History Characters / TheCrocodileGod

* ButNotTooBlack: DeconstructedTrope. She's most likely olive-skinned since she noticed when people were extremely pale in her past lives and was deeply tanned in her colonial-Philippines past life. Mirasol's friend Imelda viciously tells their neighbor Claire that since Mirasol's technically "helping a criminal" (Haik), she may well get jailed or deported [[{{Profiling}} BECAUSE she's not pale.]]

* ButNotTooBlack: Averted. Haik is dark-skinned to reflect his pre-colonial nature, and [[MrFanservice Mirasol finds him extremely attractive.]] (Even before she finds out about their ReincarnationRomance.) Also PlayedWith and [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] by many characters: The Kalinga tribesmen in Mirasol's past-life ask if he married into the Tagalogs since it's unusual for them to get that dark, and in modern times he's mistaken as Polynesian/Pacific-Islander (especially due to his tattoos). Once he corrects them, he's immediately pegged as an ''indio'' Filipino. Also, a DeconstructedTrope, since his skin-tone combined with his tattoos [[{{Profiling}} aren't good traits when you're undocumented.]]

* NamesTheSame: InvokedTrope. Haik the Whale-Rider shares an origin-myth and title with [[UsefulNotes/NewZealand Paikea of New Zealand,]] and before Mirasol realizes she's seeing [[{{Reincarnation}} memories of her past-lives,]] she thinks she was just having a ''Film/WhaleRider''-themed dream. However, Haik has become an extremely different figure in the story's interpretation of Tagalog mythology, being a full-on deity instead of a legendary ancestor. Moreover, his main epithet of “the crocodile-god” has no connection to [[Myth/EgyptianMythology Sobek.]]
** InvertedTrope later on: When Haik reveals that he has an older sister called Hina, this means he's a Tagalog version of ''Maui''--or [[DecompositeCharacter one of them, at least.]]

* BadassBoast: DoubleSubverted. When Haik challenges his grandfather to a wrestling match, he warns him that he killed a crocodile and the eel-god. Unfortunately, the volcano-god just laughs at him that two gods are a "good start" for a young man, lists off [[TheOldGods all the different nature-gods the Philippines had in his youth,]] and boasts in turn that [[RetiredBadass Haik should ask how many HE killed.]] He then [[CurbStompBattle suplexes Haik and breaks his arm.]]

* PlayingWithFire: He's a volcano-god and gave humans fire. Inside of Mount Pulag, the torches in the cave [[OhCrap instantly light when he wakes up.]]
* RetiredBadass: When Haik and Lumawig ask for the secret of fire-making back, his response is [[ScrewPolitenessImASenior endless bitching about how everything sucks with all these young folks nowadays.]] Haik eventually gets fed up and challenges him to a wrestling match, at which the volcano-god [[WrestlerInAllOfUs lifts Haik off the ground]] and [[SuplexFinisher breaks his arm with a suplex.]]
** He tells Haik and Lumawig to catch a [[ShockAndAwe lightning bolt]] if they want fire back so much. According to him, lightning will respect you [[DefeatMeansFriendship if it DOESN'T manage to kill you.]]

* BigBrotherInstinct: The North Wind found a boy dead on Mount Pulag and heads out for the boy's parents. He finds them cooking dinner with no hint of grief because [[AdultFear they actually ABANDONED him,]] so [[BerserkButton he loses his shit.]]

* VoluntaryShapeshifting: The North Wind has a tattoo of a frigatebird on his back, and it's implied that he found his adopted brother in bird form since a frigatebird is part of the South Wind's tattoo. Lumawig has the monkey-eater on his chest, as the monkey-eater fostered him and taught him to "fly."

* {{Shapeshifting}}: The North Wind has a tattoo of a frigatebird on his back, and it's implied that he found his adopted brother in bird form since a frigatebird is part of the South Wind's tattoo. Lumawig has the monkey-eater on his chest, as the monkey-eater fostered him and taught him to "fly."

