Leif & Thorn
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fanifestoLeif&Thorn is a fantasy drama/comedy webcomic about a knight trying to have a romance in his second language.
The premise: Sir Thorn is a magic knight assigned to guard a foreign embassy where he meets (and falls in love with) Leif, a gardener working for said embassy. It gets complicated from there.
It is ongoing, with a new page every day (main plot on weekdays, bonus art and shorter side stories on weekends). The entire main archive is available online. There are Patreon-locked side stories and more NSFW comics, but they're nice extras, not an obligatory part of the experience.
The comic has a large ensemble cast, most of whom get some time in the spotlight (and the majority of whom are queer). It’s mostly a lighthearted comedy, but does not shy away from the darker moments – some of the characters are in very unpleasant situations or have pretty fucked up pasts. Darker storylines get content warnings in the beginning, so they’re not just sprung on readers.
Well. You may like this comic!
Thorn
(pictured here with his soulbonded therapy cat Tiernan)
One of the main characters: a magic knight for the country of Ceannis. Slew a dragon a few years before the story started, is still dealing with the aftermath (PTSD, residual scars from the dragonfire that even magic healing couldn’t fix). He and his team are assigned to guard the embassy of Sønheim where he meets Leif.
(Occasionally we see an older, grizzled and eyepatch-wearing Future Thorn sneaking around and pursuing his own agenda. What’s up with that? We just don’t know yet.)
Generally calm, competent and reasonable. Has so far handled like 75% of Weird Plot Shit with equanimity (being in therapy presumably helps). Fantasy-Jewish (as in his ethnicity is pretty clearly his world’s version of Jewish). Learning Sønheic language to communicate better with Leif.
Is very much in love with Leif.
Leif
Gardener for the Embassy of Sønheim. Indentured servant working off a very large debt, the specifics of which he’d rather not talk about. (Does that sound fucked up? Yes! It is, and it’s one of the things that shifts the genre from “light-hearted fantasy romcom” to “light-hearted fantasy romcom… except for those heavier-hearted drama plotlines”.)
Cheerful, earnest, does “the equivalent of mental powerlifting” to avoid thinking about many things, including exactly how awful his situation is. Does not speak Ceannic, so communicates with Thorn in his own native language.
Likes Thorn very much, but it’s… complicated.
Kale
Thorn’s neighbor and eventual friend, works for the government as a translator. Perfectly willing to disclose he killed a bunch of people at his and Thorn’s first meeting (in the waiting room of the therapy practice they both go to), would rather not talk about his dark and troubled past beyond that.
Sarcastic, closed-off, troubled. Clinically depressed. Has spent a lot of time processing his own past, but still has a lot left to process.
It takes him only about three storylines to fall in love with Thorn (who’s sort of aware, but prioritizes being friends with Kale; Kale himself is well aware his type is “kind, nice hair, already taken”). Is also becoming internet friends with Leif (aided by the fact that Kale is more fluent in Sønheic language and culture than, say, Thorn). If you ask me, all of them have two hands.
Juniper
Knight, Thorn’s second-in-command. Runs the team when Thorn is out of commission for some or other reason. Practical, rational, reliable. They do not like showtunes (which becomes relevant over the Leachtric (think Hamilton) storyline). Agender.
Rowan.
Knight on Thorn’s team. Intelligent, charming, intermittently an insufferable know-it-all (can get dates, cannot get them to stay for breakfast – this is a minor plotline). Best friends with Violet. Has his own childhood trauma he’s mostly figured out by now.
Violet
Knight on Thorn’s team. Avid bookworm, reliable friend, occasionally snarky. Best friends with Rowan. Mixed-race by Ceannic standards; her younger sister is a long-runner (a reincarnated person who remembers her previous lives).
Pascentia
Knight on Thorn’s team, joined post-dragon when the team was assigned to the embassy. Kind, friendly, extreme overachiever to the point where she has very few recorded weaknesses (one of which is that she’s cheerfully ignoring any indications her childhood was… much less than stellar).
