39,327
edits
Vexxarr: Difference between revisions
m
update links
m (revise quote template spacing) |
m (update links) |
||
Line 16:
{{quote|'''Vexxarr''': You managed to subvert your entire core programming [[Bothering by the Book|by literally obeying its every word]].<br />
'''Carl''': We're inteligent machines. [[The Farmer and the Viper|It's what we do]]. }}
** Vexxarr only feels safe and comfortable around the robots that are actively trying to kill him. If they offer to help, ''that's'' when he gets worried.
* [[Alien Arts Are Appreciated]]: The Mahakalosians offer to build ships for Earth in exchange for(among other things) [http://www.vexxarr.com/archive.php?seldate=101609 original pressings of Adam Ant records] and [http://www.vexxarr.com/archive.php?seldate=060210 nine tons of oreo cookies].
* [[Alien Invasion]]: One by Vexxarr, which failed. {{spoiler|A second one is defeated by using technology stolen from Vexxarr.}}
* [[Ambiguous Innocence]]: Sid is so innocent that he actually comes around at cynicism from the other side.
* [[Anti-Hero]]: Vexxarr slips between [[Sliding Scale of Anti-Heroes|a type IV and a type V]]. This tends to depend on how insane the situation has currently driven him.<ref>You know it's bad when he starts trying to knock his conscience out of his head by slamming it repeatedly against a bulkhead.</ref>
* [[Beware the Nice Ones]]: Don't tell an (overly) friendly Schlumpoid that [[Medical Horror|"hospital" and "food factory"]] mean the same thing...
{{quote|'''Sploorfix:''' I want to see their eyes as they '''burn'''.}}
* [[Blind Jump]]: Vexxarr once punched in random coordinates for a jump, which [[Butt Monkey|naturally landed them directly in front of the fleet they were trying to avoid.]] Later Vexxarr also suggests a true [[Blind Jump]] (when his ship computer is busy with a megalomaniac rant), and Minion bot points him at the button for that procedure. That button doubles as the Self Destruct button, seeing how it does the same thing.
* [[Brick Joke]]: The first trial of using a cybernetic prothesis [http://www.vexxarr.com/archive.php?seldate=082510 to hug another schlumpoid] fails. A few dozen comics later, when the hugger and the queen schlumpoid [http://www.vexxarr.com/archive.php?seldate=102510 encounter] their species' [[Hive Mind]]....
* [[Brain Bleach]]: Rock crab reproductive activities.
{{quote|'''Vexxarr:''' [http://www.vexxarr.com/archive.php?seldate{{=}}020312 If I could], [[Grandfather Paradox|I'd travel back in time and sever my own family line]] to unknow that.}}
* [[Brown Note]]: Hearing, or reading, Sploorfix's lifejournal posts will cause almost any AI to self-terminate.
* [[Brutal Honesty]]: A case of [[Be Careful What You Wish For]]
{{quote|'''Schlumpoid Queen:''' I would like to ask you something, and I want a ''straight'' answer. Tell me the unvarnished truth,no matter how much it may hurt. [snip] Is ''our'' civilization also in decline?
'''Schlumpool:''' No, but only because it is so pathetic it has nowhere to decline ''from''.
Line 36:
'''Vexxarr''': What makes you say that?
'''Minionbot''': Is it a Thursday? }}
*** (And yes, they have).
** Again when Vexxarr feels there's still something missing from the news that the ship is without power and at the mercy of a malevolent species.
{{quote|'''Carl''': Structural failure?
Line 44:
'''Carl''': Bleeding atmosphere into space...
'''Vexxarr''': It's a Thursday. }}
* [[Card-Carrying Villain]]: The plant AI's, from their first [http://www.vexxarr.com/archive.php?seldate=012309 conversation], are quite clear about their plans with Vexxarr. It doesn't get better either.
{{quote|'''AI:''' Now, let's discuss your feelings. Start with pain.}}
* [[Chewbacca Defense]]: For no real reason really, but effective [http://www.vexxarr.com/archive.php?seldate=012312 nontheless].
Line 57:
** To make it even weirder he feeds on radiation, like that produced by Bleen weapons and antimatter explosions. So he loves the things that most sane beings would fear the most.
* [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]]: Vexxarr's usual high level of [[Genre Savvy|Genre Savviness]] can sky-rocket into this occasionally. Usually this is directly proportional to how insane a bad situation has become.<ref>Considering that every situation is almost ''always'' bad...</ref>
* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: Vexxarr, Minionbot and Carl. Vexxarr and Carl have ribbing matches that go on for panels.
* [[Delicious Distraction]]: Used [[Invoked Trope|deliberatly]] by Vexxarr whenever a stressful situation arises. And they arise often...to the point Sploorfix has picked up the habit.
