History Characters / CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteers

* PsychoRangers: Dr. Blight, Duke Nukem, Looten Plunder, Sly Sludge and Verminous Skumm temporarily became this trope during the "Mission to Save Earth" two-parter. They managed to create evil counterparts to the Planeteers' rings, which were even able to summon Captain Pollution, an evil counterpart to Captain Planet.

* AlikeAndAntitheticalAdversaries: The situation is an unusual mixture of multiple subtypes, depending on what sort of homogeneity is the focus. The Planeteers all come from different continents and backgrounds, but share a common passion to save the planet. Meanwhile, their RoguesGallery are almost all White (it's tough to pin down an ethnicity for, say, Verminous Skumm), but are amazingly diverse in motivation, being driven by greed, pride, gluttony or sheer spite. While the good guys are all united in saving the planet for the same reason (which is that you should), the villains all have very different motivations.

* AudienceSurrogate: Much like Wheeler, he's meant to be relatable to the target audience. However, while Wheeler is relatable in the sense that he's learning the environmental facts the show is trying to teach along with the audience, Ma-Ti is relatable because he feels his age and relative weakness makes him powerless.

** Can be a case of ShownTheirWork. During the existence of the Soviet Union, many USSR citizens (regardless of their ethnicity) were taught to identify primarily as "Soviets", since "Russian", "Ukrainian", "Latvian", and "Kazakh" were not considered nationalities under Soviet law, but only acknowledged as cultural ethnicities. Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, however, their status as national identities has fully (and sometimes aggressively) returned.[[note]][[WordOfGod Showrunner Barbara Pyle]] confirmed in an interview that yes, Linka was indeed ethnically, culturally, and officially Russian.[[/note]]

* LastNameBasis: According to [[WordOfGod showrunner Barbara Pyle]] Wheeler's first name is actually James.[[note]]Via a post on the ''Captain Planet and the Planeteers'' Facebook page in January 2012.[[/note]] Given that a group of people from his neighborhood also refer to his father by "Wheeler", it's seemingly his surname, but for whatever reason, he prefers to go by that and is never referred to as anything else (barring the various insulting names the eco-villains have for the Planeteers).

* 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 17-year-old street-wise smart aleck from North America ([[BigApplesauce New York]] to be exact), Wheeler probably knows the least about pertaining to the environment, but his heart is always in the right place, and he definitely has the most street smarts. While he has been known to flirt with other women, he developed feelings for Linka. Wheeler's ring was the element of fire, used to create tiny bolts of lightning or create and direct small fires.

The Planeteers are [[MultinationalTeam five teenagers from five different continents]], assembled by Gaia, the Spirit of the Earth to defend the world from pollution, criminals, and natural disasters. When the situation is too much for them to handle they [[AllYourPowersCombined let their powers combine]] to summon the environmental superhero, Captain Planet. They have a monkey on their team too.

** Gaia, being the anthropomorphic personification of Earth, naturally loves its creatures, even ones that aren't especially appealing. She's often low-key upset by the problem of the week and during "[[Recap/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteersS5E7NoPlaceLikeHome No Place Like Home]]", she even jeopardizes her own safety by leaving Hope Island to help a suffering coyote family.
** Kwame is friendly to all animals, though he has a special soft spot for elephants, given an incident in his pre-recruitment days in which a herd led him to an increasingly-scarce stash of wood.
** In her first appearance the {{Tsundere}} Linka is seen playing music for a bunch of birdies, who then bring her the Wind Ring; during hers, TeamMom Gi is wind-surfing and playing with a dolphin as she gets the Water Ring. They also work hard to help other types of animals.
** Ma-Ti was nice to animals even before getting his "lame" heart powers; in his introduction sequence he calmly faces a jaguar about to eat his future pet monkey Suchi and manages to save the latter without throwing an attack against the former. When he sees the oil spill that Greedly caused in his first appearance, his first reaction is to exclaim that they have to help "the poor animals."

** When Kwame first receives his ring, he comments happily on how many trees he can plant. He also easily slips into the position of de-facto leader of the team when they're in the field and in the BadFuture episode, he fights a one-man war to protect Africa's last oasis long after the team breaks up.

