History Characters / Zathura

* NotCheatingUnlessYouGetCaught: Unlike its [[Franchise/Jumanji jungle-based counterpart]], it only punishes Walter for blatantly moving Danny's piece back [[spoiler:when Danny later confesses and apologizes for moving his piece ahead of Walter's]]. Notably, the penalty card says "''Caught'' cheating."

-> '''Walter:''' Get me a juice box, [[GoshDangItToHeck biatch]]!

%%* CanonForeigner: She's a character specifically for this movie.

* BadassBaritone: Frank Oz gives him a deep and menacing-sounding voice.

[[folder: The Astronaut]]

* IHatePastMe: He is a bit of a jerk, but he is harsher towards Walter than he is to Danny [[spoiler:which is understandable after it is revealed that not only he ''is'' Walter from the future, he was also a BigBrotherBully towards Danny and ended up [[RetGone erasing him from existence]]. He eases up after the younger Walter doesn’t wish Danny away]].

* TheReveal: Not only is he a previous player of the game, but he's also [[spoiler:Walter's future self from an alternate timeline of events]].

* SurpriseIncest: Almost by the end of the movie [[spoiler:it is revealed that the astronaut is actually his brother Walter, from a different timeline, all grown up]].

** --> '''Danny:''' You wished for ''two'' of me?!\\

** -> '''Danny:''' You wished for ''two'' of me?!
-> '''Walter:''' I-I-I just wished for the astronaut to have his brother back.
** -> '''Danny:''' IT'S A BLACK HOLE!! ZATHURA'S A BLACK HOLE!!

* FromBadToWorse: Basically the whole premise of the game can be seen as this as it first teleports its players into deep space and then throws [[FlamingMeteor meteor showers]], [[KillerRobot]]s, [[GravitySucks stellar gravitational fields]], [[ToServeMan man-eating Zorgon invaders]] that oftentimes appear within massive swarms at one time, and finally [[UnrealisticBlackHole glowing black-holes]] into the equation as well on top of that.

* [[AloofBigBrother Aloof Big Sister]]: At first, she seems completely disinterested in literally anything having to do with either one of her two younger brothers, but for additional information on whether or not she's actually a straight example of this trope, also see her other trope examples relating to just this very topic alone below.

* [[BigBrotherInstinct Big Sister Instinct]]: She first shows this trope off as she drops a piano down on top of a lone Zorgon who's currently getting ready to [[OffWithHisHead eat present-day Walter and Danny's heads off]] no less and then shows it off again once its finally revealed that Zathura was actually a ''black-hole'' all along by unsuccessfully attempting to carry present-day Walter to safety, even though he could've just gotten up and ran off all by himself since we literally never see any evidence of either one of his legs getting internally injured at any point in the film prior to that moment there.

* AnAesop: He goes through one of these all throughout the film's runtime, escpecially so once his future self appears as greatly further expanded upon below.
* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: He at one point has this trope invoked upon him by his FutureBadass self, successfully spurning him away from completely wishing Danny out of existence in the heat of the moment when he gets a "shooting-star" card.

* BrotherSisterIncest[=/=]RelativeError[=/=]SurpriseIncest: His future self partakes in a triple-example of all three of these tropes at once with Lisa up until he wishes the alternate timeline Danny back into existence as further expanded upon within each of their respective folders below.

** The first time around, his future self has to go and save him from getting ThrownOutTheAirlock by none other than the game itself of all things for [[NoFairCheating cheating at it]] at one point as mentioned below.

* {{Doppelmerger}}[=/=]FusionDance: He does one with his future self upon wishing his alternate version of Danny back into existence.

* ForWantOfANail[=/=]MundaneWish[=/=]WastefulWishing: During one scene, he actually wishes for a Brett Favre-signed autograph football, even though it immediately proves to be a not-so-practical wish on his part, but to the fair, though, it's also still a ''much wiser'' wish than the one that his future self was attempting to completely steer him away from to start with.
** Later on, however, the latter-most of these three above tropes, that being WastefulWishing, is actually averted once he wishes for his future self to have his alternate version of Danny back as mentioned a number of other times across this very page.
* FreudianExcuse[=/=]FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse: His parents' divorce prior to the events of the film is his main reason as to why he's such a bully to Danny in the first place because he also believes him to even be the cause of it all to start with, but he soon has the latter trope inflicted upon him via his future self once Danny spins him out of the game.

