Webcomic / Marionetta

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Marionetta

Julia, a young woman from a small hamlet in the nation of Kalgratt, is happy with her rather boring life. But when her best friend Kamille is kidnapped by a travelling circus, Julia races out on an adventure to rescue her, only to find her story cut brutally short. Now trapped by an eldritch castle masquerading as a traveling troupe, Julia must confront the horrifying secrets of the circus and Kalgratt itself, and become a traitor to both to survive.

Marionetta contains examples of:

• Age Lift: A rare case where this was done retroactively. Originally Julia was 17 and Kamille 18 (turning 19) at the start of the comic, but in 2024 the author retconned this to make them 20 and 21 (turning 22), respectively, to make them young adults rather than teenagers. The compulsory marriage age was also raised from 20 to 23 to accommodate this.
• All Part of the Show: When the immortality of the circus members is accidentally exposed onstage, Julia thinks fast and introduces the “Horror Circus”. The rest of the troupe follow her cue and start up a gory performance. This is then turned into the new theme for the circus.
• Ax-Crazy: Not only is Amalia willing to commit atrocities For Science!, she also murders her husband just to prove a point to her father.
• Betty and Veronica: Anthonn and Sahed are this to Julia, as they both develop crushes on her — Tonny being the pleasent mannered and endearingly awkward circus ringleader, while Sahed is an aloof and rebellious Ah’kon mage. However, this is also Deconstructed as Anthonn, despite his niceness, is effectively Julia’s captor and harbouring sinister secrets as the circus leader, while Sahed has righteous goals to oppose and overthrow Kalgratt’s tyranny.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Dotty is cheerful and upbeat, styling herself as “Mama”. She’s also absolutely ruthless towards anything that threatens the safety of the circus and especially Bob.
• Break the Believer: Season 1 is about the ultra-patriotic Julia learning that everything Kalgratt told her to believe in was a brazen lie, especially the parts that would be common everyday sense in a normal world. Contrary to her State-curated worldview, the Ah'kon don't deserve to be scapegoats, the military sees peasants as cattle, young girls don't like being married into slavery, the war was won dishonorably, and magic is real.
• Bureaucratically Arranged Marriage: Exaggerated. All women in Kalgratt must be married by the age of twenty-three (though 'at least' the age requirement has been raised over time, since women used to get married off at twenty), unless they are in the army. The government approves a list of local suitors and sends them to the woman's home along with soldiers until she makes a decision. If you try to evade this, or if you try to run away from your husband and he reports you, you are going to be hunted for the rest of your life.
• Circus of Magic: The Anthonn Gremminger Traveling Troupe is a circus powered and staffed by people who signed contracts with Anthonn to become immortal in exchange for joining.
• Crapsack World: Kalgratt is a military driven fascist country with tons of propaganda and oppression. All women must be married by the age of twenty-three to a government approved suitor (and while it may or may not be required of men, they need to be at least twenty-three to propose). Both genders can only marry younger or older by joining the army ^note although women can only join if they have exceptional grades in the relevant subjects — which has been doing poorly, with massive casualties over the decades covered up by propaganda. The government arrests Ah'kon on sight and essentially enslaves them because they need to use their magic to win wars and keep the nation running.
• Daddy's Girl: Julia was raised alone by her father and is very close with him.
• Deal with the Devil: Downplayed. Anyone who makes a deal with the Castle (and Tonny) is enslaved to stay inside the castle forever — until they finally get bored of being eternally young and request a Mercy Kill. Dotty reveals it used to be a miserable existence nonetheless, but she found a loophole that let her move and alter the castle to give the residents more freedom.
• Devious Daggers: Julia uses knives and is seen killing her boss, Tonny, at the start of the first episode. Downplayed, as while she is willing to do some horrific things to further her goals, she does have standards. Played straight with Sahed, who uses a dagger to kill Kamille and a knife to slit Julia's throat to prove a point.
• Eldritch Abomination: Ryishmar, the entity at the heart of the circus and source of the troupe’s immortality. It’s unclear if it’s a god, demon or something else entirely, but it looks like an emaciated torso emerging from a lumpy orange Body of Bodies with way too many eyes.
• Fantastic Racism: The country of Kalgratt discriminates against the Ah'kon, calling them "three-eyes". Any discovered Ah'kon will be detained and used in experiments. The entire country is taught from their childhoods that Ah'kon are extremely dangerous and to report them to the police.
• Fantastic Slurs: People in Kalgratt call Ah'kon three eyes because they have three eyes. Ah'kon consider the use of three-eyes to be highly offensive. As Tonny explains; it’s wrong to reduce a person to just one characteristic.
