| 1 | The characters list for ''WesternAnimation/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteers''. |
| 2 | ---- |
| 3 | |
| 4 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 5 | !The Planeteers |
| 6 | The Planeteers are [[MultinationalTeam five teenagers from five different continents]], assembled by Gaia, the Spirit of 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. |
| 7 | ---- |
| 8 | [[folder:General]] |
| 9 | * 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. |
| 10 | * AllergicToEvil: |
| 11 | ** In "[[Recap/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteersS2E17And18SummitToSaveEarth Summit To Save Earth, Part 1]]", Zarm's evil laugh seems capable of giving Gaia intense headaches, even if she isn't yet aware of his presence. |
| 12 | ** In "A Good Bomb Is Hard To Find", UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler's hate was so strong that simply being near it weakened Captain Planet. |
| 13 | * AnimalLover: |
| 14 | ** 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. |
| 15 | ** 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. |
| 16 | ** In her first appearance the {{Tsundere}} Linka is seen playing music for a bunch of birds, 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. |
| 17 | ** 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". |
| 18 | * BewareTheNiceOnes: |
| 19 | ** Gaia is motherly, patient and generally friendly, but in "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. She can also become a Mama Bear when the Planeteers are in danger... a Mama Bear armed with the entire power of nature. |
| 20 | ** Gi believes in the innocence of people ([[RousseauWasRight before they grow up]], at least), loves animals, and is one of the calmest and most 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. |
| 21 | %%** Ma-Ti is probably the nicest member of the whole Planet team. He's gentle, friendly, patient, and practically incorruptible. However, when he got to meet the guy who was apparently to blame for the deaths of his parents, [[EvenTheLovingHeroHasHatedOnes the gloves were off]]. |
| 22 | * BigBrotherInstinct: |
| 23 | ** Ma-Ti's more vulnerable characteristics are counterbalanced by the four older Planeteers, all of whom are determined to see that he makes it out of each mission safe and sound. |
| 24 | ** Ma-Ti himself [[InvertedTrope is an inversion]]; despite his physical weakness and self-doubt, he has saved the day more than once by combining his powers with a drive to protect his older friends. |
| 25 | * EvenTheLovingHeroHasHatedOnes: Gaia and Captain Planet are friendly, incredibly patient sorts (given that they are physically harmed by human carelessness quite regularly), but even they don't like [[TheSociopath Zarm]]. |
| 26 | * ExtremelyProtectiveChild: Gaia and Captain Planet aren't the team's parents in any usual sense, but that's how they act and how the Planeteers see them. One of the fastest ways to get every member of the group gunning for you is to threaten or harm one of them. |
| 27 | * 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 BigBrotherMentor. 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. |
| 28 | -->'''Captain Planet:''' Uh... family reunion. ''[soft chuckle]'' Sort of. |
| 29 | %%* FourTemperamentEnsemble: Melancholic and The Guardian (Kwame), Choleric and The Artisan (Wheeler), sanguine/melancholic and The Rational (Linka), phlegmatic and the Idealist (Gi) and in the middle and the Idealist (Ma-Ti). |
| 30 | * FriendToAllLivingThings: While it's not a guarantee, many animals the Planeteers encounter seem to realize they're here to help, and treat them in a friendly manner. |
| 31 | * GreenAesop: The entire show is about conservation, but different characters have different issues related to them. |
| 32 | ** Kwame's issues of choice are deforestation and the plundering of nonrenewable natural resources. |
| 33 | ** Wheeler is associated with the issues of urban sprawl and population control. His character is meant to represent pollution that comes about through carelessness or ignorance rather than greed or malice. |
| 34 | ** Linka is associated with the issue of human casualties of environmental degradation. This includes things such as war, drugs, and disease. It's hardly surprising that Linka-focused episodes tend to be the darkest. |