* LikeASonToMe: As far as Gaia is concerned, she has three sons and two daughters, despite none of them being biologically or legally hers. She almost explicitly declares that she sees the Planeteers as her kids in "Volcano's Wrath", as she watches them dash off to deal with Sly Sludge's latest scheme:

** The entire team will use their rings to defend themselves or other people, but they don't use them in ways that will kill their target. Gaia implies that a certain amount of pacifism is necessary for the Planeteers' work, but apparently that does not eliminate non-lethal possibilities such as hitting an opponent with a burst of water or wind.
** In particular, Wheeler is an interesting double version. The first episode shows he was this way even before getting his powers: the fear the mugger shows when he turns up implies that that the last person who goaded Wheeler to fight ended up on the wrong side of the battle, but Wheeler is perfectly willing to let the mugger run and get away with nothing worse than an intimidation display.
* MultinationalTeam: Invoked; Gaia selected a team member from almost every major continent: Kwame (Africa), Wheeler (North America), Linka (Europe), Gi (Asia) and Ma-Ti (South America). The only ones she doesn't select a Planeteer from are Australia and Antarctica.
* NiceGuy:

** Ma-Ti likes just about everyone on sight; he's even the only member of the team Wheeler has not managed to drive crazy by accident. If he ever dislikes or even distrusts someone, it's a sure sign that person is horrible, especially because his ring makes it difficult to lie to him. The first time this ever happened, it was with the team's ArchEnemy, Zarm, Gaia's EvilCounterpart who is outright sociopathic.
* ParentalSubstitute: Both Captain Planet and Gaia serve as these to the Planeteers, whom they truly love like their own children and whom neither will hesitate to protect with his or her life, if need be. Also, considering some of the kids' histories (Wheeler's father was an abusive alcoholic, Ma-Ti's parents were murdered when he was little), it's clear that they really do rely on their two mentors as they would on actual parents.

** Obviously, the Earth is one to the seven main characters (Cap and Gaia included).

Gaia, the spirit of Earth, is the protector of the planet. She brought the Planeteers to her home, Hope Island, to help her in the battle to save Earth.

* AmbiguouslyBrown: Justified. As the spirit of Earth, she combines traits of four most common ethnicities: dark skin (not as dark as Kwame's, though), long, wavy dark hair most common among Latin Americans, high cheekbones common in Asians, and blue eyes most prevalent in Caucasians.

* FisherKingdom: Her health is directly linked to the health of both Hope Island specifically and the Earth in general. If the Earth gets "sick", she suffers and gets weakened, too. It's also played straight on occasion, as it's implied her mood can cause certain natural occurrences to happen. For example, in "A Twist of Fate", when she's having a serious discussion with the Planeteers, and Wheeler fails to fully grasp what she's trying to tell them, there's a small earthquake.

* GodOfGood: While referred to as the spirit of the Earth, rather than goddess in the show, she's the mentor of the Planeteers and the protector of the planet and its biodiversity.

* HotGoddess: She's the Spirit of the Earth (or goddess in Greek mythology) and certainly beautiful.

* MortalityEnsues: If Gaia or the Earth itself is ever severely harmed or weakened, she loses her powers and becomes mortal.
* MotherNature: Literally. She's the benevolent spirit of the 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.

* PhysicalGoddess: Her powers are part of her and as the literal spirit of the Earth, she has all the powers of nature at her disposal.

* SadlyMythtaken: How come the powerful titaness of the 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.

* {{Synchronization}}: Gaia's health is linked to Hope Island and the health of the Earth in general; severe damage done to either can cause her equally severe physical pain and/or weaken and make her ill. Likewise, Earth itself has been hinted to be in danger whenever Gaia has been seriously harmed and her life threatened, and on the occasions, she has been changed into a mortal.

* CaringGardener: One of Kwame's major passions is planting trees. He's digging holes for saplings when he gets summoned by Gaia; the number of new trees he can plant is one of the first things he mentions when he gets the Earth ring and [[WeAreStrugglingTogether he gets into an argument with Linka and Gi]] over the necessity of it during "A Mine is a Terrible Thing to Waste". He's also one of the team {{Nice Guy}}s... unless you make the mistake of threatening the environment, directly or indirectly. The eco-villains and [[InnocentlyInsensitive Wheeler]] have both raised his ire this way.

* WaterIsWomanly: Gi is one of the five Planeteers chosen by the spirit of Earth, Gaia, to protect nature. Her signature element is water, so her Planeteer ring allows her to take control of it. She's also highly knowledgeable about marine biology, and dolphins and sharks are her favorite animals. Personality-wise, while she has some tomboyish traits (at least compared to the other female Planeteer of the team, wind-elemental Linka), she serves as a calming influence on the other Planeteers, as well as a maternal member when Gaia is not with them.