* {{Jerkass}}[=/=]JerkWithAHeartOfGold: He’s very callous to Danny, and the film wastes literally no time at all in showing us exactly that.
** When he thinks that the robot is his personal slave he rudely tells it to get him a drink and takes Danny telling him to be nicer to it as jealousy.

* MyFutureSelfAndMe: Once he wishes that his future self had his alternate version of Danny back, he appropriately has a moment like this near the end of the film.

* NoFairCheating[=/=]ThrownOutTheAirlock: This is exactly what happens to him when the game catches him cheating at it at one point in the film, forcing his future self to have to go and save him immediately afterwards.
* NoIndoorVoice: His future self openly lampshades this trope all while he's currently having yet another argument with Danny.

* RuleOfThree: As mentioned above, this is exactly the number of times throughout the film that he ends up becoming an example of the DistressedDude trope for one reason or another.
* RunningGag[=/=]TemptingFate: All throughout his time up within deep space, he continuously says that literally nothing around the house should even be working at all due to its complete physical disconnection from anything that would realistically allow its critical systems to be working all throughout that time, only for it to then end up someway somehow working anyway.
* SiblingRivalry: With Danny all throughout the film's runtime.

** Several minutes later, instead of focusing on putting out the kitchen fire that both he himself and Danny created in the first place, he actually focuses on group-hugging the now unfrozen Lisa together with Danny all while she's having a massive wide-eyed-plus-yelling-freak-out moment over said kitchen fire.
* ThisIsForEmphasisBitch: He readily inflicts this trope upon the killer robot right when he first shows up on-screen.

* CassandraTruth: As already mentioned within Walter's folder above, neither his father nor Lisa is ever very good about believing him on ''anything'' really, most notably about them now being stranded within outer space together during one scene.
* ContrastingSequelMainCharacter: As already basically mentioned above within Walter's folder, Danny's much more prone to arguing with him than Peter ever was with Judy, and on top of that, he doesn't ever even read the Zathura instructions at all before blindly teleporting himself, Walter, and Lisa all up into deep space together as well.

* DistressedDude: As already mentioned above within Walter's folder, he himself becomes one of these as the lone remaining Zorgon gets ready to eat both his and Walter's heads off, only for Lisa to suddenly drop the aforementioned piano down on top of him, effectively stopping such a horrific fate from ever actually coming to either one of them.
* {{Doppelmerger}}[=/=]FusionDance: Much like with Walter mentioned above, he also does one of these himself with his alternate clone of sorts.

* HideYourChildren: He massively [[AvertedTrope averts]] this trope by being the one to retrieve the game-board all while even having to deliberately [[StormingTheCastle invade a Zorgon starship]] to do so no less.

* LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain: As mentioned above within Walter's folder, Danny also mutually agrees with him on not ever bringing up the events of the film again after the game completely resets on them both and also Lisa.

* NoIndoorVoice: Again, much like with Walter, Walter's future self openly [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this trope all while he's having yet another argument with Present-Day Walter.
* OhCrap: Much like with Walter mentioned above, the whole meteor shower incident at the very start of the game easily becomes one of these moments for him and also even leads to his also already aforementioned {{Malaproper}} example.

* SiblingRivalry: With Walter all throughout the film's runtime as already mentioned above.

* SkewedPriorities: Along with Walter mentioned above, he also has one of these moments himself upon him group-hugging Lisa together with Walter during the whole kitchen fire sequence.

[[folder:Unnamed Father aka Mister Budwing]]

* TheCameo: Creator/TimRobbins has one of these as him.

* ParentsAsPeople: For a divorced father, he actually doesn't do half-bad, but it's just that there's quite literally not enough of him to go around whenever his two aforementioned sons are constantly demanding his exclusive attention along with the fact that he also even has to work on Saturdays on top of that.

The boys' older sister who gets caught up in the crazy board-game adventure and also later develops a romantic interest in a future version of the main protagonist.

* AerosolFlamethrower: She has this trope unsuccessfully inflicted upon her by Walter once the cryogenic stasis card completely freezes her solid for the next five turns as already mentioned above.

* AndIMustScream[=/=]HarmlessFreezing[=/=]HumanPopsicle: The cryogenic stasis card effectively inflicts all three of these tropes at once upon her for five straight gameplay turns as she emerges from its effects seemingly unharmed by them later on, and on top of that, in Future Walter's alternate timeline of events, she effectively becomes forever doomed to be an example of both the former-most trope and the latter-most trope [[FridgeHorror if you really think about it for a moment]], which is exactly the same sort of fate that Ellen Ripley was in danger of facing between the events of ''Film/{{Alien}}'' and ''Film/{{Aliens}}''.

