they're both heterosexual men}}.

* [[Dr. Jerk]]: Goro's abrasive some of the time, but this trope really belongs to Dr. Songbird, Aki's mother, whose idea of bedside manner is "try not to die in the next month or two."

* [[Dystopia]]: Thoria, a hundred-fifty years ago anyway. It advertises itself as "a safe country for normal people". Meaning no magic, no weirdness, no rejuvenations, all traditional. If you fit their standards for normal, it's a nice place. But if you have a genetic defect like Mori, you get deported. And that's if you're lucky.

* [[Early Installment Weirdness]]: The characterizations and setting hadn't been nailed down in the first chapter, and there were a few odd things, such as Sarin wearing a robe that kept changing symbols on its front.

* [[Emergency Transformation]]:

* [[Everybody's Dead, Dave]]: Rina had to deal with this after being turned to stone for two thousand years; Kili had to deal with it as a kid when everyone in her village was drowned in a tsunami.

* [[Expressive Shirt]]: Sarin's robe from the first arc.

* [[Eye Scream]]: Goro faced an enemy with [[Eye Beams]] and went for the most immediate threat.

* [[Fatal Attractor]]: Greg's had a lot of girlfriends in the past, all with interesting backgrounds, but he also had to break up with all of them due to unusual circumstances. The worst was when one (an alchemist) accidentally split herself into a dozen copies of herself; Greg couldn't date all of them and it wouldn't have been fair to just settle on one, so they broke up.

* [[Fatal Family Photo]]: [[Discussed Trope|Discussed]].

** {{spoiler|It's backstory though, so we already know Mori lives.}}

* [[Fetal Position Rebirth]]: {{spoiler|Tanica}}, once she finally gets cured of {{spoiler|being a tree.}}

** Choleric: Goro, driven and capable, but can overbearing and inflexible.

** Melancholic: Mori, careful and inventive, well-adusted, but still stuggles with overcoming failures.

* [[Freaky Friday Flip]]: Another effect of the Spell Gun exploding, combined with a [[Gender Bender]].

* [[Gender Bender]]: Happens quite a bit, though usually not gratuitously. Also:

''*bwooomp!*'' }}

* [[Gendercide]]: Well, nobody actually ''died'', but the first chapter of the story that sets everything in motion is a cursed valley that caused all its visitors and inhabitants to become permanently female. The protagonists are not immune to this curse either (they use protection magic, but it fails). They find out the curse is caused by an artifact that siphons masculinity from everything around it to promote plant growth (male fertility, basically). When Goro tried to attack it, it drained both his remaining masculine essence, as well as almost all of his strength essence, which comes dangerously close to being fatal over the long term. To blow it up, Mori has to sacrifice her own ''feminine'' essence and becomes a man permanently as a result, so all four of the protagonists start off the series getting permanently gender-bent.

* [[Harmless Freezing]]: Justified with the [[Nigh Invulnerable]] Crax; the Doctors plan to dispose of it by [[Schizo-Tech|freezing it with magic, storing it in liquid nitrogen, and dissolving it with magical acid.]] {{spoiler|This is due to its status as an energy eater, only cold effects work to restrain it cause there is no energy to consume.}}

* [[Hit So Hard the Calendar Felt It]]: The four "breakings" each started a new calendar. The current year is "625 4B". It becomes 627 4B by the time {{spoiler|Tanica finally turns human}}.

** {{spoiler|Larko Udo, swallowed by the spirit of death he summoned. [[Complete Monster|He totally deserved it,]] although Kili saved him with the rest of the people who got swallowed and gave him a [[Cruel Mercy|fate even worse.]]}}

** Subverted by {{spoiler|Elizabeth, who probably would have gotten away if she'd just cut her losses and not tried to pull an act of revenge by turning into Goro. However, if she had, she wouldn't have been able to get the money she needed, which was the whole reason she tried stealing rejuvenant in the first place. Turning into Goro was simply the most convenient method that happened to kill two birds with one stone.}}

* [[Hot Amazon]]: Goro, after getting her strength (if not masculinity) restored. Aki is delighted.