** While the absence of one of the other rings will make Captain Planet lose some of his powers, without the Heart ring, Captain Planet cannot be formed at all.

* CompleteImmortality: While he can be weakened and defeated by enough pollution, so long as the earth is around, Captain Planet cannot die by any means. He also will never age, having existed as long as the Earth.

* OurSpiritsAreDifferent: This spirit of the Earth also happens to be a hammy CaptainSuperhero.

The Eco Villains are a small group of villains and their subordinates who wreak havoc on the Earth with pollution, wildlife endangerment or shady business dealings. Many of them do this out of short-sighted {{Greed}}, but for others it's never explained besides the fact [[ForTheEvulz that they can]].

* EvilCounterpart: To Wheeler, as one of the Captain Pollution ring bearers, his ring being Super Radiation to match Wheeler's fire ring. Wheeler is also shown using his ring to keep Nukem from escaping in the intro.

A former spirit of the Earth, who left Gaia in search of other worlds and ended up laying other populous planets to ruin. He is without a doubt the most dangerous of all the eco-villains because he represents the most terrible and destructive dangers of all: War, corruption, and hatred.

* DisabilityImmunity: The reason Ma Ti gives for not using the Heart Ring on him, as it is the power of emotions he would NoSell it anyway due to being TheSociopath.
-->'''Ma-Ti:''' I cannot stop you, Zarm. My ring is the power of Heart, which allows us to love. Heart to care for our planet and friends. My ring will not touch YOU, because... [[TheSociopath you HAVE no heart]].

* EvilCounterpart: He is a villainous equivalent to Gaia, being a spirit of the Earth like her, except much more malevolent and destructive.

* NoodleIncident: Gaia says in "The Conqueror" that Zarm once was the Spirit of Earth, like herself, but "left in search of other worlds". So... what ''exactly'' did happen that resulted in him leaving the Earth and seeking revenge on Gaia?

* VoluntaryShapeshifting: As shown in the "Summit to Save Earth, Part 1" episode, he can pull this off easily and perfectly, to the point of getting the voice just right. [[spoiler:He even manages to coax out the rings from the Planeteers by impersonating ''Gaia''. The fact that he earlier has stolen the Heart ring, thus making [[LivingLieDetector Ma-Ti]] unable to see through the ruse and alert the others until it was too late, certainly helped his case, though.]]

->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/MartinSheen in 1990–1992, Creator/JimCummings in 1993–1995

* HotBlooded: Wheeler is passionate about everything. He has the most easily triggered temper out of all the Planeteers and in the field, he shares the position of BoisterousBruiser with Captain Planet. He's also pretty emotionally expressive, especially in his relationships with the others (platonic and romantic).

* DeadpanSnarker: [=MAL=] constantly makes dry remarks, and Rigger does as well whenever he thinks he can get away with it.

* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Dr. Blight's computer assistant is named [=MAL=] which is French for "Evil", as well as ShoutOut to [[Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey another evil computer]]. Also Argos Bleak, "argos" being a near synonym for "bleak" in Greek.

* SycophanticServant: Rigger, Ooze and Leadsuit tend to act obsequious to their bosses, though Rigger is shown to be as technologically proficient as his boss, Ooze and Leadsuit exist only so that Sly Sludge and Duke Nukem don't end up talking to themselves.

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

* MuggedForDisguise: She incapacitates her sister Bambi to steal her clothes and impersonate her in "Hollywaste".

** On a more meta level, if Wheeler is ever allowed to play the voice of reason to one of the other Planeteers (e.g., "[[Recap/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteersS2E1MindPollution Mind Pollution]]" or "[[Recap/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteersS4E22TeersInTheHood 'Teers in the Hood]]"), it shows his teammate is in a massively messed-up state and [[UnexpectedlyDarkEpisode the episode itself is probably much darker than usual]].
** Ma-Ti likes just about everyone on sight; he's even the only member of the team Wheeler has not managed to accidentally drive crazy. If he ever dislikes or even distrusts someone, it's a sure sign that person is horrible, especially because his ring makes it impossible to lie to him. The first time this ever happened, it was with the team's ArchEnemy, Zarm, Gaia's EvilCounterpart who is outright sociopathic.

* {{Malaproper}}: Linka's grasp on English isn't that good, and she often gets figures of speech mixed up.

* AntiVillain: He's certainly not malicious, except for his habit of attacking the Planeteers when they get in his way. He's just very, very careless about where he dumps garbage, finding it unimportant in comparison to things like making a quick buck. [[spoiler:He ultimately abandons this course.]]