* BigOMG: She lets out one of these in response to the revelation about the astronaut aka Future Walter's true identity that is further expanded upon below.

* BigDamnHeroes[=/=]BondOneLiner: She delivers on a epic moment involving both of these tropes at once just after dropping a piano down on top of a lone Zorgon who's currently targeting Walter and Danny for food.
* BrotherSisterIncest[=/=]RelativeError[=/=]SurpriseIncest: With the astronaut aka Future Walter right on up until TheReveal that soon leaves her understandably {{squick}}ed out by it all once present-day Walter finally wishes that his future self had his now nonexistent brother from 15 years ago back.

* {{Expy}}: She's the thematic counterpart to Aunt Nora from ''Film/{{Jumanji}}'' as she's the female character who's related to the main characters, aunt/sister more specifically, and also gets caught up in the adventure later on, monkey in her car/wakes up from cryonic chamber more specifically again, not to mention neither take it so well when they see the state that their house is in, once again more specifically their mansion overgrown with Jumanji vines and nephew turned into a monkey/their brothers actively stoking a fire in the house.
** On top of that, though, she can also be seen as one of these for Sarah Whittle as she's the fourth person to help out with completing the game along with her also being the love interest for the thematic Alan Parrish analog, even though it's later revealed that they're actually both partaking in a BrotherSisterIncest all along, leaving her understandably {{squick}}ed out by it all as mentioned above once TheReveal actually happens before her near the end of the film.
* FieryRedhead: At first, she may [[SubvertedTrope seem]] like one of these, but that's only because of her brothers rudely awakening her early on in the film, and the initial ruse continues with her [[NotSoStoic completely freaking out]] over present-day Walter and Danny deliberately stoking a fire within the kitchen, but all in all, she's actually an aversion of this trope as she later even shows off some [[BigBrotherInstinct Big Sister Instinct]] as mentioned above.

* InstantTurnOff: She has one of these after learning that she was really partaking in a BrotherSisterIncest with Walter all along as already mentioned above.

* WhatBeautifulEyes: At one point, she gushes over the astronaut aka Future Walter's eyes, but it's too bad that he's actually one of her very own [[BrotherSisterIncest brothers]] who's now all grown up by that point in time.

* ArtifactOfDoom[=/=]ItCanThink: Much like ''Film/{{Jumanji}}'', it's a sentient board-game that knows it whenever it's either somebody's turn or not somebody's turn, summons up horrifying threats with literally every single turn that's taken, also knows it whenever somebody [[NoFairCheating cheats at it]] and likewise administers horrifying punishments for them doing so in the first place, and also even completely resets both itself and time upon its final completion at the end of the film.

* EstablishingSeriesMoment[=/=]FlamingMeteor: The whole already aforementioned meteor shower deal easily features both of these tropes at once for the game.

* NoFairCheating[=/=]ThrownOutTheAirlock: This is exactly what it does to present-day Walter when he cheats at it at one point in the film, forcing his future self to have to go and save him immediately afterwards.

* PragmaticAdaptation[=/=]ThematicSeries: The fact that the film version of the story is a DivorcedInstallment from the ''Franchise/{{Jumanji}}'' franchise as a whole easily makes for a dual-usage of both of these tropes at once.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Nobody really knows what happens to the game-board following the film's events, but for additional information on exactly what happens to everybody within the astronaut aka Future Walter's alternate timeline of events, see both the above and the below folders.

* GivingThemTheStrip[=/=]LosingAShoeInTheStruggle: He inflicts both of the tropes at once upon Walter at one point, but Walter escapes his grasp by briefly pulling himself out of one of his shoes.
* HeelFaceTurn: Much like with Walter mentioned above, he soon does one of these upon the former reprogramming him, and once that happens, he soon begins slaughtering the countless different Zorgon invaders.

* {{Sizeshifter}}[=/=]TelescopingRobot: Right when he first shows up, he looks to be no taller than say twelve inches, but just a handful of seconds later, he soon demonstrates a rather horrifying ability to dramatically increase his very own physical body size completely at his very own will much like with Jet Jaguar from ''Film/GodzillaVsMegalon''.
* ThisIsForEmphasisBitch: Walter inflicts this trope upon him right when he first shows up as already mentioned above.

[[caption-width-right:350:'''Astronaut aka Future Walter:''' Like moths to a flame, they'll easily follow the fire no matter what.]]