Has albinism. (Is often mistaken for Sønheic due to the lightness of her skin and the fact that she speaks fluent Sønheic, is amused by this.) Younger sister of Agent D10, has no idea that D10 is a secret agent.
Woman in Black
Mysterious secret agent, under a magical effect that makes most people unable to remember any detail about her. Probably a time traveller. Probably on an official mission. Often partnered with Agent Delphinium, who is starting to be able to remember that she has a partner.
Agent Delphinium
Secret agent for the Secret Order of Monster Hunters, specializes in vampires. Wields a heartaxe (a heartsword type that tends to indicate unsubtle ruthless types). Actually pretty nice. Trans. Often partnered with the Woman in Black.
Agent D10
Secret agent, specializes in cases involving mages gone dark. Has a wonderful and handsome husband, about whom they boast often and of whom they are murderously protective. Sneaky, competent, uncompromising. Genderqueer.
Older sibling of Pascentia. Has never told Pascentia about their real job. Seems to have a bit of a friendly rivalry with Agent Delphinium.
Katya
Leif’s friend and fellow indentured servant for the embassy. Stoic, quiet, likes to fade into the background. Is absolutely plotting something Leif does not permit himself to think about.
Hyacinth
(pictured here with her friends Vine and Hazel)
Thorn’s teenage niece. Earnest, very interested in social justice, basically a bit of a nice Tumblr teen. Her social life is its own long-running side plot.
(Lulen on the left, Captain Sigrun on the right)
Lulen
An embassy guard, one of Sigrún’s subordinates. Expert markswoman, ex-indentured servant (and does not like to be reminded of that), as much of a sweetheart as a Sønheim soldier can be. A bit of a bi disaster.
Sigrún
Captain of the embassy guards, pretty much Thorn’s equivalent on the embassy side. Stoic, serious, not very good at soft skills, but has her moments.
Lady Stanczia & Lord Imri
Sønheic vampire aristocrats. Cheerfully evil, have very few redeeming qualities (other than being vampirically elegant and in love with each other, which makes them at least somewhat entertaining to read about). Lady Stanczia is one of the oldest vampires in Sønheim, Lord Imri is her younger boytoy/accountant upgraded to trophy husband.
Everyone has way different starting points, but they all do their best to communicate as well as they can.
It’s heartwarming, it’s often funny, and it’s always just plain enjoyable. I recommend it.
The premise: Sir Thorn is a magic knight assigned to guard a foreign embassy where he meets (and falls in love with) Leif, a gardener working for said embassy. It gets complicated from there.
It is ongoing, with a new page every day (main plot on weekdays, bonus art and shorter side stories on weekends). The entire main archive is available online. There are Patreon-locked side stories and more NSFW comics, but they're nice extras, not an obligatory part of the experience.
The comic has a large ensemble cast, most of whom get some time in the spotlight (and the majority of whom are queer). It’s mostly a lighthearted comedy, but does not shy away from the darker moments – some of the characters are in very unpleasant situations or have pretty fucked up pasts. Darker storylines get content warnings in the beginning, so they’re not just sprung on readers.
Why should I read it?
Do you enjoy some combo of- earnest and smart knights,
- queer romance,
- magitech fantasy world,
- people trying very hard to communicate across language barriers and massively different starting assumptions,
- iron woobies with awful pasts,
- mysterious secret agents pursuing mysterious secret agendas,
- extremely hate-able vampires in the background,
- worldbuilding that’s a combo of “because that’s cool” and well-reasoned (magical girls and knights with Utena-style magical heartswords are both reasonable career choices in this world; and the author certainly has thought about its influence on the society over the centuries),
- occasional pointed social commentary (Sønheim is shown to share some of the United States’ more interesting viewpoints, and that is not a good thing)
Well. You may like this comic!
