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True Villains is a now-complete fantasy, villain-focused web comic written by Josh Kurtz and Madison Hughes, and drawn by Max Karpsten, with colors by Darren Urmey.
True Villains takes what you know about fantasy: how the good guys always win, the villains are definitely evil, mostly irredeemable, and always lose and flips it on it's ear.
The comic follows the story of Sebastian Jalek, an alchemist/adventurer who after a run in with the famed villain Xaneth Antaris, turns over to the side of villainy. Sebastian then makes fast friends with Elia the necromancer and befriends the orphaned Mia. The rest of the cast includes raging paladins, constructed golems and much more.
True Villains began in August 2007, and concluded in January 2016 after more than eight years.
It can be found here
Tropes used in True Villains include:
- Aerith and Bob- We have Xaneth Antaris, Sebastian Jalek, Mia Jalek, Elia Redscallon, Bayn, and Tom.
- Don't forget about Dexter Phoenix and Gray.
- Affably Evil- Elia and Xaneth mostly, but, various psychoses aside, the entire main cast fits this to some degree, even Bayn can be quite charming when the situation calls for it.
- A Lighter Shade of Black- As bad as Xaneth is, The Man In White makes him look positively heroic.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking - The Paladin nearly kills Sebestian and company, condones the torture of small children, namely Mia, and judging from his castle, has a horrible, awful taste in carpets.
- Art Evolution- Look at the first comic, then look at anything from the newer series. Heck, even when the series wasn't changing artists every few minutes Maddie's art got steadily better over the course of Saga 1.
- Art Imitates Life- Subverted, then invoked. The characters for the first production of the musical look similar to their comic counterparts. Then, after the second production and a few artists swaps, the characters took on similar appearances to their Real Life counterparts.
- Ax Crazy- According to Word of God, before she met Xaneth, Elia was this. She has a lot more self control now, but is still prepared to go on a bloody slaughter simply to rescue one person
- Badass Bookworm- Sebastian, following his leveling up, and to a lesser extent, Elia.
- Big Bad- Possibly Xaneth; he shows signs of complex planning and reasoning in some comics. Perhaps a Big Bad in training?
- Bigger Bad- Lord Attera
- Big Damn Heroes - Looks like Mia is about to pull this off with for Cecile and Elia.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall- All over the place. However, most prominent is the fourth wall-shattering character Dexter Phoenix
- Charles Atlas Superpower- Sebastian; he suffers a crippling injury to his aura that drains his life force constantly, and forces him to train hard for three hours a day just to stay alive. After Bayn fixes the damage, that training catches up to him...
- Cheerful Child- Little Mia, with her constant smiles and sweet nature, is an obvious example.
- Chekhov's Gun- Xaneth's shoes.
- The Chessmaster- Xaneth
- Chronic Hero Syndrome- Sebastian is trying to get over this.
- Conveniently an Orphan- Mia, who is adopted by Sebastian after he blows up her hometown.
- Curb Stomp Battle: Sebastaian and Xaneth's fights with The Paladin and The Man in White respectively are shown side-by-side, at first the two of them are getting stomped, then they turn it around.
- Cuteness Overload - Elia cannot resist Mia's charms ... Xaneth? Not so much.
- Daddy's Little Villain- Mia, in the sense that Sebby is not actually her father.
- Dangerously Genre Savvy: Xaneth. For example, he warns the townspeople that he's planning to destroy them... and tells them that he's going to do it a week after the time he actually plans to destroy them.
- Dungeon Crawling- Sebastian used to do this until he was contracted by Xaneth.
- Evil Versus Evil- Xaneth vs The Man in White.
- Evil Sorceror- Xaneth, Elia, Bayn.
- Face Heel Turn- Sebastian commits one and is seemingly firm in his decision. He did, after all, blow up a town.
- Flash Step- Lord Attera
- Five-Bad Band-
- Big Bad: Xaneth
- The Dragon: Sebastian
- The Evil Genius: Elia
- The Brute: Tom
- The Dark Chick / Tagalong Kid: Mia
- The Sixth Ranger: Bayn
- Good Is Not Nice- The Paladin, Gray
- Good Wings, Evil Wings- Xaneth has traditional "angelic" feathered wings, but they're also solid black, so he occupies something of a middle ground in this trope, despite being squarely on the side of evil
- Hannibal Lecture- Bayn, masterfully, see it here.
- Hero Antagonist- The Paladin, of course.
- Incredibly Lame Pun- Bael, what with all his golem jokes.
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Bael: Oh, sorry, my eyesight is a little... rusty. |
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- Informed Judaism- Xaneth, presumably to avoid the obvious Unfortunate Implications.
- Little Miss Badass- Mia, with her ability to build this.
- May-December Romance- Mia and Bayn. Somewhat averted in that though chronologically Bayn is nearly ninety, physically he is about ten.
- Also Elia and Sebastian maybe? There is definitely some flirting going on.
- Obliviously Evil- Mia, maybe.
- Older Than They Look- And how! On the cast page Elia's age is listed as 87.
- Bayn can also count now. After all, he was magically transformed into a little kid.
- Our Demons Are Different- Word of God says that Xaneth is a demon, he looks like this.
- Pet the Dog- Sebastian, Elia and even Xaneth think that Mia is too cute to kill.
- Plus Elia freeing an elven slave girl from her human masters, although, she does use an army of zombies to slaughter an entire mansion full of people, so...
- Pragmatic Villainy- Xaneth operates on a fairly local level and avoids doing things For the Evulz, this means he has a pretty strong reputation and a reasonable level of power, but his actions are too small for the more powerful heroes to bother with him, even The Paladin is more focused on Sebastian than him.
- Schedule Slip- A very, very long time. Updating now since they have a new artist.
- Serial Killer- Elia, but Xaneth keeps her under control most of the time
- Standard Female Grab Area- Gray to Cee in "Fearless". Though slightly overshadowed by the broadsword to the head shortly thereafter.
- Talking Appliance Sidekick- Augustus, the amazing talking, dueling, pocket-watch.
- Took a Level In Badass- Sebastian, he can punch through swords now.
- The Musical- Has its own page here
- Villain Protagonist- With a title like True Villains, what can you expect?
- Wings Do Nothing- We have not seen Xaneth fly or use his wings for anything besides looking damn awesome. Until now.
- Worthy Opponent: The Paladin seems to view Sebastian as this.