* PeopleInRubberSuits[=/=]PracticalEffects: Every single one of them is portrayed via one of these, but unlike with the situation seen amongst ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'' and countless other Japanese {{Kaiju}} out there, these fellers here have much more convincing-looking effects going for them [[SpecialEffectFailure than the aforementioned Kaiju]].

* PlanetLooters: They savagely raid other planets and vessels in order to be able to continue thriving, and the Astronaut aka Future Walter mentions that they even at one point or another burned up their very own ''homeworld'' in fact.
* RaptorAttack: As already somewhat mentioned above, this is sorta what they look like to start with anyway, so they just as easily fit the bill for this trope as the [[Franchise/{{Jurassic Park}} Jurassic Park/World]] franchise's ''Velociraptors''.

[[folder: The Astronaut aka Future Walter]]

A future version of the main protagonist who gets spun out of the game by his younger brother and becomes a mentor of sorts to the boys while he also attempts to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong some 15 years ago in fact.

* BigEater[=/=]DagWoodSandwich[=/=]SatiatingSandwich: Easily [[JustifiedTrope justified]] in the case of all three tropes at once since he's been having to solely survive off of emergency space rations for ''15 long years'' prior to the events of the film, and yes, the sandwich in question is also abnormally large much like some animated sandwiches out there.
* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: As mentioned above, he soon invokes this trope upon his past self to spurn him away from wishing that Danny had never even been born at all to start with and thereby making him avoid making the very same mistake that he himself once made during the heat of the moment upon him receiving that ''very same'' "shooting-star" card as him in fact.

* BrotherSisterIncest[=/=]RelativeError[=/=]SurpriseIncest: With Lisa right on up until TheReveal that he's actually a future version of Walter from an alternate timeline, leaving her understandably {{squick}}ed out by it all as already mentioned above within her folder.

-> '''Astronaut aka Future Walter:''' Looks like you've got a Zorgon problem.

* {{Doppelmerger}}[=/=]FusionDance: As already mentioned above with both his past self and Danny, he also does one of these with his past self once his past self wishes that he had his alternate version of Danny back.

* FreudianExcuse[=/=]FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse: Exactly the same as that of his past self for obvious reasons, but after learning that some games just can't ever be played alone the hard way, the latter trope serves as his primary motivation to help out both his past self and his brother in completing the game once and for all.
* FutureBadass: He's easily a much more badass version of Walter from the far future most likely due to whatever he's been having to go through after [[IWishedYouWereDead completely wishing his version of Danny right on out of existence]].
* FutureSelfReveal[=/=]TheReveal: Not only is he a previous player of the game, but he's also Walter's future self from an alternate timeline of events as already mentioned above, making for an excellent RewatchBonus between him and his past self.
* HelpYourselfInTheFuture[=/=]SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong: This is his main goal throughout the film right from when Danny spins him out of the game in the first place.
* IHatePastMe: This is exactly why he's obviously far harder on present-day Walter than he is on Danny.

* IWishedYouWereDead[=/=]MyGodWhatHaveIDone: In his alternate timeline of events, he even wishes his version of Danny completely out of existence and subsequently ends up having to live with horrifically negative consequences that make him instantly regret his hasty decision, and so this is also some of what makes him attempt to spurn his past self into not making the very same mistake twice.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold[=/=]OlderAndWiser: Yes, he has his jerky moments throughout the film, but he has the benefit of experience on his side much unlike his past self, and also, he's really only ever a jerk towards his past self due to literally everything else mentioned about both him and his past self right here on this very page.
* MyFutureSelfAndMe: As already covered within his past self's folder above, he appropriately has a moment like this just after finally getting his alternate version of Danny back.

* RewatchBonus: When looked over and studied for the second time, literally every single one of his moments with his past self majorly {{foreshadow}}s TheReveal mentioned above.

!! The Robot

* MadnessMantra: His above image quote is easily one of these.

* NotSoStoic: Initially, she never really shows any true emotions, and besides, this actually is sort of a RunningGag in the case of any character that's played by Creator/KristenStewart, but once we get to the moment in the film where she finally sees present-day Walter and Danny deliberately stoking a fire within the kitchen, we get this epic gem of a line that also even serves as her above image quote in fact:

** Later on, however, the latter-most of these three above tropes is actually averted once he wishes for his future self to have his alternate version of Danny back as mentioned a number of other times across this very page.

* GivingThemTheStrip[=/=]LosingAShoeInTheStruggle: He does this at one point to escape the killer robot's grasp.