* DubNameChange: Lady Velenia (lit. "Lady Poisonia") in the Italian dub.

* FatBastard / FatIdiot: Ooze is even slimier than Sly -- and just as dumb.

* {{Retcon}}: Created during the brief rapprochement between Russia and the United States, Linka is one of the precious few unambiguously heroic Russian characters in American media. The evidence suggests she's not actually Russian, or at least her family isn't; she was a Soviet citizen, though. Before the Soviet Union fell, the opening would say "Linka, from the Soviet Union", and then after it fell the writers changed it to say "Eastern Europe". The episodes before then weren't changed, and the first episode has her telling Wheeler, who asks about her accent, that she is "SO-VI-YET!" as close to his face as possible to make it clear. "Please... go avay".[[note]]Linka was indeed Russian. See "Mistaken Nationality" above.[[/note]]\

* {{Retcon}}: Created during the brief rapprochement between Russia and the United States, Linka is one of the precious few unambiguously heroic Russian characters in American media. The evidence suggests she's not actually Russian, or at least her family isn't; she was a Soviet citizen, though. Before the Soviet Union fell, the opening would say "Linka, from the Soviet Union", and then after it fell the writers changed it to say "Eastern Europe". The episodes before then weren't changed, and the first episode has her telling Wheeler, who asks about her accent, that she is "SO-VI-YET!" as close to his face as possible to make it clear. "Please... go avay".[[note]]Linka was indeed Russian. See "Mistaken Nationality" above.[[/note]]
* SensualSlavs: A G-rated version of a sexy Eastern European woman. Multiple men have noticed how attractive she is, and Wheeler is madly smitten with her the moment he lays eyes on her.

* ThePrankster: While it doesn't come up often, he enjoys practical jokes.

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

%* 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.%

* 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.

->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/EdwardAsner

* DoesNotLikeShoes: Most likely a trait of her being a marine biologist, she will go barefoot during downtime and study sea animals.

** In "The Conqueror", he's also noted to have manipulated an entire planet planet's population to destroy itself by helping it develop nuclear weapons.

* KickTheDog: In "Summit to Save Earth, Part 2", making Gaia a very old mortal, turning Earth into a CrapsackWorld, and letting the Planeteers out 10 years into the future to "enjoy" their dying planet is ''not'' enough for him. Thus, just when the Planeteers are about to leave and can't stop him, he accelerates Gaia's aging significantly. Then, there are a few times in the episode when he's shown mocking her mercilessly. And finally, he forces her Planeteers to play a sick game -- fighting him one-on-one, which is virtual suicide -- in front of her and nearly murders Ma-Ti, who can't even attempt to fight back.

* 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/TheTwilightZone1959'' episode "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E22TheMonstersAreDueOnMapleStreet The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street]]".

** Gi loves aquatic creatures, especially dolphins.
** Linka loves and is especially protective of birds.
** Ma-Ti was nice to animals even before getting his "lame" heart powers; in fact, he found the ring to begin with after saving [[TeamPet Suchi]] from a jaguar.

** Gi believes in the innocence of people ([[RousseauWasRight before they grow up]], at least), loves animals, and is one of the most calm and collected of the group. That doesn't mean you should make her mad. She almost drowned a gangster for shooting her friend, only stopping thanks to Wheeler talking her down.

* BigLittleBrother: Gi is sometimes implied to be in her twenties, but Kwame, at sixteen, is still taller and more muscular.

* BigLittleBrother: Gi, if one accepts the parts of continuity that say she's in her twenties, is the oldest of the team. However, Wheeler outranks her in both height and muscle just the same as he does most of the others.

* ChickMagnet: He attracts a few girls over the course of the series, most notably Linka.

* FireIsMasculine: Wheeler is the Planeteer of fire. He's also the most impulsive and quick-tempered of the male Planeteers.

* VagueAge: Is she an adult, or a teenager like her teammates? It's surprisingly unclear depending on different sources, as her character description from the comic books and toy advertisements claim she's around fifteen, but in "Nothing's Sacred", she rents a jeep, for which one has to be over the age of ''twenty'' in most countries. Furthermore, in "Two Futures", Wheeler jumps thirty-five years forward, and the future Gi describes herself as ''over'' fifty, which would make her present self no younger than sixteen, with hardly any way to set an upper limit, other than her looks. It probably doesn't help that ''Captain Planet'' doesn't have the best continuity on any subject.