* [[Immortality Immorality]]: {{spoiler|The Crax is the physical vessel of a mage who learned how to take over other bodies. [[The Virus]] effect comes from his mind copying itself into his victims.}}

* [[Instant Sedation]]: One of Goro's talents is this, as a magical surgeon. It comes in handy a few times.

* [[Invisible to Normals]]: The Silent Suffering arc features a character who is invisible to everybody, even Kili when she isn't trying.

* [[Ley Line]]: Rina was buried in one by Derek, so the magical spell keeping her trapped there would run forever. She was later discovered by a ley line surveyor in Frontera. Unfortunately, being stuck soaking in mana for centuries sent her into mana shock and she nearly exploded after being recovered.

* [[Locked Into Strangeness]]: Happens several times. Sarin the wizard's hair is green as a leftover from when she was turned into a tree for years, and Kili's hair has been white ever since she was haunted by a spirit as a child. Kili gets hit with more hair effects later; after becoming a werewolf, her hair adopts a [[Wild Hair|wild style]] and grows so rapidly it is now at perpetual [[Rapunzel Hair]] length.

* [[The Magic Comes Back]]: This was to be the main plot of ''The Odd Squad'', the unfinished prequel to ''The Dragon Doctors'' that set up the First Breaking.

* [[Magick]]: Made fun of in one strip, which had a background poster saying "Magic is not spelled with a 'k!'"

* [[Naked People Are Funny]]: Nudity, mostly of the [[Magic Pants]] failure or [[The Nudifier]] variety, pops up as a semi-running gag.

** Minor character Priscilla was hit with a [[Cool and Unusual Punishment]] for violating Sarin's privacy. Said curse makes it so whenever she uses magic, she innately destroys any clothing she's wearing. It's only after this that we discover her day job -- a wood-shaping (carpenter/artist) mage -- requires that she use magic ''all day long.'' {{spoiler|It's revealed several months later that the curse, designed to wear off after a week, refuses to go away even when specifically dispelled.}}

* [[Name That Unfolds Like Lotus Blossom]]: All of the Crystal People use long names that describe their shape and color; e.g., "I am An Aesthetically Pleasing Humanoid Arrangement of Pretty Pink Crystals, but you can call me Pinky!"

* [[Not So Different]]: In an inversion of the norm, it's Sarin who gives one to Elizabeth. "You're like me: smart enough to forget you can make mistakes."

* [[Prison Violence]]: According to Tanica, members of [[Murder, Inc.]] are frequent targets for murder in jail.

* [[Pronoun Trouble]]: Generally the comic follows the ''[[Orlando]]'' rule; call 'em "she" if their body is female and "he" if their body is male. So if we're seeing Kili in the past, Kili's a "he," but present Kili is a "she." The author said in several posts that he's amused when readers refer to characters otherwise since it shows off their perception of the characters.

* [[Psychic Surgery]]: Discussed in the Crax arc, but not used; it would rip out the Crax from Greg's body instantly but since the technique requires bare hands, it would be unwise to use it on a life form that devours everything.

* [["The Reason You Suck" Speech]]:

* [[Sensitive Guy and Manly Man]]: Kili and Goro. [[Gender Bender|(When they were guys, anyway.)]]

* [[She Cleans Up Nicely]]: Multiple characters, although Priscilla may take the cake -- normally, she's a [[Hollywood Nerd]] with tightly bunned up hair and geek glasses, wearing conservative, baggy clothing. ... Then her nudity curse kicks in, letting her hair down and destroying the glasses. And, er, everything else.

* [[Shout-Out]]

** "[[Sluggy Freelance|Emergency pants.]]"

** A comic references "that legend about that sorceress who learned all her magic when she was turned to stone...who went mad and became an insane violator<ref>an abuser of sorcery, especially one who uses [[Taken for Granite|debilitating]] transformation magic without consent</ref>." This is almost certainly a reference to The Sorceress of the transformation-fetish site Naga's Den, especially since the author is tightly linked to that site's creator's tamer works and this is the ''only'' time the word "sorceress" is used (the word "sorcerer" usually being gender-neutral).