| 35 | ** Gi is associated with the issues of protecting wildlife and the oceans. She has a particular affinity for sea life, especially sharks and dolphins. It's fitting considering that her parents are marine biologists. |
| 36 | ** Ma-Ti is associated with the issues of conflict over land and resources. Sometimes this issue verges into tackling racial and national prejudice. |
| 37 | ** Captain Planet is a walking, talking embodiment of environmental morals. Though, unlike the Planeteers, his comes off as more of a SpaceWhaleAesop: don't harm the planet or it'll break its foot off in your ass. |
| 38 | * 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. They also have a paternal figure in Captain Planet. |
| 39 | * JumpedAtTheCall: Most of the team is eager to take up the position. |
| 40 | ** 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. |
| 41 | ** Linka protests only because she thinks that their youth might hinder them. She's equally on-board. |
| 42 | ** Gi happily makes good on her new-found ability to protect the oceans. In the BadFuture episode, she continues using her ring to protect the oceans' surviving dolphins after the team breaks up. |
| 43 | ** Ma-Ti takes absolutely no convincing to become a Planeteer, even understanding his power immediately without Gaia needing to explain. He says later that the day he became a Planeteer was the best of his life. |
| 44 | * 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 "[[Recap/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteersS1E10VolcanosWrath Volcano's Wrath]]", as she watches them dash off to deal with Sly Sludge's latest scheme: |
| 45 | -->'''Gaia:''' Children. [[SoProudOfYou They make a mother proud.]] |
| 46 | %%* LikeBrotherAndSister: This is the dominant dynamics among the Planeteers. |
| 47 | %%** Kwame has it with Linka and possibly Gi. Possibly, because early episodes would drop an occasional ShipTease for them. |
| 48 | %%** Wheeler has it with Gi. |
| 49 | %%** Ma-Ti has it with both of the girls. |
| 50 | * MartialPacifist: |
| 51 | ** The entire team will use their rings to defend themselves or other people, but not in ways that would 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. |
| 52 | ** 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. |
| 53 | * MultinationalTeam: Invoked; Gaia selected a team member from almost every 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 (obviously) Antarctica. |
| 54 | * NiceGuy: |
| 55 | ** Kwame is patient, kind, calm, and cares about others and the environment. |
| 56 | ** Gi is one of the team's calmest members, and spreads that calm to the others. She's compassionate to wildlife (especially ocean life) and is pretty idealistic. |
| 57 | ** Ma-Ti is friendly and almost impossible to anger. One of the reason he got Heart is that because of his kindness, he won't be tempted to use his powers to, say, control the entire world. |
| 58 | ** Captain Planet is incredibly nice, even to the villains. He also never resorts to direct violence, instead using his powers to foil the bad guys' plans and correct the ecological damage. The exceptions, of course, are Captain Pollution and Zarm, who really don't give him much choice. |
| 59 | * OOCIsSeriousBusiness: |
| 60 | ** Captain Planet seems to have a permanently jocular demeanor and talk only in public service announcements and wisecracks... until a villain sinks to a level that even he has to take seriously or poses a threat that he cannot easily handle. He'll be all business then, which is a sure sign that [[LetsGetDangerous the stakes have been raised amazingly high.]] |
| 61 | ** If Wheeler is unusually quiet and not in mood for even Linka's sarcasm, you know he's seriously worried. |
| 62 | ** 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]]"), his teammate is usually in a massively messed-up state and [[UnexpectedlyDarkEpisode the episode itself is probably much darker than usual]]. |
| 63 | ** Ma-Ti likes just about everyone on sight; he's even the only member of the team Wheeler hasn't 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. |
| 64 | * 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. |
