< Oh Crap

Oh Crap/Web Comics

Therkla: Did that tree...
Qarr: ... just say "Oww"?

Sniper: So why didn't you become a group leader?
West: Don't know. They basically just asked my kill count.
Sniper: Your kill count? *Beat* Oh. My. God!

  • In Heritage, the mysterious Jack is understandably surprised when the otherwise ordinary hero Frate suddenly gains super angel powers in the middle of a fight.

Jack: I was going to report back if you turned out to be more than meets the eye, but n-- UURGH! HOLY S#* @, YOU GOT FAST ALL OF A SUDDEN!

  • Girl Genius: These Wulfenbach soldiers, when it turns out the locals fully support Agatha.
    • Also the Wulfenbach soldiers in this strip.
    • And Agatha's dingbots in this one.
    • Amusingly invoked here. Sometimes the Princess isn't the one in 'danger'.
    • And here:

Oggie: Jenka, vy for is Füst runnik avay?
Jenka: He vot?
(a "war stomper" crushes their tower.)

Ennesby: Low-yield kinetic strike to the fore dorsal turret ... Hull-breach above the wardroom!
Kevyn: Wait, dorsal turret access is right up there. We're in the wardroom.

    • Kevyn here, on account of an incoming tank.
    • One from "San Asimov's Finest"
    • And in this one. [1]
    • Maxim 3: An ordnance technician at a dead run outranks everybody.
    • A twofer in the last row of this comic. Even if it's just a still picture, the target's last view of an oncoming missile is never happy.
    • Malott here.
    • After Schlock delivered a message to Breya, she thinks about what this may mean... and then makes a face. Which she didn't after finding out that an explosion reduced a police officer to spray paint and scattered Schlock's pieces around, though repeated upon being informed that she was among the intended targets.

Schlock: (worrying) I remember that face. That's your "minimum safe distance" face.

    • Sorlie here, courtesy of a more experienced field commander. Of course, when they find the answer they get more opportunities to make faces.
    • Invoked by Petey at a request of Admiral Devereaux.
    • Petey brings Admiral Devereaux really bad news.
  • Diva'ratrika's face in the last panel of this strip of Drowtales. And then a couple pages later when she realizes just how deep the treachery extends into her own family.
    • Rikashar also has a Freak-Out after Ariel beats the crap out of him when he tries to abduct her and make her his wife]] with his reaction following here, and the last panel of the same page is more of an "Aw, shit" after he sees who's caught up with him.
      • Yet another from the same comic happens in the seventh panel of this chibi-page, which parodies events from that same chapter.
  • Last Res0rt's Slick invokes it upon finding out that apparently his team is so far behind the others, Cypress has already written them off.
  • Goblins: CLOSE THE WEST GATE!
    • Later, Thaco gets one when Goblinslayer illuminates the darkened sewer, negating Thaco's single advantage, (his ability to see in the dark) resulting in a straight up fight between the two adversaries that Thaco cannot possibly win.
      • In the same fight, Goblinslayer also gets this, when Thaco remembers he is a Monk and can snatch arrows, making Goblinslayer's ranged attacks useless.
    • Saves a Fox's entire self-image was that people are not bound by their destiny. When the fated day came when a fox got stuck in her home village's food supply, she snapped its neck in order to spite her fate, and saved the tail as a memento. That's not the Prophecy Twist resulting in her Oh Crap moment... Dies Horribly informs her that the symptoms she described the fox having was that of Sunset fever, something that causes animals to become delirious before dying a horrible, painful, and silent death. Saves A Fox gave it a Mercy Kill before it could suffer the worst effects of it. The look on her face that not only is her entire self-image a lie, but her friend whose name reflecting his destiny is "Dies Horribly" is not able to escape his fate either tells us she's heading right into Heroic BSOD territory.
  • In the webcomic Narbonic, this becomes Dave's normal state of being becomes one big Oh Crap moment.
  • Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures has its share of Oh Crap moments, particularly in the latest arc. One of the better ones has to be Regina's, starting on page 973. Of course, this being DMFA, it's the page's punchline.

Regina: (thinking) Should be easy. I nearly pulped him last time we fought. I mean, it's been what, six years? What could he have learned in that time?
* K-shnk! K-shnk!*
Dan: I learned to hear thoughts. Among other things.
Regina: (thinking) OK. New plan. Piddle self. Run.

  • The Adventures of Dr. McNinja:
    • King Radical, when he hears about Dr. McNinja's new motorcycle.
    • It's very subtle, but the last panel of this page is an excellent example.
    • Gordito gets a big one in the second-to-last panel when he realizes his Badass Mustache is useless against the principal... and he's going to have to shave it.
  • In Earthsong, Willow has one when she's walking through the woods at night ... something tugs on her cloak ... and she looks up, right into the teeth of a hungry vampire.
  • Hanna Is Not a Boy's Name has its share of these moments, as Conrad demonstrates.
  • In Starslip, Vanderbeam, understandably, has this on his face for four panels in a row after the Anthelerix relocate every known celestial body and planet to another part of the Milky Way.
  • Jacob Deegan gets this little moment. Also an occurance of Precision F-Strike.
  • Captain SNES has a nice one from Gades when the protagonist, Alex, launches his side of a very, very short Beam-O-War match, which didn't last very long (and neither did Gades). Alex's beam was much bigger.
  • If Ed had had a face in this strip of Megatokyo, it would have had this expression.
  • Erfworld: Charlie has the distinction of getting one offscreen during this exchange with Parson over the Eyebooks, after just getting Parson to use one of the calculations he owed Charlie to assess whether it was worth giving up the rest of the calculations in exchange for information from Parson.