* ChildishOlderSibling: The whale-goddess is quite [[GenkiGirl cheerful and sweet,]] but impulsive and naive to the point where her ''younger'' siblings treat her like a child, and [[RealityEnsues it starts to unsettle Mirasol.]] Lola the dragon also notes that the immigrants on the corvette [[RealityEnsues think she's crazy.]]

* GenkiGirl: The whale-goddess is extremely happy and childlike. When first reunited with Mirasol in the Otherworld, [[MotorMouth she talks her mom's ears off]] and [[RealityEnsues Mirasol can't really process]] [[MrExposition all the names and information.]]

* BlowYouAway: The Four Winds, who inherited the winds from Langa-an. RealityEnsues when Langa-an's FIFTH son, lost at birth and thought to be dead, returns to them several years later--she and her husband quickly get worried because they'll have nothing to give him when he grows up.

* InformedAttractiveness: InvokedTrope. Lumawig's first marriage to a ''diwat'' was a [[AwfulWeddedLife year-long disaster,]] since [[RealityEnsues being pretty and wealthy doesn't make you compatible with each other.]] In their last of many fights, she told him that having a human father [[FantasticRacism made him uglier and weaker than the unmixed gods,]] despite Lumawig being [[TheCasanova well-known for his lady-killing ways.]] He promptly [[FaceStealer takes her face/beauty away]] and jabs at her that if she's so much more powerful, she can probably take it back--then [[OhCrap immediately regrets it]] when she stops arguing and [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness runs off crying.]] He and the servants search three days for her, only to find [[DownerEnding she's killed herself in shame.]]

* TheReliableOne: The North Wind shows up unbidden in a van to take Haik and Mirasol home from the hospital, so that Hadassah's sisters don't have to go back to San Francisco during rush hour. He then tells Haik that the other gods will see him in three days [[RealityEnsues so they can get some rest.]]

* ConvectionSchmonvection: Averted. Haik brings [[DualWielding TWO swords]] in case he needs to duel his grandfather to recover the secret of fire, but [[RealityEnsues they both melt when the volcano-god walks over.]]

* TricksterArchetype: ImpliedTrope. Haik has [[InsistentTerminology a lot of rules about what words mean,]] and is seen in myths and in Mirasol's past lives to TakeAThirdOption when he can; later on, he's revealed to be a counterpart to Maui, the notorious Polynesian trickster.

* TricksterArchetype: Lumawig has many of Maui's trickster aspects.

* PlayingWithFire: He's a volcano-god and gave humans fire. Inside of Mount Pulag, the torches in the cave [[OhCrap wake up when he does.]]

* ConvectionSchmonvection: Averted. Haik brings [[DualWielding TWO swords]] in case he needs to duel his grandfather to recover fire, but [[RealityEnsues they both melt when the volcano-god walks over.]]
* GrandpaGod: He's a literal grandfather to Haik, Lumawig, and the Four Winds, with white hair and smudged tattoos. The fact that he LOOKS old means he's a literal example of TheOldGods, and he was one of Bathala's friends [[ExpositionOfImmortality when Bathala made coconuts.]]

* TheOldGods: While the Tagalog pantheon are called "the old gods" due to being pre-Catholic deities, he and Lola are older than all except Bathala. The volcano-god was there when Bathala made coconuts and people, [[TheNameless has no name,]] and [[GodsNeedPrayerBadly doesn't require worship.]]

* TheReliableOne: The North Wind shows up unbidden in a van to take Haik and Mirasol home, so that Hadassah's sisters don't have to go back to San Francisco during rush hour. He then tells Haik that the other gods will see him in three days [[RealityEnsues so they can get some rest.]]

* NatureSpirit: Initially appears as a crocodile.

* ChildishOlderSibling: The whale-goddess is quite [[GenkiGirl cheerful and sweet,]] but impulsive and naive to the point where her ''younger'' siblings treat her like a child, and [[RealityEnsues it starts to unsettle Mirasol.]]

* FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling: Lumawig is the "foolish" sibling to his actual brothers ''and'' his cousin Haik for good measure. In one of Mirasol's precolonial lives, Mirasol's friends playfully warn her that Lumawig is a spoiled troublemaker and she shouldn't get DistractedByTheSexy.

* JerkassGods: His first words on being awakened by his grandsons' blood-offering are [[ScrewPolitenessImASenior to complain that they haven't offered him any gifts or food.]] He also gave humans the secret of fire-making, but took it back because [[WhenIWasYourAge he thinks Bathala is too soft on mortals and now they've become disrespectful of the gods.]] When Haik pleads that humans are miserable without it, the volcano-god just snaps at him to let them get hunted by animals and forced to eat raw food until they "respect" him again.
** Implicitly {{Cerebus Retcon}}ned in a later chapter: Lola the dragon notes that since he grew up in a time when TheOldGods and humans [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking frequently fought and killed each other,]] excessive sadness was viewed as weakness, and the volcano-god may have thought that Haik and Lumawig were going to kill him for being too old. Mirasol goes from hating him for being [[ScrewPolitenessImASenior a bitter and abusive old man]] to wondering if he was actually feeling lonely or vulnerable, [[TragicVillain but could only communicate it through anger.]]

* TheAloner: Haik has become the "other people are technically still there, but he can't reach them" variant thanks to how thoroughly Catholicism spread through the Philippines. However, it's joined with YouAreNotAlone, seeing as Mirasol is still with him.
** In Chapter 7, Mirasol has a vision [[spoiler: of the Tagalog pantheon [[BigDamnHeroes mobilizing to find Haik]].]] His response:

* ScrewPolitenessImASenior: He wakes up irritated by Haik and Lumawig's request to get the secret of fire back, and [[JerkassGods goes on a huge rant]] about how they didn't greet him properly, and they're asking for "his property" without offering anything in return, ''and'' that he took away fire-making because he thinks Bathala Maykapal is too soft on mortals, so [[WhenIWasYourAge they don't respect the gods anymore.]]

* BadassBoast: DoubleSubverted. When Haik challenges his grandfather to a wrestling match, he warns him that he killed a crocodile and the eel-god. Unfortunately, the volcano-god just laughs at him that two gods are a "good start" for a young man, lists off [[TheOldGods all the different kinds of nature-gods the Philippines had in his youth,]] and boasts in turn that [[RetiredBadass Haik should ask how many HE killed.]] He then [[CurbStompBattle suplexes Haik and breaks his arm.]]

* GreenThumb: ImpliedTrope; as a young man, he tells Bathala he's been trying to grow something bigger than grass since Bathala raised the islands up, but can't figure it out. After Bathala grows coconuts and shows the volcano-god some of its fruit, he [[GodIsGood germinates a second coconut tree after blowing steam on it.]]
* JerkassGods: His first words on being awakened by his grandsons' blood-offering are [[ScrewPolitenessImASenior to complain that they haven't offered him any gifts or food.]] He also gave humans the secret of fire-making, but took it back because [[WhenIWasYourAge he thinks Bathala is too soft on mortals, who have now become disrespectful of the gods.]] When Haik pleads that humans are miserable without it, the volcano-god just snaps at him to let them get hunted by animals and forced to eat raw food until they "respect" him again.

* MagmaMan: Obviously. He appeared as an old man sleeping in a wall of the once-volcanic Mount Pulag, and when he wakes up irritated by Haik and Lumawig's arrival, [[LetsGetDangerous he MELTS the rock to get down to the ground.]]

