Bone/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Bone

  • Canon Sue: Thorn gets seen as this by some fans; she's destined for greatness, gets New Powers as the Plot Demands, and is often more of a focus than the titular characters. However, it's pretty clear she doesn't fit that definition; although she might have powers, she makes many mistakes and bad judgements, is constantly hurt and injured, and only succeeds thanks to the help and support of the rest of the cast.
    • Keeping in mind that the comic was originally called Thorn, this is not as big a surprise as it might have been.
  • Complete Monster: The Hooded One, aka Briar Harvestar, is the second-in-command of the Lord of the Locusts and the one trying to free him despite knowing it'd cause the end of the world. As a young woman, her first attempt to free her master involved using a river dragon to cause a bloody slaughter at a small town, leading her lover and his soldiers into an ambush, and trying to overthrow her loving parents and murder her younger sister. Even when shown mercy, Briar continued to serve as a mole for the Locust and led her niece and nephew-in-law to their deaths in an attempt to abduct her five-year-old grandniece. Though she was killed in the process, the Locust resurrected her, and she took on the identity of the Hooded One, using her power to force the Rat Creatures into all-out war against the Valley, when they were formerly content to abide by the old treaty. Even the General of her Pawan allies is enraged by her when she admits she threw away the lives of his men, and is terrified when he realizes she intends to destroy the Valley instead of ruling it, resulting in his decapitation. Though she admits the Locust has been whispering in her ear since childhood, Briar possesses agency, frequently acting against her master's best interests to make sure she remains his favorite servant, and is never portrayed in a tragic light. Instead she's depicted as a sociopathic and petulant child whose unreasonable envy of her little sister and her own love of the Locust's power, makes her willing to damn the entire world so she can feel superior.
  • Ho Yay: Not uncommon in the Bone fandom. Usually it's either with Smiley and Phoney, or Fone Bone and Phoney. Where's Smiley and Fone Bone, then? A far less common one is between the Two Stupid Rat Creatures, but it is more joked about.
  • I Am Not Shazam: The name Bone doesn't actually refers to a certain character in the story - that happens to be the name of the species of the three main characters Fone Bone, Smiley Bone and Phoney Bone. (keep in mind, the surname Bone is also shared among many others of their kind.)
  • Jerkass Woobie: The villagers of Barrelhaven are foolish, gullible people who are easily led into mobs, but it's hard not to feel sorry for them considering the sheer hell they go through once the real conflict starts. Wendell in particular, despite being a jerk many times in the past, constantly seems to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown as he endures the war.
  • Memetic Mutation: "Stupid Stupid Rat Creatures!" became one in the early days of the internet.
  • Moral Event Horizon: Kingdok eating Thorn's mother alive. Kingdok even points out that it's a Moral Event Horizon in his attempt to get Thorn to kill him. It doesn't work.
  • Squick: In Old Man's Cave, Rock Jaw reveals to the reader exactly what he did to Kingdok in the fight from the previous volume

Rose and Stupid Stupid Rat Tails/Tall Tales