History Characters / PandoraHeartsOzVessalius

* {{Bishonen}}: He's part of a CastFullOfPrettyBoys, so it's a given. While the other male members of the cast are often described as "hot" by fans, Oz is more often called "beautiful."

* AlwaysSaveTheGirl: He considers nothing to be more important than Alice's safety, whether she agrees with him or not. It's heavily implied this PsychoSupporter desperation with keeping her safe is a manifestation of his trauma from the Tragedy of Sablier (during which Alice chose to commit suicide to protect him). Part of his CharacterDevelopment is to overcome this complex (which is a result of trauma) and relearn how to prioritize Alice's will vs. Alice's safety, as well as allow himself to trust and emotionally invest in other people.

* PsychoSupporter: To Alice during his {{Freak Out}}s, especially in the Cheshire Arc. [[CuteAndPsycho When in this state of mind]], Oz would do ''anything'' to keep his dear Alice happy, including destroy anything that hurts her or causes her fear, even if that means ''killing Alice herself''. Like many of his other issues, [[CharacterDevelopment he gets better eventually]].

* AmbiguousDisorder: He suffers from a mysterious case of undiagnosed PTSD relating to the events of Sablier that causes him to have fits of psychosis in which his mental state goes back to a place he does not consciously remember, the concern of which he internalizes and rarely shows.

* AlwaysSaveTheGirl: He considers nothing to be more important than Alice's safety, whether she agrees with him or not. It's heavily implied this PoisonousFriend desperation with keeping her safe is a manifestation of his trauma from the Tragedy of Sablier (during which Alice chose to commit suicide to protect him). Part of his CharacterDevelopment is to overcome this complex (which is a result of trauma) and relearn how to prioritize Alice's will vs. Alice's safety, as well as allow himself to trust and emotionally invest in other people.

* PoisonousFriend: To Alice during his {{Freak Out}}s, especially in the Cheshire Arc. [[CuteAndPsycho When in this state of mind]], Oz would do ''anything'' to keep his dear Alice happy, including destroy anything that hurts her or causes her fear, even if that means ''killing Alice herself''. Like many of his other issues, [[CharacterDevelopment he gets better eventually]].

* ItAmusedMe: Occasionally.

* CryCute: As the series progresses, [[CharacterDevelopment he shows his emotions more openly,]] which eventually leads to this.

* NeverBeHurtAgain: At the young age, Oz knew the pain of rejection because his own father hates him for reasons he's unable to understand until much later in the series. This drives him to deliberately avoid emotional bonds and suppress his negative emotions to not let himself be vulnerable to being hurt by others. Eventually, as Gilbert and Alice prove Oz means the world to them, Oz lets go of his fears and opens up to his true feelings as well as learning to trust his friends won't hurt or abandon him.

* OlderThanHeLooks:
** Oz is mentally 15, believed for most of the story to be 25, and is in reality a century-old Chain contained inside a century-old body with a bizarre case of MerlinSickness. [[TomatoInTheMirror He didn't know about that last one, though.]]
** It also should be pointed out that even though he's supposed to be 15, Oz could pass for being 12

* AmateurSleuth: Pandora Hearts is primarily a mystery series, and it's Oz's (and his companions') goal to solve that mystery.

* {{Foil}}: To Jack. Much of the first half of the manga works to develop how superficially similar Oz and Jack are, both being [[TheGadfly Gadfly]] [[{{Keet}} Keets]] initially presented as [[MessianicArchetype Messianic Archetypes]]. Many scenes are specifically constructed to parallel events, moments, conflicts, and dialogue choices in their lives. However, the second half works to show how different they truly are in their motivations and emotional capacity by taking these previous parallels and inverting the choices made afterwards to highlight Oz's emotional sensitivity in contrast with Jack's sociopathy, showing that their similar actions had opposite motivations. Even their former {{Keet}} ways, which were both used as identical masks to hide their interior thoughts and feelings, become contrasting opposites: Oz, being "heartbreakingly sensitive" as Oscar called him, used this act to hide his emotional turbulence and try to prevent those he loved from worrying about him; Jack used it to hide the fact that he felt he was [[TheSociopath actually empty inside,]] which he knew wasn't normal. Even their endings invert their characters: Jack began as the only normal human main character of the Sablier cast and ended a shattered, sociopathic shade, while Oz began as only a bit of energy recording memories inside a doll and developed into one of the most psychologically human characters in the cast.

* StockShonenHero: Deconstructed. He is outwardly cheerful, flirtatious, and ditzy. In addition to that, he has an [[ThePollyanna impenetrably optimistic attitude]] that drives him to happily accept all situations. He also ''always'' puts others before himself, even if it may cost him his life. However, it's gradually revealed that he's a StepfordSmiler, his habit of accepting everything is really just an unwillingness to fight for himself, and his "selflessness" is really [[MartyrWithoutACause a martyr complex that attempts to justify his suicidal tendencies by painting him as a hero]]. Finally, in a subversion of the BookDumb stereotype embedded in this trope, he is ''much'' [[SmarterThanYouLook smarter than he appears]]. As his mental state improves, he retains the charismatic, positive attitude of this trope and even comes to represent [[MessianicArchetype hope]], but at his most stable he is notably levelheaded and mature.

