History Characters / CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteers

* ApocalypseHow: Class 6. Zarm drove the last planet he visited to fight a global nuclear war. As a result it became, as Gaia says, "a lifeless cinder". With Duke Nukem representing the dangers of nuclear energy, Zarm is the very manifestation of the fear of World War III without nuclear deterrent and the United Nations to prevent it.

* ThisLoserIsYou: Downplayed; Wheeler is brave, resourceful, and warm-hearted (even if it's not immediately evident), but Turner created him as a stand-in for those United States citizens who display behaviors the show wanted to change. As such, he becomes a frequent victim of the need for a holder of the StrawmanBall.

The various henchmen for the Eco Villains that include Rigger, Greedly's YesMan (well "yep" man); Argos Bleak, a mercenary soldier, and leader of Plunder's private army; Oakey and Dokey, Plunder's two unintelligent lumberjack employees; Ooze, Sludge's whiner sidekick; Tank Flusher III, Sludge's strongman garbage collector; Leadsuit, Nukem's cowardly errand boy; the Rat Pack, Skumm's part man, part rat thugs who eventually dwindle in size into just one rather competent nameless henchman; and MAL, Dr. Blight's evil highly-intelligent supercomputer.

* LetsYouAndHimFight: One of the ways he operates is to get people to fight each other until they are all dead, like the aliens from ''Series/{{The Twilight Zone|1959}}'' episode "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E22TheMonstersAreDueOnMapleStreet The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street]]".

* HeroesWantRedheads: She is essentially an environmental superhero, and she quickly becomes attracted to her redheaded teammate, Wheeler, despite her constant effort to hide it.

A 16-year-old ornithology expert from the (former) Soviet Union, Linka is the team's no-nonsense strategist and computer expert. Linka likes to think logically and use common sense when on missions but has developed feelings for the impulsive Wheeler. Linka's ring was the element of wind, used to command it to swirl or gust, or create small tornadoes. She can even use it to levitate herself or others (and Linka's power is what enables Captain Planet to fly), but she can only do it for short periods.

A member of the Kayapo Indian tribe in Brazil, Ma-Ti is the youngest Planeteer at 12. Ma-Ti's ring was the element of heart, which enables him to communicate telepathically with animals, the other Planeteers and Gaia, as well as induce empathy in people.

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Upon seeing Captain Planet's first ever summoning, he immediately gives the order to get his mobile oil rig out of the area.

* GreenwashedVillainy: He's meant to represent short-sightedness and improper disposal. Hence, many of his get-rich-quick schemes revolve around finding a new "environmentally friendly" method of disposing of things like toxic waste, only for it to turn out to be a scam. He eventually [[spoiler:undergoes a Heel–Face Turn when the Planeteers convince him that there's genuine money to be made in recycling]].

* WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway: While Ma-Ti has this reputation amongst the fanbase, in-universe, Gi's power is the most often rendered useless due to her ElementalBaggage, something she doesn't share with the others. (Kwame and Ma-Ti are always near the elements they manipulate with their powers, and Wheeler and Linka can create limited amounts of the elements they control with their rings.)

* TheSmurfettePrinciple: The only female amongst the villains, and generally more subtle in her machinations than the others.

** Gaia is motherly, patient and generally friendly, but in "No Place Like Home", seeing a coyote family suffer because of human thoughtlessness makes her furious enough to leave Hope Island in a red flame (with an ominous tune to match her mood). Too bad Dr. Blight later exploits the situation to change Gaia into a mortal.\\
She can also become a Mama Bear when the Planeteers are in danger... a Mama Bear armed with the entire power of nature.

** Ma-Ti is probably the nicest member of the whole Planet team. He's gentle, friendly, patient, and practically incorruptible. However, when he got to meet the guy who was apparently to blame for the deaths of his parents, [[EvenTheLovingHeroHasHatedOnes the gloves were off]].

* FriendToAllLivingThings: While it's not a guarantee, many animals the Planeteers encounter seem to realize they're here to help and treat them in a friendly manner.