* RetiredBadass: When Haik and Lumawig ask for the secret of fire-making back, his response is [[ScrewPolitenessImASenior endless bitching]] about how they haven't given him a proper greeting, and they're asking for "his property" without offering anything in return, ''and'' that he took away fire-making because he thinks Bathala Maykapal is too soft on mortals, so [[WhenIWasYourAge they don't respect the gods anymore.]] Haik eventually gets fed up and challenges him to a wrestling match, at which the volcano-god [[WrestlerInAllOfUs lifts Haik off the ground]] and [[SuplexFinisher breaks his arm with a suplex.]]
* ScrewPolitenessImASenior: He wakes up irritated by Haik and Lumawig's request to get the secret of fire back, and [[JerkassGods goes on a huge rant]] about how they didn't greet him properly.

* WeUsedToBeFriends: ImpliedTrope with Bathala; he's introduced as a bitter old man ranting to his grandsons about how Bathala is too soft on mortals, but when Mirasol sees him in his youth, [[UsedToBeASweetKid he's friendly and kind.]] Confirmed and DownplayedTrope with Lola the dragon, who wishes she could have kept in touch with him better and regrets [[ItsAllMyFault not being able to stop his fight with his grandsons.]]
* WhenIWasYourAge: Is constantly griping about how younger gods as well as mortals are too soft and lack proper respect for their elders.

* BigBrotherInstinct: The North Wind found a boy dead on Mount Pulag and immediately heads out for the boy's parents. He finds them just cooking dinner and acting normal because [[AdultFear they actually ABANDONED him,]] so [[BerserkButton he loses his shit.]]

* GrandpaGod: He's a literal grandfather to Haik, Lumawig, and the Four Winds, with white hair and faded tattoos. The fact that he LOOKS old is a sign that he's a literal example of TheOldGods, and he was one of Bathala's friends [[ExpositionOfImmortality when Bathala made coconuts.]]

Haik's grandfather, who lived in Mount Pulag. He gave humans the secret of fire, only to take it back several generations later, because [[DisproportionateRetribution he felt that they didn't respect him anymore.]] As such, he features in a flashback/myth where a younger Haik and Lumawig [[IntangibleTheft have to steal fire-making back.]]

* ConvectionSchmonvection: Averted. Haik brings [[DualWielding TWO swords]] in case he needs to duel his grandfather to recover fire, but [[RealityEnsues they both melt when the volcano-god heads over to him.]]

* GreenThumb: ImpliedTrope; as a young man, he mentions to Bathala that he's been trying to grow something bigger than grass since Bathala raised the islands up, and then he [[GodIsGood germinates a coconut tree moments after touching it.]]
* JerkassGods: The volcano-god. [[TheOldGods He's at least as old as Bathala,]] and his first words on being awakened by his grandsons' blood-offering are [[ScrewPolitenessImASenior to complain that they haven't offered him any gifts or food.]] He also gave humans the secret of fire-making, but took it back because [[WhenIWasYourAge he thinks Bathala is too soft on mortals, who have now become disrespectful of the gods,]] so he's perfectly fine letting people get hunted by animals and forced to eat raw food until they "respect" him again.

* RetiredBadass: Haik's grandfather, [[TheOldGods the volcano-god.]] When Haik and Lumawig ask for the secret of fire-making back, his response is [[ScrewPolitenessImASenior endless bitching]] about how they haven't given him a proper greeting, and they're asking for "his property" without offering anything in return, ''and'' that he took away fire-making because he thinks Bathala Maykapal is too soft on mortals, so [[WhenIWasYourAge they don't respect the gods anymore.]] Haik eventually gets fed up and challenges him to a wrestling match, at which the volcano-god [[WrestlerInAllOfUs lifts Haik off the ground]] and [[SuplexFinisher breaks his arm with a suplex.]]

* NatureSpirit: A volcano-spirit. Though while he ''lived'' in Mount Pulag for a time, [[IAmNotShazam he isn't the guardian of it.]]

* TheOldGods: She's a gigantic crocodile/dragon with [[TheNameless no proper name,]] and doesn't ''need'' worship to survive, even if she'd much prefer it.

* UndeathlyPallor: The South Wind is deathly pale since he died on a freezing mountain as a boy.