Gunnerkrigg Court/YMMV
Subjective Tropes related to Gunnerkrigg Court.
- And the Fandom Rejoiced: Tom announcing midway through chapter 37 that he had left his day job to work fulltime on Gunnerkrigg Court was met with much enthousiasm.
- Base Breaker: Depending on who you ask, Anthony Carver is either a very misunderstood socially awkward but actually caring person, or the worst, coldest and most selfish father there is outthere.
- Crazy Awesome: Coyote. Hoo boy...
- Creator Worship: Reached it's most visible top when Tom opened a Tumblr account for GKC artwork and drawings he made. The first post was full of worshipping from other Tumblr users.
- Ensemble Darkhorse:
- The laser robot cows.
- And the Fandom Rejoiced: Laser cow t-shirts!
- Whatever Jones's deal is, the fandom loves her.
- Jack was very popular with fans until his Kick the Dog moment. And now that it's been revealed that it wasn't really him doing the kicking, he's starting to regain said popularity.
- And judging from a lot of fan reactions, some fans were pretty much cheering Jack on after glibly and handily he told off Annie for trying to set him up just to shoot him down.
- Parley.
- Basil. Only appeared in the second chapter, and had a cameo in Chapter 32.
- For all of his terribleness, Boxbot has a noticeable following. He even got an entry in the GKC wiki before Tom himself!
- The laser robot cows.
- Epileptic Trees: Half the reason for posting on the forum. So common that Tom occasionally calls them out in The Rant.
- Fan Dumb: There were a few extremist Les Yay fans who freaked out over Chapter 34 - Page 25 and started calling Tom a Heteronormative Crusader or an outright homophobe, earning the rage of every other fan. Cue the next few pages and a healthy dose of foot-in-mouth disease for those fans.
- Genius Bonus: The name of one of the faeries in City Face #4 is named Mustard Seed. One of fairy queen Titania's servants is also named Mustardseed. Coincidence?
- These details are everywhere in this comic. Apart from the myriad alchemical symbols and Meaningful Names around the story, several times there have been cameos of mythological characters who briefly drop in, but are never formally introduced. The fanbase has invariably managed to discover their identities from tiny hints of their appearance and behaviour.
- Growing the Beard: Somewhere around Chapter 24 the quality of the dialogue and story get much better.
- Harsher in Hindsight: Any mention of just how much Annie resembles her mother seems a bit more tragic given The Reveal in Chapter 31.
- Jerkass Woobie:
- Zimmy's life sucks. She is an obnoxious jerk nevertheless.
- Ysengrin.
- Les Yay: Oh the volumes and volumes of Les Yay between Annie and Kat.
- Taken Up to Eleven in the Year 9 chapters thus far, which have had Kat acting like a scorned lover, getting concerned about a potential boyfriend for Annie, and being Mistaken for Gay by Paz and Renard both.
- Mary Sue: From Tom's twitter:
"Almost every character I've drawn in my comic has been labeled as my stand-in, mary sue, sexual fetish, dream wish fulfillment. It gets old."
- Memetic Mutation:
- Moral Event Horizon: Diego (and the rest of the Court) crossed it in Chapter 25.
- Some felt that Jack crossed the line somewhere in Ch 27. Not Himself applies, however.
- Never Live It Down: There are readers who will never seem to be able to live down not recognizing Eglamore when he showed up in Chapter 17. Now, almost every time he shows up, Tom feels the need to specifically explain who he is.
- Nightmare Fuel:
- The illusionary circus Mort creates for Paz in Chapter 4 - Page 7 and Chapter 4 - Page 8.
- Annie's assessment of the Eldritch Abomination is dead on the money.
- There is also the hallucinations Zimmy suffers, (for example, in Chapter 11) during which she is sucked into a cursed version of Birmingham populated by insects, giant monsters and people with no faces. This may actually be something of an improvement over the real Birmingham.
- Summer Holiday - Page 9 is nice except for the third image. Those eyes.
- Jack. Chapter 28 - Page 15 sums his problems up pretty well. It's also freaking scary, for bonus points.
- Even after it's gone, he can still remember it whispering to him in Chapter 34. On and on, over and over.
- Also from Chapter 28 - Page 18 What sharp teeth you have there, Annie. Or Zimmy. Or whoever you are. And a homicidal rage to go with it in the next page? Well done!
- In Chapter 30 - Page 18, when Jeanne puts on her Game Face and releases all that bottled-up rage.