• Foregone Conclusion: As the first episode shows, it is inevitable that Julia will stab Tonny in the face during a live throwing knife performance. She does. Unfortunately, she doesn't know how to kill an immortal.
• Freudian Excuse: Julia’s bigoted attitude towards the Ah’kon is largely a result of a lifetime of racist propaganda, but also a childhood encounter with an Ah’kon fugitive that led to her and Kamille nearly drowning and being lost in the wilderness for days. After some character growth she comes to understand that the escaped Ah’kon acted out of fear rather than malice and probably didn’t intend to hurt her.
• Government Conspiracy: The fascist nation of Kalgratt has lied through their teeth about the true source of their power because the truth happens to be insane; they simply claim that magic is not real and that Ak'hon mutants who once claimed to be magicians should be rounded up in camps. In truth, Kalgratt's military focus is the study of magic, learned by experimenting on Ah'kons, and they're willing to kill anyone to keep their monopoly on the supernatural a secret.
• How We Got Here: The first episode shows the aftermath of Julia killing Tonny, and it then cuts to her several months earlier.
• Hide Your Otherness: Two Ah'kon, Sahed and Rainah, use masks to hide their third eye while performing.
• The Lost Lenore: Eithra, Rainah’s girlfriend from centuries before the castle became the circus, came to see her immortality as a curse, and to that end starved herself until Tonny finally agreed to kill her. Both Rainah and Tonny are still haunted by her death.
• Mad Scientist: Amalia Steinheimer sees absolutely nothing wrong with killing Ah'kon test subjects in her research. Her grandfather, Jonah Steinheimer, blinded his child research subjects to force them to see only the spiritual world.
• Missed the Bus: Julia and Kamille nearly miss the bus to work at the beginning of the story. This is probably a Shout-Out to Hooky, the author’s previous comic, in which the whole plot is kicked off when the protagonists miss the bus to school.
• An Offer You Can't Refuse: Julia and Kamille get the choice between signing a supernatural contract to be brought back to life as leashed immortals, or staying dead. Others in the circus have also been granted this "opportunity".
• Papa Wolf: Paul Lazarett, Julia’s father, is a police sergeant and dedicated Kalgratti patriot, but he kills an officer with little hesitation to protect his daughter.
• Patriotic Fervor: Exaggerated with Julia at the beginning of the comic. As a sergeant's daughter, she lives and breathes for Kalgratt.
  Julia: [imagines the flag of Kalgratt] Now we must be responsible adults! And fulfill our obligations to the great nation of Kalgratt.
• Really Seven Hundred Years Old: Bob and Dotty are senior members who were alive when women wore ballgowns. Season 2 shows that Rainah and Tonny are even older, with flashbacks showing them in a quasi-Medieval setting.
• Reduced to Dust: After a troupe member resigns and experiences their final death, all that's left of their body is dust.
• Slave Race: The Ah'kon, after being arrested, are forced to do most of the army's maintenance. Specifically, their magical maintenance.
• The Strongman: Bob is able to lift a bench with five people on it in a circus act.
• Sympathetic Adulterer: Dotty — when she was alive — cheated on her husband with Bob. She didn't loathe her husband, but he was just the least awful of the candidates she was forced to pick from when she was twenty.
• Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure: Kamille and Julia’s friendship is increasingly strained throughout season 1 before the two have a major falling out towards the end. After her failed attempt at killing Tonny, Julia apologizes to Kamille and confesses her situation, leading to them making up.
• Purpose-Driven Immortality: The members of the Anthonn Gremminger Traveling Troupe are immortal until they decide to leave the circus, upon which they go to heaven. At least that’s what they’re told.
• Putting on the Reich: Downplayed; the Kalgratt military's uniforms resemble Waffen-SS officer uniforms, though with a palette-swap and with most of the insignia removed.
• Team Mom: Dotty basically is a surrogate parent for Kamille and Julia, trying to help them adjust to life in the circus. She also is one of the oldest of the circus members and literally calls herself "Mama Dotty".
• Third Eye: Ah'kon have three eyes, though the third on their forehead can only see spirits; it can't be used like a regular eye.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Dotty prioritises maintaining the circus’ safety above all else, and is violently opposed to any plans that could compromise it by standing up to Kalgratt’s government. To this end she very nearly hands over a half-Ah’kon child to the police, but it’s ultimately subverted when she has a last minute change of heart - and then murders one of the soldiers chasing the half-Ah'kon in cold blood.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Kamille calls Julia out for killing Tonny at the beginning of episode 1.
  Julia, what have you done? Did you ... Did you just kill him?
• Would Hurt a Child: When a half-Ah’kon child is spotted in the circus with soldiers searching for her, Julia fears they’ll kill her if they find her. Sahed warns her they’ll do much worse. Steinheimer took out the "regular" eyes of Ah'kon children to force them to only see the spiritual world.