** Speaking of the Planet-team, they're ''all'' one another's protectorates. Mess with the Planeteers, and you'll have to deal with [[PapaWolf Captain Planet]] and/or [[MamaBear Gaia]]. Mess with either of the latter two, and [[ExtremelyProtectiveChild the Planeteers]] will make sure you don't get away with it. And don't think you're getting off easy if you attack just one or two members (especially [[EveryonesBabyBrother youngest member Ma-Ti]]) either; you'll just get the remaining Planeteers on your doorstep for a rescue mission, with whatever damage to your lair that involves. And afterwards, they'll call Captain Planet who'll put the definite end to your scheme.

* MotherNature: Literally. She's the benevolent Spirit of Earth, whose health and life is [[{{Synchronization}} closely tied to the condition of the planet]], and serves as a [[ParentalSubstitute mother figure]] for the Planeteers.

* MasterOfIllusion: A rare good example. She appears as a semi-transparent apparition to the Planeteers when they need her advice/guidance when out on missions, as she's unable to appear physically anywhere outside of Hope Island. She uses her powers against the bad guys to protect the Planeteers and/or Earth on a few occasions when the kids really are overpowered and unable to defend themselves, call Captain Planet, or stop a disaster from happening. She can also cause illusions to appear, showing the likely effect of an impending eco-disaster and its long-term consequences if left unchecked.

* SadlyMythtaken: How come the powerful titaness of Earth from the Myth/GreekMythology became an entity that relies on others to do her work? Maybe she's just lazy? In the myths, Gaia was lazy and created monsters to do the work. Also in the myths, she couldn't care less if the humans polluted or destroyed the planet.

* TeamMom: The archetypal and literal "Mother Earth", she does take on the role of surrogate parent to the Planeteers at times, especially towards Ma-Ti. ParentalFavoritism, anyone?

* AbusiveParents: Wheeler's [[AlcoholicParent alcoholic father]] is the whole reason he left home.

* ChickMagnet: Though Kwame has ShipTease with more than one girl through the series and Ma-Ti gets his [[FirstLove first crush]] in the third season, Wheeler is unquestionably the group's ladies' man. He gets the attention of multiple one-shot female characters as well as being constantly teased with Linka.

** In "Mind Pollution", Linka comes onto him while under the influence of Skumm's latest drug, and he puts her off and urges her to shake the addiction.

* ManlyTears: At the end of "Summit to Save Earth, Part 1", he visibly sobs over Gaia having been turned mortal and very old.

* ThisLoserIsYou: Downplayed; Wheeler is brave, resourceful, and warm-hearted (even if it's not immediately evident), but Turner created him as a stand-in for those United States citizens displaying behaviors the show wanted to change. As such, he becomes a frequent victim of the need for a holder of the StrawmanBall.

* HeIsNotMyBoyfriend: She insists anyone who claims she likes Wheeler ''that way'' has no idea what they're talking about, but nobody actually believes her protests.

* HeroicSelfDeprecation: He takes a dim view of his role on the team and makes this known to others.

%%* VillainousCrush: It seems that he harbors an attraction to Linka, given that he calls her "my pretty little Planeteer" in "[[Recap/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteersS1E2RainOfTerror Rain of Terror]]." It doesn't keep him from doing horrible things to her along with the others.%%

* StandardizedLeader: Even though Cap himself took over when the powers combined, Kwame was technically the unofficial leader of the crew when the mullet wasn't around. The thing is, poor Kwame doesn't have nearly as much personality as his teammates and gets less CharacterDevelopment. This especially stood out next to the team's other teenage guy, Wheeler, who was better developed as a character, had a "never say die" attitude, but was apparently a little too gung-ho and non-level-headed enough to be leader of the Planeteers. Kwame was basically there to be superior to Wheeler and... that's about it. He was not helped by the fact that he had very few lines in many late episodes, apart from StockFootage. [=LeVar=] Burton got popular and expensive, and they used him less and less, but his character was still there, following the others around like a ghost until it was time to call Cap.

* DeadpanSnarker: He will sometimes make sardonic remarks about the environmental problems he's tasked to deal with.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Wheeler tends to be the least ecologically sensitive, though this is partly because being a city kid means he lacks experience. However, he still goes on all the Planeteers' missions, accepts when he does something wrong, and cares deeply about the other Planeteers, Captain Planet, and Gaia. In "Heat Wave", upon returning to Hope Island, the Planeteers find Gaia very sick and weak. The one to cradle her caringly is none other than Wheeler.