- Annie's dream/flashback in Chapter 31 - Page 25, after running away to the forest.
- The ghosts from the mandolin in John/Margo's tale in Chapter 34 - Page 12.
- In the last panel of Chapter 23 - Page 24, Reynardine shows off how terrifying he can be.
- Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped:
- The two main anvils of both parts of Spring Heeled (chapters 27 and 28) is that you shouldn't take all the problems for yourself, and that you shouldn't distrust adults just because one of them did something bad to you. Annie spends the entirety of both episodes dealing with Jack's possession by the etheric spider, without telling anyone about the fact. Once Jack activates the Power Station, traps Reynardine with a device built by the Donlans and escapes, Jones makes her appearance. Once they're all back in the Court, she lets Annie to deal with Jack's situation, only for Jones to give Annie a lesson based on this anvil, after all is said and done:
Jones: If you knew about Jack's condition, you should have told someone about it. I don't want you to lose your initiative, Antimony, but you should know that you don't have to deal with everything by yourself.
- Also, near the end of Chapter 28: Spring Heeled: part II, there's this bonus anvil about labeling others based on ignorance, fear and misunderstanding.
Jones: Zimmy keeps people at arm's length because she knows she is a danger to those around her. She can hardly be blamed for what she is.
Reynardine: A demon is what she is.
Jones: A label commonly applied to what is feared and misunderstood. Don't forget that you are known as "the demon Renard" to many people.
- Chapter 29: A Bad Start. Kat (still affected by the events of Chapter 25: Sky Watcher And The Angel) rescues a pidgeon. She then brings it to Paz, where she and another Robot do some tests on him. Later, they enter into a room with many cells holding abandoned mice, and Kat breaks herself in tears. Cue this anvil dropped in dialogue form over pages 755 and 756:
Kat: Paz, how can you work in a place like this!? Knowing what they do!
Paz: They are not all used for testing! And many of the tests are non-invasive! They study behaviour and learning patterns...
Kat: This doesn't make it better! This place... the whole Court... they just do what's best for themselves. They don't care what happens to anyone else.
Paz: Kat, I know is not perfect. I wish for a day we didn't need to keep these mice... but until then, I try to make life comfortable for them. And there are very strict rules and limitations. Is all very tightly self-regulated.
Kat: Self-regulated?! That just means they can do what they want!
Paz: No! You see, to do that, they would have to get through me first. The Court isn't a big monster that does as it pleases. Es a collection of people, working to do what they think is right. And, over time, other people see what is wrong, what mistakes were made, and work hard to fix them. I cry too whan I find this place. But I ask to help. To change and make things better.
Kat: What's the use!? The entire process is flawed. You can't just make it better.
Paz: ¿Y el pichón? That tiny, little, ugly thing? Why did you bring it here? You could have left it to die. Maybe even kill it yourself to get rid of the problem. Is just a pigeon. Nobody would know, or care.
Kat: Whaaa?! I-I could never do that!
Paz: Thas right! And with your help, and bobby and me, he will grow up to be beautiful.
- At the end of Chapter 30: The Coward Heart, Parley learnt two lessons: don't be shy to admit your own feelings to the ones you love, and acting in a rude way achieves nothing.
- Tastes Like Diabetes: See the Crowning Moment of Heartwarming page. The same scenes that make some readers go "awwww" make others go "ewwww."
- Tear Jerker: Has its own page.
- Ugly Cute: Zimmy with her "many, many fine sharp fangs", gunk-covered red eyes and so on, can be adorable to an absurd degree. Tom even made a wallpaper with Zimmy and a male avatar for him self in the same style.
- Unfortunate Implications: Some readers felt that Alistair's parents permanently turning their son into an animal in a moment of apathy was rather evocative of children being pulled into organizations, groups, or belief systems they ultimately object to without any real say in the matter.
- Viewer Gender Confusion: Shell from this page is so androgynous that some readers only noticed she was female from the (very) slight curves of her body and from the female cut (right lapel over left) of her suit.
- The Woobie:
- Jeanne. First she was separated from her lover, then she was imprisoned in some manner in the Court, then her first bit of hope was crushed by seeing her lover die, and, when the story begins, she's trapped in an afterlife of nothing but stewing in her own rage and despair.
- In light of the events near the end of Chapter 34, Kat.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Jack was headed in this way due to the spider, but after the events of Chapters 27 & 28, recovery should ensue.
- Jeanne had a horrible death and afterlife but also takes it out on innocents, trying to kill them because she thinks they're mocking her with their own happiness.