| 65 | * ParentsInDistress: Captain Planet and Gaia take on a parental role towards the team (three of whom have lost one or both of their biological ones), and while they're often more capable of handling the threat than the kids are, there are exceptions; has anyone even counted the times when Captain Planet needed the Planeteers' help? Not to mention the instances where Gaia's life (or at least her immortality) was at stake. |
| 66 | * 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. |
| 67 | * {{Protectorate}}: |
| 68 | ** Obviously, Earth is one to the seven main characters (Cap and Gaia included). |
| 69 | ** Speaking of the Planet team, they're ''all'' one another's protectorates. Mess with the Planeteers, and you'll have to deal with [[PapaWolf Captain Planet]] and/or [[MamaBear Gaia]]. Mess with either of the latter two, and [[ExtremelyProtectiveChild the Planeteers]] will make sure you don't get away with it. And don't think you're getting off easy if you attack just one or two members (especially [[EveryonesBabyBrother the youngest of them, Ma-Ti]]), either; you'll just get the remaining Planeteers on your doorstep for a rescue mission, with whatever damage to your lair that involves. And afterwards, they'll call Captain Planet who'll put the definite end to your scheme. |
| 70 | [[/folder]] |
| 71 | |
| 72 | [[folder:Gaia]] |
| 73 | !Gaia |
| 74 | [[quoteright:152:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cpgaia_5969.gif]] |
| 75 | ->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/WhoopiGoldberg in 1990–1993, Creator/MargotKidder in 1993–1995 |
| 76 | |
| 77 | 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. |
| 78 | ---- |
| 79 | * TheAgeless: She's [[TimeAbyss about the Earth's age]], yet looks like a rather young, though mature, woman. |
| 80 | * 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. |
| 81 | * ArtEvolution: Prior to season 4, Gaia's hair is black. Afterwards, it's light blue. |
| 82 | * BigGood: She's the benevolent mentor figure who recruited the Planeteers and directs them on their missions. |
| 83 | * FisherKingdom: Her health is directly linked to the health of both Hope Island specifically and Earth in general. If 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. |
| 84 | -->'''Wheeler:''' You don't have to get mad!\ |
| 85 | '''Gaia:''' When I do get mad, you'll know it, but that wasn't me. |
| 86 | * GodOfGood: While in the show, she's called the Spirit of Earth, rather than goddess, she's the mentor of the Planeteers and the protector of the planet and its biodiversity. |
| 87 | * GoodIsNotSoft: She's usually gentle, soft-spoken and motherly... and didn't have a second thought about getting violent with Zarm when he messed with her Planeteers too much. |
| 88 | * HotGoddess: She's the Spirit of Earth (or goddess in Greek mythology) and certainly beautiful. |
| 89 | * InnocentBlueEyes: Since season 4, she had blue eyes to represent her purity. Prior to that, they were light violet. |
| 90 | * MamaBear: Heaven help you if you mess with her Planeteers enough to get her attention. While she rarely directly intervenes unless she has to, she's been known to jump to the kids' defense if they've really gotten in danger over their heads, even if that means [[Awesome/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteers a full-on power battle]] [[BigBad against Zarm]]. |
| 91 | * MasterOfIllusion: A rare heroic example. She appears as a semi-transparent apparition to the Planeteers when they need her advice/guidance when out on missions, as she's unable to appear physically anywhere outside of Hope Island. She uses her powers against the bad guys to protect the Planeteers and/or Earth on a few occasions when the kids really are overpowered and unable to defend themselves, call Captain Planet, or stop a disaster from happening. She can also cause illusions to appear, showing the likely effect of an impending eco-disaster and its long-term consequences if left unchecked. |
| 92 | * MortalityEnsues: If Gaia or Earth itself is ever severely harmed or weakened, she loses her powers and becomes mortal. |
| 93 | * MotherNature: Literally. She's the benevolent Spirit of Earth, whose health and life are [[{{Synchronization}} closely tied to the condition of the planet]], and serves as a [[ParentalSubstitute mother figure]] for the Planeteers. |
| 94 | * NoodleIncident: So... what ''exactly'' happened that resulted in Zarm hating her? |
| 95 | * OurSpiritsAreDifferent: She's able to physically interact with people and her life is linked to the planet itself. |