** Rina watches a documentary about the survivors of the nuclear war in the Second Breaking. It's a clear shout out to ''[[Fist of the North Star]],'' with men punching each other at high speed.

* [[Showing Off the New Body]]: Lee Smith checks out the sexy new body Sarin gave <s> him</s>her, complete with the comic's first butt-shot.

* [[Smart People Wear Glasses]]: "Impaired vision equals smart!"

* [[Spirit World]]: Kili goes here occasionally.

* [[Suddenly Voiced]]: Tanica, the assassin-turned-tree, is inaudible to the reader for the first few chapters she's introduced in, though the characters can hear her inner voice with the aid of magic (though Aki's fairy antennae work on their own, too). This resulted in a lot of one-way conversations with a mostly-inexpressive tree, which was tricky to do, so the author allowed Tanica's voice to be audible to the reader in later chapters, starting when she first converses with Greg.

* [[Taken for Granite]]:

** Sarin also frequently stoneskins herself when under attack.

** Tanica follows this trope in spirit, as she (and Sarin) were both turned into immobile, yet conscious and aware, trees. Sarin found it to be peaceful as she was relatively safe and no longer had to live her rather violent and stressful life, Tanica... takes a lot longer to find any form of peace.

* [[Tempting Fate]]: "Things are finally starting to look up."

* [[That Man Is Dead]]:

* [[The Great Offscreen War]]: Two (possibly three) of the "[[World Sundering|Breakings]]" were cataclysmic wars. The First was a magical civil war in every country on Earth, the Second was a nuclear war.

* [[Translator Microbes]]: There's a world-wide magic spell called "The Language Barrier Breaker" in effect at all times, explain the doctors to Rina. The doctors themselves are explicitly stated as speaking a distant descendant of English, and all signs are in [[Translation Convention|English for reader conveinance]].

* [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future]]: The first half of "Last Victim" focuses on Rina discovering her latent magic powers in the 21st Century, shortly before the "First Breaking."

* [[The Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer]]: Rina, eventually. It helps that she already knew magic before emerging in a magical world, and that the culture she came from was compatible with Frontera--the characters point out that if she had been frozen during one of the Dark Ages she wouldn't have fared nearly as well.

** It's later mentioned that this ''can't be undone'' - even if the people in charge change their minds and want to undo what they did.

* [[The Unpronounceable]]: Although everyone in-universe seems to have no trouble with it, it's uncertain how you pronounce the name of the [[Murder, Inc.]] group, the Trsanti.

* [[Vague Age]]: Rina comments on this during Mori's 170th birthday party. All the parents and grandparents look like young adults, due to society having access to a functioning [[Fountain of Youth]].

* [[Voluntary Shapeshifting]]: Sarin. Besides transforming, she can turn anyone into anything.

* [[We Help the Helpless]]: The Hearts Society is an international organization dedicated to helping victims of magic (in particular, debilitating transformation magic) and stopping "Violators" who cause these sorts of problems. For example, if an evil sorcerer turned you into a statue, or worse, ''a shoe,'' they'd be the ones who would hopefully find you and restore you.

* [[Winged Humanoid]]: Aki, a couple Pixies, and Sarin with the aid of a spell. There's no flapping because, as Sarin explains, Pixie wings (and spell wings, appearently) work using magic, rather than aerodynamics.

* [[The World Is Not Ready]]: Thoria, before their national [[Heel Face Turn]], had spies in the Frontier Exploration Force with explicit orders to kill everyone on any team that made a discovery that would be world-altering, {{spoiler|like a giant [[Fountain of Youth]]}}.

* [[World Sundering]]: It's happened ''four'' times, and people are ambivalent about whether or not a fifth is due.

* [[Year Inside, Hour Outside]]: When Kili and Greg bond inside a dreamworld while the doctors operate on Greg's petrified body to chip out the Crax, we see seasons passing as they get to know each other. They spent long enough with one another there that they have fallen deeply in love.

* [[You Can See Me?]]:

 

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[[Category:Drunk Duck]]

[[Category:Fantasy Webcomics]]