{{quote|'''Vexxarr:''' First of all their planet was in the way and second it's triple layer carrot cake. See? There are raisins...}}
Line 75:
* [[Evil Versus Evil]]:
{{quote|'''[[Wide-Eyed Idealist|Sploorfix]]''': You want to spark a war between Bleen and the Lattrox? A war in which [[War Is Hell|millions of intelligent, innocent beings will perish]]?<br />
'''Vexxarr''': No, no. See, the [[I'm a Humanitarian|Lattrox]] and [[Scary Dogmatic Aliens|Bleen]] would be fighting.... [[
* [[False Reassurance]]: [http://www.vexxarr.com/archive.php?seldate=030411 Well...]
* [[Fastball Special]]: The result of the [[Nigh Invulnerability]] of the rock-crabs, and their access to a mass driver cannon.
Line 84:
** [[The Lancer]]: Carl - (the [[AI Is a Crapshoot|homicidal ship A.I.]] who continually bickers with, torments and tries to kill Vexxarr... [[Sarcastic Devotee|before going along with every one of his insane strategies]])
** [[The Smart Guy]]: Minionbot - ([[Snarky Non-Human Sidekick|the Automaton]] who knows ''far'' [[Mr. Exposition|too much about how all the circuitry of the ship and droids work]], including a couple of life-saving-important secrets that he conveniently forgets to mention)
** [[The Big Guy]]: Sid - (the silicon life-form who despite being a [[Cowardly Lion]], [[Nigh Invulnerability|is indestructible]])
** [[The Chick]]: Sploorfix/Sid - (and Sploorfix, who makes many heart-felt entreaties for everyone to stop fighting... [[Walking Wasteland|all of which are Death Incarnate for any machine within visual or audio range]])
* [[Genre Savvy]]: Vexxarr has become increasingly savvy about his attempts to find safety, to the point of having a betting pool on how long after encountering anything they would be attacked or ordered to surrender.
{{quote|'''Vexxarr''': Usually by this time we'd hear...
Line 93:
* [[Good Is Not Nice]]: Vexxarr is a borderline type IV [[Anti-Hero]] who can be quite vindictive when he wants to be. But he still has a conscience - albeit one he has tried to literally bash out of his own head - and he ''will'' - in the end - do the right thing.<ref>Eventually.</ref> He is ''not'' going to be nice about it though. ''Ever''. And depriving him of cake is probably going to [[Jumping Off the Slippery Slope|send him off the deep end]].<ref>The aesop of this story is to always supply your [[Anti-Hero]] with chocolate gateau whenever they have to make an important moral decision.</ref>
* [[Gravity Sucks]]: Averted hard; at one point Vexxarr actually tries to hide in ''a black hole's accretion disk'', relying on his invincible hull to protect him against the radiation. It [[Everything Trying to Kill You|almost]] worked, too.
* [[Gun Porn]]: In the early, black and white days of the comic, the art of earth's millitary equipment looked significantly more detailed than the characters.
* [[Gunship Rescue]]: [http://www.vexxarr.com/archive.php?seldate=031809 Giant Mecha] [http://www.vexxarr.com/archive.php?seldate=041309 Rescue actually].
{{quote|'''Vexxarr''': If they think an [[Big Damn Heroes|insanely heroic rescue]] is in the works, they're in for an enormous disappointment... <br />
Line 108:
'''Queen''': I trust you ''implicitly''.<br />
'''Aid''': You have my sword. *[[beat]]* Ok. That was disturbing beyond words. }}
* [[The Heart]]: Sploorflix keeps trying to get everyone to work together, help all the creatures they come across, and wants everyone to live in love and peace. Unfortunately, for him, he's in [[Wrong Genre Savvy|the wrong universe]] and within a lightyear vicinity of [[Kick the Dog|Vexxarr and Carl]], where his extreme idealism does not hold up well in the face of Vexxarr's wormhole of cynicism. However, he does still manage to drag Vexxarr's conscience out into the open more than once, though, pulling their somewhat [[Dysfunction Junction|dysfunctional crew]] into doing the right thing. ...Eventually.
* [[Humans Are Special]]: Originally it seemed like [[Humans Are Warriors]] but the Mahakalosians stated that "Urthers" were not a warrior race due to the simple fact that they are neither unified nor extinct. [[Humans Are Diplomats|Rather they are special because they are willing to work together with others]].
* [[Humiliation Conga]]: An almost permanent one.
{{quote|'''Vexxarr:''' So [http://www.vexxarr.com/archive.php?seldate{{=}}072606 this] is what it has come to... my dignity... had I any left... would get a devastating blow from [http://www.vexxarr.com/archive.php?seldate{{=}}072806 this].}}
* [[Insult Backfire]]: An interesting example. Anytime Vexxarr claims that all machine life is murderous and always planning the destruction of organic life, his two robot crew will happily admit that he is correct.