* IntergenerationalFriendship: Downplayed twice. Gi is [[VagueAge sometimes implied]] to be in her early twenties and Wheeler, at seventeen, is almost an adult by American standards; Ma-Ti isn't even a teenager yet.

* 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. Most of the group are teenagers (Kwame, Linka, and Wheeler) or children (Ma-Ti). Gi, who is sometimes implied to be in her early twenties[[note]]she rents a Jeep in "Nothing's Sacred", for which you have to be at least twenty[[/note]] is the only exception. None of this keeps them from doing nasty things to their underage nemeses (up to and including attempted murder) constantly.

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

* NotSoStoic: While Kwame isn't completely unemotional, he's usually the calmest of the team, but even he has his limits. "[[Recap/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteersS1E4SkummLord Skumm Lord]]" sees him starting to hyperventilate upon discovering that Ma-Ti, who was piloting while Skumm was on their tail and their infected teammates were in the back, hadn't actually driven the cruiser beyond a single simulation on Hope Island.

* 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.

* VagueAge: Is she an adult, or a teenager like her teammates? It's surprisingly unclear depending on different sources, as her character description from the comic books and toy advertisements claim she's around fifteen, but she rents a jeep in one episode, which one has to be over the age of ''twenty'' in most countries to do. Furthermore, in "Two Futures", Wheeler jumps thirty-five years forward, and the future Gi describes herself as ''over'' fifty, which would make her present self no younger than sixteen, with hardly any way to set an upper limit, other than her looks. It probably doesn't help that ''Captain Planet'' doesn't have the best continuity on any subject.

* IntergenerationalFriendship: Downplayed twice. Gi is implied to be in her early twenties and Wheeler, at seventeen, is almost an adult by American standards; Ma-Ti isn't even a teenager yet.

* HurricaneOfPuns: Any scene he's in is going to be a perfect storm of puns on just about everything. If he ''isn't'' playing with words while doing battle, something is ''very'' wrong ...

* 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. Most of the group are teenagers (Kwame, Linka, and Wheeler) or children (Ma-Ti). Gi, who is sometimes implied to be in her early twenties[[note]]she rents a Jeep in at least one episode, which you have to be at least twenty to do[[/note]] is the only exception. None of this keeps them from doing nasty things to their underage nemeses (up to and including attempted murder) constantly.
* PsychoRangers: Dr. Blight, Duke Nukem, Looten Plunder, Sly Sludge and Verminous Skumm temporarily became this trope during the ''Mission to Save Earth'' two-parter. They managed to create evil counterparts to the Planeteers' rings, which were even able to summon Captain Pollution, an evil counterpart to Captain Planet.

* AnimalMotifs: Pigs. His first name is "Hoggish", he has PointedEars, razor sharp teeth and is obese like a pig, he has the stereotypical pig snort laugh, he has JabbaTableManners, and he makes pig related puns.

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: [[spoiler:He really does care about his son Junior. When his own actions put Junior in harm's way, he works with the Planeteers to fix what he did for his son's sake.]]

* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler:He was forced to quit crime after failing a SecretTestOfCharacter from his eco-conscious grandfather, who also convinced Rigger to go green as well.]]

* PigMan: Not literally, but his pointed ears, weight problem and upturned nose, as well as the snorting laugh he makes, does give him a subtle porcine motif. In the episode where he and Verminous Skumm team up, the gigantic Greedly does look a bit more like a pig-man as a result.
* PointedEars: Has part of his pig motif, he has pointed ears.

* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney: He often believes he can get away with anything as long as he can bribe someone. However, that doesn't help if you commit a crime on an Indian Reservation.

* ButtMonkey: Let's face it -- if anything could happen to Sly Sludge, it would. Every episode he's in, he's either comically injured or just plain humiliated...[[KarmicButtMonkey probably to punish him.]]
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: A much more downplayed example than Plunder and Greedly. Sly's not evil; he's just short-sighted, greedy, and lazy. [[spoiler:Once he realizes that he can actually turn a profit and make his life easier through environmentally friendly means, he stops being a villain entirely.]]

* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney: Not as rich as some of the other Villains, but he does use his wealth and connections, when he has them, to get away with stuff.

* ArtisticLicenseNuclearPhysics: ...It was a different time. Paranoia at this new-fangled nuclear power business was the prime motive in his creation. Also, the fact that everyone he ever interacts with on the show DOESN'T have super-cancer is part of the license.