* AmbiguousDisorder: He suffers from a mysterious case of undiagnosed PTSD relating to the events of Sablier that causes him to have fits of psychosis in which his mental state goes back to a place he does not consciously remember, the concern of which he internalizes and rarely shows.

* AnimalMotif: His true identity is the Black Rabbit, or B-Rabbit for short. True to form, many of his clothes and belongings in the Official Art have depictions of rabbits on them in some way.

* FourTemperamentEnsemble: Sanguine. Out of the four main characters, Oz is the most cheerful, charming, compassionate, fun-loving and friendly. Althoughhe starts off as a StepfordSmiler, his cheerfulness becomes genuine as he becomes more hopeful.

* AdoptedIntoRoyalty: Turns out Oz was never a real Vessalius. He's actually a Chain possessing the deaged body of Jack Vessalius. When the body turned into an infant, Jack tricked Xai Vessalius into taking Oz as his adopted son. Oz was then raised as a noble, unaware of his true origins.

* AmbiguouslyBi: Possibly. An omake has him enthusiastically entertaining the idea of having lovestruck fans "regardless of gender" as well as stating he feels "slightly attracted" to a cross-dressing Break. In one of the Caucus Race novels, he gets heavily disturbed by the idea of Gilbert getting married. However, there's very little to suggest Oz is bisexual in the main series other than his possessiveness of Gilbert; otherwise, he appears to be pretty clearly heterosexual.

* BrokenHero: Oz is pretty much a textbook example of this. He was completely shunned by his father at a young age, despite wanting desperately to impress him, and repressed the emotional damage this did so those he cared for wouldn't worry about him. Further, throughout the first half of the series, he clearly suffers from a mysterious case of undiagnosed PTSD relating to the events of Sablier that causes him to have fits of psychosis in which his mental state goes back to a place he does not consciously remember, the concern of which he internalizes and rarely shows. As of Retrace LXX, already pretty shaken up, he then realizes that he is actually the Chain B-Rabbit, created from one of Alice's stuffed animals, who one hundred years ago was forced to murder many innocent people and nearly end the world - and this is the source of his traumatic, violent, and mysterious fits. Then his best friend, via a single order from their enemies, shoots him. By the end of Retrace LXXIV, he was almost completely mentally and emotionally broken thanks to the re-emergence of these scarring memories and Jack's additional abusive attempts to convince Oz that his existence is invalid and worthless. However, with the support of the people who love him regardless, he's eventually able to pull himself together again to take action and become the real hero of the subsequent disaster.

* DissonantSerenity: Exiled to a strange dimension you've been raised to consider NightmareFuel after maybe killing your best friend? Sit down and eat cookies!

* HealTheCutie: Xai's emotional abuse on Oz throughout his childhood disillusioned him to the concepts of permanence and self-worth and subsequently left him unable to trust in the worth of temporary things like friendship, love, or his own feelings, resulting in him creating [[StepfordSmiler a shallow personality mask]] and [[ConditionedToAcceptHorror conditioning himself to cheerfully accept misery]]. As Oz told Gilbert upon Gilbert's proclamation that he wants to be loyally at Oz's side forever: "I don't believe in forever." As Oz experiences CharacterDevelopment, he slowly begins to gain a more positive outlook: while the impermanence of life is a consistent theme throughout the series, Oz's eventual decision to have faith that those who care about him ''do'' [[YouAreNotAlone actually care about him and do not wish to abandon him]], and to actually trust in the worth and reality of that rather than continue his self-destructive nonchalance at his own fate while those who love him worry, enables him to begin to have faith in the worth of the present when the conflicting parties against him are seeking to discard it as worthless. Through this change, Oz transforms from a depressed cynic to [[BecameTheirOwnAntithesis an in-universe symbol of hope.]]
* TheHeart: Oz isn't easy to recognize as this at first due to his hiding his emotions under [[ConditionedToAcceptHorror an enormous load of emotional baggage]], but Oz, first and foremost, deals with adversaries through emotional understanding and a subtle but unending amount of empathy and compassion, even when things come to blows. He rejects the cold, simple judgements of "good" and "evil" to [[IDidWhatIHadToDo justify cruelty]] in favor of a more nuanced, grey, humanistic compassion. Though Oz suppresses concern, worry, pain, and sorrow under a veneer of cheerfulness (and occasionally, [[WithFriendsLikeThese trolling]]) for the first half of the series, we see throughout the manga reoccurring instances of his underlying empathy: he tries to protect a murderer from execution at the hands of Oz's own friend for the sake of the murderer's young son, he's instantly understanding and empathetic towards Leo's emotions even while Leo's hunting him down like a psycho, and he's even horrified at Jack's murder of ''Isla Yura,'' whom even ''Jack'' [[EvenEvilHasStandards was disgusted with.]] In the latter half of the manga this is emphasized further, with Oz even expressing the belief that things could have ended better for ''Xai and Jack,'' and after struggling for chapters upon chapters to stop Oswald, choosing to not intervene after all through an implied trust that Oswald will not actually kill his sister and an understanding that Oswald emotionally still needs to confront Lacie himself (and, after he collapses, Oz joins Lottie in rushing to his side). This quality combined with Oz's leadership skills motivates those around him to place their faith in his values; Gilbert, for example, has the chance to shoot Xai ''twice'' for all he has done but ultimately chooses not to because he knows Oz still would not want him to, and the conclusion of the series comes from Oz's ability to unify all of the remaining opposing forces within the cast for the sake of his faith in the future. Oz's status as TheHeart is [[{{Foil}} the main point of contrast]] highlighted between him and [[LackOfEmpathy Jack]].
** Oz's deep, inherent empathy is highlighted further in Oscar's flashback of the time when Oz stole his camera, which Oscar had purchased to take the very first picture of his wife with their newborn child. Oz was almost hurt falling out of the window while stealing it, but still stole it because his Uncle was severely depressed after [[DeathByChildbirth the death of his wife and child]] and was on the verge of throwing the camera out. Oz sobbed during his Uncle's scolding that he couldn't let Oscar throw it out because it was full of his Uncle's precious feelings--afterwhich Oscar is grateful and deeply regretful of his outburst of anger at Oz, privately calling Oz "heartbreakingly sensitive" and "the weight that kept him grounded" through his mourning. It's worth mentioning that this scene's opening shots of Oz climbing in the window is a direct shot-by-shot parallel to Jack climbing into Lacie's tower to see Alice for the first time, again emphasizing Oz's nature as Jack's {{Foil}}.