Charlie: That was clever though, right?
Parson: Sure. Determining the decision not to spend all the calculations. Cost: one calculation.
Charlie: :)
Parson: Teaching me that my bracer can make sophisticated predictions about the future? Priceless.
Charlie: ... :(

    • Later on, pretty much all of Gobwin Knob (especially Stanley and Wanda, who had been unshakable beforehand) get this when Faq's Turnamancer linked with Charlie manage to force them to end their turn.
  • In 8-Bit Theater... well they happen a lot. But the best may come here, when the ultimate Jerkass discovers he's finally bitten off more than he can chew.
    • This classic, when Black Mage sees Muffin:

Black Mage: Teeth... like daggers... eyes... also like daggers...
Fighter: How does that work?
Thief: Piercing gaze?
Fighter: You're on fire today!
Black Mage: Scales noticeably dagger-like...

    • Each character gets at least one, but Black Mage, as the resident Chew Toy gets the most of them. It doesn't help him that his face is EASILY the best suited for these expressions.
  • A minor one in El Goonish Shive: Nanase uses her fairy doll to contact Ellen, and tries to wake her up by tickling her nose with her tail. Her reaction when she realises she's about to get messily sneezed on is hilarious.
    • There's a slightly more major one here. More of an awkward "oh crap" than a dangerous one, but just as expressive...
    • Another awkward example is Elliot's reaction to Noah bringing up his parents' death.
    • Justin here, when George reveals that he knows that Elliot is Cheerleadra, if he's wrong on a few minor details.
    • And the two-panel realization which used this trope to the letter.
  • In Slightly Damned, the latest villain to cross the heroes' path gets a short one when Kieri slices his bow in half.
  • In VG Cats, Aeris finds out the hard way that Coach is controlled by a completely different type of bot...
  • Ctrl+Alt+Del. The look on 1's face here just says it all.
  • The girls in Questionable Content have this moment when the Vesp Avenger's scooter turns into an attack robot.

Faye: All right! We're well and truly fucked.
Martin: And not the fun, slightly sticky kind of fucked!
Faye: That was TERRIBLE.
Martin: YOU try being funny when your life is flashing before your eyes!

Father Time: Overlord Bun-bun has arrived on the wings of the Groundhog's Shadow, and now faces the one who stole the Deus Egg. The Year 2003 himself!
2003: "I have done everything I can to thwart you peacefully, Bun-bun, but I've trained half my life for this fight. You came for the egg, I'll leave with your head!"
Bun-bun's multi-part switchblade scythe of doom: KA-CLIKITY CLICK KLAK
Father Time: 2003 is even now soiling himself...
2003: "Would you quit narrating this?"

"CRapK."

  • Returns various times in Ménage à 3:
  • When Paulus, a wealthy Roman citizen, decides that he's tired of being a bachelor, he has one of his servants put up a personal ad in the Forum. It gets rather more of a response than he expected.
  • Digger: "Meep."
  • In Exterminatus Now, a random paranoid tries to temporarily ingratiate himself in the protagonists so he can hide from "government spooks". The main characters proceed to inform him that those people are likely just foreign businessmen, while revealing enough information to make the guy realize they are government spooks.
    • And here's the reaction of the original team members when Rogue horribly insults Lothar.
  • In Two Evil Scientists, a robotic clone of Dr. Wily uses Evil Energy to revive Bass at the insistence of his daughter Cream. It works, and he has a few moments to enjoy his success until he realizes he brought Bass back to life, and he Came Back Wrong.
  • In Homestuck, Eridan's reaction to his victim Kanaya coming back as a glowing super powerful Rainbow Drinker (the Troll version of a vampire) that just snapped his wand leaving him unarmed while she revs up her chainsaw is priceless.
    • Even better and even more cathartic? Bec Noir's reaction to seeing PM arrive in the troll's session, wearing the White Queen's ring and looking pissed. Off.
    • Two from two different characters, one after another. The first is when Rose realizes that it's not a memory when Diamonds Droog is in Dave's room with her. The next is when Dave remembers that he's not in his room. He's still asleep on Derse.
  • In Gunnerkrigg Court, Kat and Annie get a pretty good one when faced with a giant crab at the start of third year.
  • This exchange from Drive;

Fernando: Captain, no! An asteroid field is certain death! Open space is bad enough...we can't intentionally fly into debris!
Skitter: Wait—why not? Just turn on your doo-dads or shields or whatever.
Nosh: What shields?
Skitter: Don't you have some kinda...energy bubble that can...I dunno...push aside material or somethin'?...Like a snow-plow?
[beat]
Skitter: Or some kinda...reinforced hull thingy...that can survive impacts at speeds of...?
[beat]
Skitter: I'ma skip a step and launch my escape pod now

Big Boss: OK, whatever! Time for...
Volgin: VOLGIN TIME!
Big Boss: Oh Crap Oh Crap Oh Crap Oh Crap

    • Only partial, but still same effect, previously on the same comic:

Big Boss: Time to head to Grozny Grad?
The End: Yeah, how about 'no'.
Big Boss: Crap!

  1. ↑ For those unfamiliar with the comic, Schlock there is talking to some rogue nanites that have infiltrated his eyes and hijacked them in order to create a simulated space to speak with him. Combat between members of his species half consists of using their extremely potent and adaptable immune systems to counteract the various chemical cocktails their opponents synthesize in an attempt to melt and absorb them. He literally can digest almost anything that won't eat him first. And he's just revealed that the plasma cannon he's been "impotently" waving at the nanites was actually just a familiar visual metaphor for his immune system. They have very good reason to look so worried in that third panel.
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