* ForTheEvulz: ...Kinda? Some episodes, he needs nuclear materials to eat, some episodes he ''could'' just eat human food but ''chooses'' to devour nuclear radiation to grow more powerful, and sometimes he wants to take over the world and turn everyone into a mutant like him.

* AlliterativeName: '''B'''abara '''B'''light.

* TheCorrupter: While not as good at it as Zarm, she's also been known to try to corrupt her enemies. In "Tree of Life", she proposes to the temporarily incapacitated Captain Planet that [[WeCanRuleTogether they can become a super-wrecking duo]] and in "Two Futures", she tries to talk Wheeler into abandoning the cause and then forces the issue by shoving him into the time pool, hoping he'll change the past.

* PeekABangs: She wears her hair partially over her face. [[spoiler:Turns out it's to hide the fact she's TwoFaced.]]

* CargoShip: InUniverse, Dr. Blight treats [=MAL=] like he's her boyfriend, in what is an unhealthy combination of admiration for his super-intelligence and InLoveWithYourCarnage. [=MAL=] reciprocates as much as possible, but isn't quite as flirtatious because, well...he's a computer.

* ADayInTheLimelight: Plunder's henchman Argos Bleak went solo in the episode "[[Recap/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteersS2E5ThePredator The Predator]]" to hunt Basking Sharks and was a ''very'' competent and effective villain.

* HypercompetentSidekick

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

* 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. Most of the group are teenagers (Kwame, Linka, and Wheeler) or children (Ma-Ti). Gi, who is sometimes implied to be in her early twenties[[note]]in "Two Futures", the thirty-five-years-older future Gi describes herself as ''over'' fifty[[/note]] is the only exception. None of this keeps them from doing nasty things to their underage nemeses (up to and including attempted murder) constantly.

** Gaia. She's motherly, patient, and generally friendly, but in the episode "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.\\

** Gi. She believes in the innocence of people ([[RousseauWasRight before they grow up]], at least), loves animals, and is one of the most calm and collected of the group. That doesn't mean you should make her mad. She almost drowned a gangster for shooting her friend, only stopping thanks to Wheeler talking her down.

* ExtremelyProtectiveChild: Gaia and Captain Planet aren't the team's parents in any usual sense, but they act like parents and the Planeteers see them as such. One of the fastest ways to get every member of the group gunning for you is to threaten or harm one of them.
* FamilyOfChoice: The Planeteers' bonds with one another strongly resemble those between siblings (with the sole exception of [[ShipTease Wheeler and Linka's]]); Gaia acts as their TeamMom; and Captain Planet is a mix of TeamDad, CoolUncle and CoolBigBro. The Captain lampshades it in "No Place Like Home", while the team is group-hugging Gaia, who had gone missing after leaving Hope Island to help a family of animals.

* HappilyAdopted: Not in the legal sense, but the Planeteers do live on Hope Island with Gaia who loves them as if they were her own children, thus effectively making up a family.

* MartialPacifist: The entire team will use their rings to defend themselves or other people, but they don't use them in ways that will kill their target. Gaia implies that a certain amount of pacifism is necessary for the Planeteers' work, but apparently that does not eliminate non-lethal possibilities such as hitting an opponent with a burst of water or wind. Wheeler is an interesting double version because the first episode shows he was this way even before getting his powers: the fear the mugger shows when he turns up implies that that the last person who goaded Wheeler to fight ended up on the wrong side of the battle, but Wheeler is perfectly willing to let the mugger run and get away with nothing worse than an intimidation display.
* MultinationalTeam: Invoked; Gaia selected a team member from almost every major continent: Kwame (Africa), Wheeler (North America), Linka (Europe), Gi (Asia) and Ma-Ti (South America). The only ones she doesn't select a Planeteer from are Australia and Antarctica.

* PowerEchoes: On the side of good, three characters are able to speak with an echo effect - Gaia, when she appears as a hologram; Captain Planet, when he announces his arrival and depart; and Ma-Ti, from other people's point of view, when he uses his ring to communicate telepathically with them.

-->'''Ma-Ti:''' I cannot stop you Zarm. My ring is the power of Heart, which allows us to love. Heart, to care for our planet and friends. My ring will not touch you because... [[TheSociopath you HAVE no heart]].
* DivideAndConquer: His ''modus operandi'': play on people's ignorance to turn them against each other or manipulate their hearts to stoke hatred and strife.

* CardCarryingVillain: He's a living incarnation of MotiveDecay: while the other villains usually have some sort of ulterior motive for damaging the environment, Captain Pollution just wants to pollute for its own sake.