Characters
There are many, so I’m basically introducing the mains and my own favorites. Pictures are mostly the formal portraits from Saturday bonus art, because those are prettier than trying to crop a good picture from the plotty strips.Thorn
(pictured here with his soulbonded therapy cat Tiernan)
One of the main characters: a magic knight for the country of Ceannis. Slew a dragon a few years before the story started, is still dealing with the aftermath (PTSD, residual scars from the dragonfire that even magic healing couldn’t fix). He and his team are assigned to guard the embassy of Sønheim where he meets Leif.
(Occasionally we see an older, grizzled and eyepatch-wearing Future Thorn sneaking around and pursuing his own agenda. What’s up with that? We just don’t know yet.)
Generally calm, competent and reasonable. Has so far handled like 75% of Weird Plot Shit with equanimity (being in therapy presumably helps). Fantasy-Jewish (as in his ethnicity is pretty clearly his world’s version of Jewish). Learning Sønheic language to communicate better with Leif.
Is very much in love with Leif.
Leif
Gardener for the Embassy of Sønheim. Indentured servant working off a very large debt, the specifics of which he’d rather not talk about. (Does that sound fucked up? Yes! It is, and it’s one of the things that shifts the genre from “light-hearted fantasy romcom” to “light-hearted fantasy romcom… except for those heavier-hearted drama plotlines”.)
Cheerful, earnest, does “the equivalent of mental powerlifting” to avoid thinking about many things, including exactly how awful his situation is. Does not speak Ceannic, so communicates with Thorn in his own native language.
Likes Thorn very much, but it’s… complicated.
Kale
Thorn’s neighbor and eventual friend, works for the government as a translator. Perfectly willing to disclose he killed a bunch of people at his and Thorn’s first meeting (in the waiting room of the therapy practice they both go to), would rather not talk about his dark and troubled past beyond that.
Sarcastic, closed-off, troubled. Clinically depressed. Has spent a lot of time processing his own past, but still has a lot left to process.
It takes him only about three storylines to fall in love with Thorn (who’s sort of aware, but prioritizes being friends with Kale; Kale himself is well aware his type is “kind, nice hair, already taken”). Is also becoming internet friends with Leif (aided by the fact that Kale is more fluent in Sønheic language and culture than, say, Thorn). If you ask me, all of them have two hands.
Juniper
Knight, Thorn’s second-in-command. Runs the team when Thorn is out of commission for some or other reason. Practical, rational, reliable. They do not like showtunes (which becomes relevant over the Leachtric (think Hamilton) storyline). Agender.
Rowan.
Knight on Thorn’s team. Intelligent, charming, intermittently an insufferable know-it-all (can get dates, cannot get them to stay for breakfast – this is a minor plotline). Best friends with Violet. Has his own childhood trauma he’s mostly figured out by now.
Violet
Knight on Thorn’s team. Avid bookworm, reliable friend, occasionally snarky. Best friends with Rowan. Mixed-race by Ceannic standards; her younger sister is a long-runner (a reincarnated person who remembers her previous lives).
Pascentia
Knight on Thorn’s team, joined post-dragon when the team was assigned to the embassy. Kind, friendly, extreme overachiever to the point where she has very few recorded weaknesses (one of which is that she’s cheerfully ignoring any indications her childhood was… much less than stellar).
Has albinism. (Is often mistaken for Sønheic due to the lightness of her skin and the fact that she speaks fluent Sønheic, is amused by this.) Younger sister of Agent D10, has no idea that D10 is a secret agent.
Woman in Black
Mysterious secret agent, under a magical effect that makes most people unable to remember any detail about her. Probably a time traveller. Probably on an official mission. Often partnered with Agent Delphinium, who is starting to be able to remember that she has a partner.
Agent Delphinium
Secret agent for the Secret Order of Monster Hunters, specializes in vampires. Wields a heartaxe (a heartsword type that tends to indicate unsubtle ruthless types). Actually pretty nice. Trans. Often partnered with the Woman in Black.
Agent D10
Secret agent, specializes in cases involving mages gone dark. Has a wonderful and handsome husband, about whom they boast often and of whom they are murderously protective. Sneaky, competent, uncompromising. Genderqueer.