| 96 | * PhysicalGoddess: Her powers are part of her and as the literal Spirit of Earth, she has all the powers of nature at her disposal. |
| 97 | * PurpleIsPowerful: She wears a purple dress and is a PhysicalGoddess whose power is the only reason the heroes have their own abilities. |
| 98 | * SadlyMythtaken: The powerful titaness of Earth called Gaia from the Myth/GreekMythology couldn't care less if the humans polluted or destroyed the planet. |
| 99 | * SexyMentor: Gaia is the team's mentor and MissionControl and is model-level gorgeous. |
| 100 | * SilkHidingSteel: Wise, respectable and generally above lying, one time she twisted Dr. Blight's FreakyFridayFlip to make MAL do her bidding even ''after'' she switched back. On a daily basis, she'd have to be steel-willed to put up with the way the villains mistreat her planet and constantly attack her team. |
| 101 | * {{Synchronization}}: Gaia's health is linked to Hope Island and the health of 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. |
| 102 | * TeamMom: The archetypal and literal "Mother Earth", she does take on the role of surrogate parent to the Planeteers at times, especially towards Ma-Ti. ParentalFavoritism, anyone? Because of this, the team does see her as a mother figure and will not stop until they've thwarted any Eco-Villain who threatens her. |
| 103 | * TimeAbyss: If Zarm's words from "Summit to Save Earth, Part 2" can be relied on, Gaia is about the Earth's age... or ''older''. And given that in the first episode, she calls her century-long sleep "a little nap", he might have actually told the truth. |
| 104 | -->'''Linka:''' What have you done to Gaia?!\ |
| 105 | '''Zarm:''' Gaia is simply starting to show her true age. (''mockingly:'') What is it, Gaia? Five, six ''billion'' years old? |
| 106 | [[/folder]] |
| 107 | |
| 108 | [[folder:Kwame]] |
| 109 | !Kwame |
| 110 | [[quoteright:152:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cpkwame_2587.gif]] |
| 111 | ->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/LeVarBurton |
| 112 | |
| 113 | A 16-year-old conservationist from West Africa (Ghana based on the name), Kwame is the group's level-headed voice of reason and [[StandardizedLeader de facto leader]]. Kwame's ring was of the element earth, used to create small, localized earthquakes; move rocks in the earth; cause holes or furrows in the earth for planting; create tiny islands by raising rocks from the shallows of the ocean; and turn mud into solid ground. |
| 114 | ---- |
| 115 | * BlackAndNerdy: Par for the course when you're played by Creator/LeVarBurton. |
| 116 | * 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. |
| 117 | * CharacterCatchphrase: "Let our powers combine!" |
| 118 | * DishingOutDirt: His power element is Earth and he can cause the dirt to move and pile up. |
| 119 | * DubNameChange: Quan in the Italian dub. |
| 120 | * {{Invocation}}: "(Then) Let our powers combine!" |
| 121 | * TheLeader: None of the Planeteers officially leads the others, but Kwame being the most rational, calm, and level-headed of the group (and the only one who steps into the position) usually falls into this role. |
| 122 | * MandatoryLine: In later seasons, there are some episodes where he would only say the {{Invocation}} and then "Earth!" |
| 123 | * MeaningfulName: "Kwame" is a Ghanaian name sometimes traditionally given to a male born on a Saturday. The very first episode of the series premiered on September 15, 1990, falling on a Saturday. |
| 124 | * NatureLover: He especially loves to plant trees, and goes into the forest for solace when he's upset, or simply when he needs to think. |
| 125 | * NotSoStoic: While not completely unemotional, Kwame'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. |
| 126 | * OnlySaneMan: Generally the calmest and most level-headed on the team, much like Gi and Ma-Ti, except that unlike them, he doesn't tend to have BewareTheNiceOnes moments. |
| 127 | * SelectiveMagnetism: One of his powers is to create magnets that only attract what needs to be magnetized. |
| 128 | * ShipTease: He occasionally gets some romantic subtext with Gi, though they never become an official couple. |