* ThisLoserIsYou: "Loser" is too strong a word, but as the only white American character on the team and a frequent victim of the need for a holder of the StrawmanBall, it's hard not to see him as a stand-in for the sorts of first-world behaviors the show was built to try to change.

A 16-year-old ornithology expert from the (former) Soviet Union, Linka is the team's no-nonsense strategist and computer expert. Linka likes to think logically and use common sense when on missions, but has developed feelings for the impulsive Wheeler. Linka's ring was the element of wind, used to command it to swirl or gust, or create small tornadoes. She can even use it to levitate herself or others (and Linka's power is what enables Captain Planet to fly), but she can only do it for short periods.

* ChummyCommies: She's from the Soviet Union, but gets along just fine with Wheeler and her other comrades. Downplayed in that she treats Wheeler with some coldness when they first meet because he's an American, but this doesn't last long.

* GeniusBruiser: In line with being TheBigGuy, she has brains to go with her brawn.

* CatchPhrase: "Let our powers combine!"

* CatchPhrase: She frequently exclaims "Bozhe moi" ("Oh my God" in Russian) whenever she's frustrated by something.

* AffectionateNickname: Wheeler often shortens his name to "Cap."

* BoisterousBruiser: Take Spider-Man's wisecracking and make it hammier and more bombastic and you'll have Captain Planet.

* {{Catchphrase}}: "The Power is Yours."

** MakingASplash: he can control water.

** Inverted in "[[Recap/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteersS5E2Hollywaste Hollywaste]]", where he turned out to be RightForTheWrongReasons, with the others (most notably Linka) being totally wrong.

* LickedByTheDog: Wheeler is the least enthusiastic about the group's mission and has the shortest temper in the lot. However, his heart of gold is hinted at given that Ma-Ti (whose powers render him completely immune to deception) enjoys his company and shows mild BigBrotherWorship towards him.

%%* SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan: Manly Man to Ma-Ti's Sensitive Guy.
* TheSoftHeartedWarrior: Wheeler is unquestionably the most confrontational of the team, and he's one of the only members to show any experience with fighting before being selected. However, in non-combat situations, he shows a significantly sweet and playful side. His focus in combat situations also seems to revolve around protecting the potential victim, and he understands the value of stopping one's assault once the attacker poses no threat; he even talks [[BewareTheNiceOnes Gi]] out of killing a gangster in revenge for shooting a friend.

%%* HeIsNotMyBoyfriend: To Wheeler. Though it's clear she likes him.

* PapaWolf: Notice to villains: messing with his Planeteers (especially when he ''sees'' you doing it) is a ''huge'' mistake. When Skumm got Linka addicted during his latest scheme (to a powerful drug with very nasty aftereffects), Captain Planet dropped the puns and was sorely tempted to dose the villain with his own product, before settling for throwing him out of a helicopter.

* WeaksauceWeakness: He is vulnerable to pollution, which makes sense as a LogicalWeakness, but there is also (famously) the hate behind Hitler's DeathGlare. To make things really problematic, these are the same things that fuel Captain Pollution (see his own entry).

* LetsYouAndHimFight: One of the ways he operates is to get people to fight each other until they are all dead, like the aliens from ''Series/{{The Twilight Zone|1959}}'' episode "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E22TheMonstersAreDueOnMapleStreet The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street]]".

'''Zarm:''' ''No-one sneaks up on me!''

* InexplicablyAwesome: We get no explanation for where he came from (outside of a throwaway line about how he was "born and raised in toxic waste") or why he is rat man, and none of the other characters ever really questioned it. While other rat people appeared as his henchmen, Skumm having the means to turn normal humans into RatMen indicates that the rat people are Skumm's creations, and not an actual species of which he is a member. However, he refers to the people around him as "humans" while invading a hospital in "Hate Canal", implying that whatever he is, he doesn't see himself as human.

* PickOnSomeoneYourOwnSize: While one could say that the immensely powerful adult Captain Planet is the eco-villains' ArchEnemy, he's around relatively rarely, and it's no secret that they absolutely hate the Planeteers. The group is composed of four teenagers (Gi, Kwame, Linka, and Wheeler) or and one pre-teen (Ma-Ti). None of this keeps them from doing nasty things to their underage nemeses (up to and including attempted murder) constantly.