History Characters / JoeVsElanSchool

* CigaretteOfAnxiety: As recounted in Chapter 66, Joe takes up chain smoking in college, and says that smoking is one of the things that helps bring him peace.

* BatmanInMyBasement: Somewhat of a subversion, but Nate lets Joe crash at his apartment overnight while Joe is on the run from Elan. Nate says his father doesn't care, but also says that Joe can't stay there during the day, either.

A kid who is brought to Elan 8 after Joe leaves. He fights against everything Elan throws at him for a solid fourteen months before being kicked out. At some point Gino becomes one of the kid's "SP's."

* {{Determinator}}: Gino mentions that the kid triples down whenever Elan doubles down, and he makes it through ''14 months'' of abuse before Elan kicks him out.

* VictoryByEndurance: Gino tells Joe that the kid lasts ''14 months'' cycling between the Ring and being placed in the corner. And he's able to hold his own the entire time. Joe notes that, by contrast, the most he ever saw someone last before breaking was ''eight'' months.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Even though Joe tells the fates of Ron and Sara in the Epilogue chapter, Christy's fate after Elan isn't elaborated upon.

* TheAtoner: Not during the story, but in a post on Patreon, Joe comments that as of March/April 2020, his mother finally apologized, implicitly for sending him to Elan and for not believing him when he told them what happened. However, this comes after 20+ years of disbelieving him and the mountains of evidence and testimony, during which Joe made several failed attempts to cut his parents out of his life entirely, and it's unclear even to Joe how much she believes of what everyone is saying. No mention is made of Joe's father apologizing or regretting anything, though.

* ParentalObliviousness: For Joe's parents in particular, it's almost as if they ''want'' to remain ignorant of the abuse, even as everyone else sees how badly messed up Joe is, since they shut down any talk of Joe's time at the school. Joe mentions that his mother's reaction to a staph infection he brought home isn't a reasonable, "What kind of hellhole would leave my child's staph infection untreated?", but rather, "Joe, you need to get out of the house and go to a neighborhood get-together." It's so bad that he mentioned in his Reddit AMA that his parents ''still'' think he's exaggerating. In the Epilogue chapter, Joe relates that his mother turned out to have read his comic and even gave him a heart-felt apology.

* TheStoner: Becomes this after leaving Elan, as he finds that weed puts a damper on his Elan PTSD.

* AndThisIsFor: He does two of these, one is for Ron, and the other is for waking him up at 3 AM.

* SympathyForTheDevil: In the Epilogue chapter, Joe takes some time to ruminate on the fact that Ron eventually passed away at the age of 71, while Joe was still in the process of writing and publishing the comic. He admits that, in spite of everything, a part of him still feels sorry for Ron, who he ultimately sees as Elan's worst victim and he hopes he was able to find some semblance of peace in his final years.

* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: He completely disappears from the story right after Joe goes with him to Los Angeles during Spring Break, and is probably the most notable post-Elan character who doesn't show up in the WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue in Chapter 80.

* PutOnABus: Rory goes to Vrátskajeki with Joe, but leaves at the end of the first semester, while Joe ends up staying for another semester. Like Quiet Bill, Rory also doesn't show up in the Chapter 80 WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue.

* KarmaHoudiniWarranty: Legally speaking, Sara also never faced any punishment for her role in continuing Elan's abuse or swindling Cirri's heirs out of his estate. However, Joe notes that she dies after years of suffering with Alzheimer's disease, and spent her last years of lucidity watching her cash cows -- Elan School and Scarborough Downs -- implode before her eyes.

** It does happen again after Elan closes and Joe divorces Maria. Joe spends his time traveling around the world and improving himself again, and he dates and falls in love with Sofi.

* PutOnABus: After being freed from Elan, Katie is not seen again as a character, and is last mentioned in Chapter 92.

* ParentalObliviousness: For Joe's parents in particular, it's almost as if they ''want'' to remain ignorant of the abuse, even as everyone else sees how badly messed up Joe is, since they shut down any talk of Joe's time at the school. Joe mentions that his mother's reaction to a staph infection he brought home isn't a reasonable, "What kind of hellhole would leave my child's staph infection untreated?", but rather, "Joe, you need to get out of the house and go to a neighborhood get-together." It's so bad that he mentioned in his Reddit AMA that his parents ''still'' think he's exaggerating.

* SadisticChoice: Every day for the inmates. Typically the choice is between "help brutalize your peers" or "get severely dehumanized."

* ForWantOfANail: Joe says that if he hadn't been sent to Elan, a RelationshipUpgrade would have likely been the next step in his relationship with Chloe.