* HopeIsScary: Why Oz [[ConditionedToAcceptHorror conditioned himself to accept horror and misery]] [[StepfordSmiler with a smile]]. Ironically, [[BecameTheirOwnAntithesis he comes to embody hope and faith in the present by the end]].

* HiveMind: Back when he was an AnimateInanimateObject he split his consciousness between the stuffed rabbit in the Abyss and the other rabbit outside of it. This ended when he transferred Lacie's last memory to Jack, destroying his rabbit body in the real world. His other body became the chain B-Rabbit.

* ObliviousAdoption: Oz had no idea that he was adopted since only Jack and Xai knew that Xai's stillborn child was SwitchedAtBirth with Oz.

* PlatonicLifePartners: With Alice. WordOfGod has expressly stated that Oz and Alice were not and would not be romantically attracted or involved with one another because their relationship is "on a different level." However, the two absolutely adore each other and they've been dear to one another since Oz was Alice's stuffed rabbit.

* StepfordSmiler: Oz seems to be unnaturally cheerful in the face of horror, but then we find out that he's so impossibly broken on the inside he [[ConditionedToAcceptHorror no longer processes fear in the same way]] because he hasn't valued his own life in years, and even if he does feel disturbed by something, he doesn't feel he has the right to worry others because of it. And let's face it: with that kind of past, it's not strange that he's like this. However, the more open his personality becomes, the more natural and genuine his cheerful and bubbly displays are.

* StoppedCaring: In a more subtle and less all-encompassing way than Leo. Oz is singled out as troubled and "strange" rather frequently near the beginning of the manga, as other characters are unnerved by his lack of reaction to events that would normally be considered very emotionally damaging. In the first half of the manga, his ability to somehow smile through and accept every situation is one of his defining traits. However, as more of his past is explained, it becomes increasingly apparent that the trauma of his father's [[DisappearedDad neglect]] and [[AbusiveParents emotional abuse]] eventually led him to completely disregard his own well-being. By the beginning of the manga, [[BreakTheCutie he has changed from a remarkably sensitive child to a stoic and faux-cheerful young man who does not care if he dies]]. Nearly all of his CharacterDevelopment is arguably centered around reversing this.

* TraumaCongaLine: Stands out amongst a ''series'' of trauma conga lines. Oz was originally a sentient child's comfort toy created from the wish of a doomed woman, Lacie, to provide her lonely friend [[SentientCosmicForce the Core of the Abyss]] company. After her death, Oz ended up in the possession of her daughters, one of whom turned him into a monsterous weapon and gave control of him to a psychopath, Jack, who forced Oz to slaughter countless lives against his will, ending with the other daughter, Alice, committing suicide in front of Oz to prevent Jack from using Oz for further destruction. This gave Oz a severe case of PTSD and amnesia as well as trapped him with Jack, his abuser, after which his consciousness went dormant for around 85 years. Once active again, Oz was adopted into an emotionally abusive and neglectful family and experienced isolation from the outside world, complete rejection and dehumanization at the hands of his adoptive father, inconsistent love and support from his loving but damaged uncle, and the death of his adoptive mother, all while still a young child. And these are just the traumatic events that took place ''before'' the actual series started. From Oz's creation to his death, there were very few moments when he was able to be genuinely happy.

* WeNamedTheMonkeyJack: Alice named him after her Uncle Oswald.