{{quote|'''Vexxarr''': Not until that... that '''machine''' admits that it is a calculating, survival obsessed, self-centered, tyrant wannabee with a pathological hatred of anything organic!
'''Carl''': Yep. That's me to a ''tee''. Shall we continue to the Lattrox DMZ?
Line 123:
'''Emperor''': I shall make you pretend to enjoy it.
'''Admiral''': One day it is then. }}
* [[Let's Get Dangerous]]: [http://www.vexxarr.com/archive.php?seldate=051309 ... Everyone should be running, right about now].
{{quote|'''Minionbot:''' ...before you ''begin'' this line of inquiry, do I have sufficent time to tunnel to an ''adjacent universe''?}}
* [[Logic Bomb]]: Sploorfix's [[Live Journal]] is a Weapon of Mass Depression.
* [[Webcomics Long Runners|Long Runner]]: Strip hit #1000 on Monday June 6th.
* [[Manipulative Bastard]]: Vexxarr is slowly and steadily becoming a candidate for [[Magnificent Bastard]], if not for the war he started between the two most aggressive races in the galaxy in order to get them to wipe each other out, then [http://www.vexxarr.com/archive.php?seldate=010311 For] [http://www.vexxarr.com/archive.php?seldate=010511 this] [http://www.vexxarr.com/archive.php?seldate=010711 right] [http://www.vexxarr.com/archive.php?seldate=011211 here].
* [[Medical Horror]]: The Lattrox use the same word for 'hospital' and 'food factory'.
* [[Mohs Scale of Sci Fi Hardness]]: Although there are realistic parts or ideas throughout the comic, in general the [[Rule of Fun]] and [[Rule of Cool]] override realism.
** Generally to ''awesome'' effect.
* [[Multiple Reference Pun]]: present in the titles often. References include ''Ghost in the Shell'', ''Do androids dream of Electric sheep?'', Isaac Asimov, Pink Floyd, South Park, Watchmen, Doctor Who, Sam Pekinpah, Ockham's Razor, Rage Against the machine... the full list is ''really'' long.
* [[Noodle Incident]]: When Carl and Minionbot are reviewing the results of simulated drone operations, we don't get to see what they're looking at, but we do hear the names Carl gave the various simulations, such as '''Ode to places a cutting torch should never go''', '''Three drones, one airlock and no sense''', and the cautionary tale about plasma torches, hypergolic fuel and explosive decompression called '''Don't'''.
* [["No Respect" Guy]]: Vexxarr
* [[Not So Different]]: Vexxarr and Carl, to their mutual horror.
* [[Oddly Small Organization]]: The Bleen destroyer crew.
{{quote|Ship Commander: Helmsman, put me on shipwide. I want to address the ''entire'' crew.
Line 157:
'''Human general''': Noooooooooo. Surely you lie.
'''Vexxarr''': Hey! The biting sarcasm is ''MY'' bit. Wound my pride with your own material, Bucko. }}
* [[Sarcastic Devotee]]: Carl has unwillingly become this to Vexxarr over time. That said, if he ever found this out, he would probably [[Driven to Suicide|fly straight into an asteroid]].
* [[Scary Dogmatic Aliens]]. The Conquistador variant. {{spoiler|They're only doing it for the cake.}}
* [[Scenery Porn]]: Many comics that take place in space use real astronomical pictures as background, see the trope picture.
Line 198:
* [[Wisdom from the Gutter]]: Comes from Sploorfix. At least if you ask Vexxarr, anyway.
{{quote|'''Vexxarr:''' '''''Get back here this instant and start spouting gibberish until my worldview is centered!'''''}}
* [[Xanatos Speed Chess]]: Vexxarr eventually becomes ''far'' too good at a strange mix between this and [[Indy Ploy]], courtesy of a mix of extreme [[Gaslighting|paranoia]], excessive [[The Cynic|cynicism]], unfathomable [[Genre Savvy|Genre Savviness]] ... and [[Cosmic Plaything|a long career as the universe's favourite Plaything]]. Often leads to a [[Moment of Awesome]]. Carl is a frequent contributor.
* [[You Have Failed Me]]: SOP for the Bleen.
{{quote|'''Bleen commander:''' Look, I'm going to make this easy for you. Either tell me whether or not that planet is indeed the earth or throw yourself out of the airlock. Your choice. [.....] Command makes for a lonely life. That, and flushing your bridgecrew into space.}}
** Granted, [[Thrown Out the Airlock|spacing]] is not fatal to the Bleen, but after the number of acolytes in orbit became a navigational hazard the Emperor started vaporizing them instead.
| |||