Older sibling of Pascentia. Has never told Pascentia about their real job. Seems to have a bit of a friendly rivalry with Agent Delphinium.
Katya
Leif’s friend and fellow indentured servant for the embassy. Stoic, quiet, likes to fade into the background. Is absolutely plotting something Leif does not permit himself to think about.
Hyacinth
(pictured here with her friends Vine and Hazel)
Thorn’s teenage niece. Earnest, very interested in social justice, basically a bit of a nice Tumblr teen. Her social life is its own long-running side plot.
(Lulen on the left, Captain Sigrun on the right)
Lulen
An embassy guard, one of Sigrún’s subordinates. Expert markswoman, ex-indentured servant (and does not like to be reminded of that), as much of a sweetheart as a Sønheim soldier can be. A bit of a bi disaster.
Sigrún
Captain of the embassy guards, pretty much Thorn’s equivalent on the embassy side. Stoic, serious, not very good at soft skills, but has her moments.
Lady Stanczia & Lord Imri
Sønheic vampire aristocrats. Cheerfully evil, have very few redeeming qualities (other than being vampirically elegant and in love with each other, which makes them at least somewhat entertaining to read about). Lady Stanczia is one of the oldest vampires in Sønheim, Lord Imri is her younger boytoy/accountant upgraded to trophy husband.
Anything else?
I’ve tried to not spoil too much about the plot, because I myself really enjoy watching it unfold and trying to guess at future developments. But trying to keep it non-spoilery… there’s Leif and Thorn’s developing romance. There are occasional counterparts to real-world events (a Hamilton equivalent, an Eurovision plotline, several shorter plotlines about vampire servants handling a viral epidemic). There are plotlines delving into various people’s troubled pasts (that dragonslaying Thorn and his team did, Kale’s past, Leif’s is kind of an ongoing sprinkle of hints…). In the background there’s even larger overarching plot involving (probably) a prophecy and time travel, but that one isn’t very clear to the main characters yet, and they have their hands full, anyway.Everyone has way different starting points, but they all do their best to communicate as well as they can.
It’s heartwarming, it’s often funny, and it’s always just plain enjoyable. I recommend it.
no subject
Date: 2022-04-01 10:50 pm (UTC)(I tend to have a lot of trouble keeping up with long-running narratives, or even following them after a certain point -- especially paced ones. I stopped following Girl Genius years ago because I found I couldn't remember half of the characters or plot. And it's harder for me to invest attention in something if I don't know if I can ever expect closure.)
no subject
Date: 2022-04-02 06:11 am (UTC)Okay, so, Leif&Thorn is definitely not pure open-ended exploration: I do have a sense that the author has an idea where the main plot is going and is actually going in that direction. Something changes with every storyline. There are occasional storylines that feel more distant from the main plot, but I wouldn't bet money on them being completely irrelevant. I've already had "...huh, so I already know how *that* works because of that old storyline" moments, maybe they're all like that. :D
I think we're about halfway through? It kind of feels like the story might approach a turning point in the near future, but also I don't think it can be wrapped up instantly after whatever looming thing happens.
I've been following Leif&Thorn daily for more than two years (binged the archive sometime in 2019) and I haven't yet felt the "okay, I completely forgot who any of those people are" confusion that sometimes happens with Girl Genius. I think Leif&Thorn has two advantages: it's just moving plain faster (daily strips to GG's three per week) and the way it's divided into explicit storylines makes it easier to follow, at least for me. Like, I know one storyline can't meander through half the world if the title says it's 34 strips long.
I haven't read the author's other comics, but I'm pretty sure she had two other long-running ones, both of which are finished by now. So she's not one of those authors who are incapable of finishing a thing.
no subject
Date: 2022-04-03 07:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-04-07 06:50 pm (UTC)I thiink the humor has also evolved over the years. I haven't reread the entire comic in a while, but when I went back to the beginning just now, it felt a little like it was trying too hard, compared to the current comics.
no subject
Date: 2022-04-02 11:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-04-07 06:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-04-08 09:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-04-11 06:32 pm (UTC)