| 129 | * StandardizedLeader: Played with. 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. On the surface, he's somewhat unusual for the archetype given that he's Black, not White. The thing is, poor Kwame doesn't have nearly as much personality as his teammates and gets less CharacterDevelopment, more typical for a Standardized Leader. 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. |
| 130 | * TeamDad: The most mature mentally and emotionally he often acts as the voice of reason, and looks out for the others. |
| 131 | [[/folder]] |
| 132 | |
| 133 | [[folder:Wheeler]] |
| 134 | !Wheeler |
| 135 | [[quoteright:152:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cpwheeler_8482.gif]] |
| 136 | ->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/JoeyDedio |
| 137 | |
| 138 | A 17-year-old street-wise smart aleck from North America ([[BigApplesauce New York]] to be exact), Wheeler probably knows the least 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. |
| 139 | ---- |
| 140 | * AbusiveParents: Wheeler's father is an [[AlcoholicParent alcoholic]] with a nasty habit of belittling his son. In fact, he's the reason that Wheeler pretty much ran away from home. |
| 141 | * AdoptingTheAbused: "A Mine is a Terrible Thing to Waste" reveals that Wheeler spent a long time on the streets to avoid his alcoholic father before Gaia recruited him. The other Planeteers (besides Linka) become his surrogate siblings, while Gaia and Captain Planet serve as parental substitutes for all of them. |
| 142 | * AudienceSurrogate: He more or less exists as a stand-in for the viewer to be taught the lesson of the day in each episode. |
| 143 | * BelligerentSexualTension: He's the JerkWithAHeartOfGold, Linka's the {{Tsundere}}. Their relationship consists of playful quarreling most of the time. |
| 144 | * TheBigGuy: When it comes to a straight up fight, Wheeler's power is the best offensively and as a kid who grew up on the mean streets, he's the best natural fighter of the group. It helps that he's one of the strongest (if not ''the'' strongest) members of the team. |
| 145 | * BrooklynRage: He's from Brooklyn and has a short fuse. |
| 146 | * BruiserWithASoftCenter: Wheeler is a former street teen with enough fighting experience to scare crooks. However, his aggression is usually channeled into protecting others, and multiple times during the show, Wheeler gets soft moments with one of the other heroes who's suffering physically[[note]]"[[Recap/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteersS2E23HateCanal Hate Canal]]"[[/note]], emotionally[[note]]"[[Recap/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteersS1E2RainOfTerror Rain of Terror]]", "[[Recap/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteersS4E22TeersInTheHood 'Teers in the Hood]]"[[/note]] or both at once[[note]]"[[Recap/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteersS2E1MindPollution Mind Pollution]]"[[/note]]. |
| 147 | * BullyHunter: Wheeler dislikes people who pick on weaker targets. His EstablishingCharacterMoment shows him as a kind of unofficial guardian of his neighborhood (given that the mugger he interrupts is scared to death of him) and at least once, he tells one of the eco-villains to "pick on someone [their] own size". |
| 148 | * ButtMonkey: Disrespected by the villains, constantly butting heads with his teammates and regularly getting embarrassed in some way; Wheeler gets it rough. To some degree, [[KarmicButtMonkey the universe picking on him seems intended as a punishment for his flaws]]. He takes it all in stride for the most part, but even he has his limits. |
| 149 | * ChickMagnet: Though Kwame has ShipTease with more than one girl through the series and Ma-Ti gets his [[FirstLove first crush]] in the third season, Wheeler is unquestionably the group's ladies' man. As well as being constantly teased with Linka, he gets the attention of multiple one-shot female characters, [[ClingyJealousGirl much to her irritation.]] |
| 150 | * ChivalrousPervert: He may flirt with Linka and ogle her all the time, but he truly respects her and cares about her. |
| 151 | ** In "Mind Pollution", he immediately dismisses the idea that Linka could be hooked on Skumm's latest drug, saying she's too smart to take that kind of thing. Later, Linka comes onto him while under the influence, and he puts her off and urges her to shake the addiction. |
| 152 | ** In "Frog Day Afternoon", he and Linka are shrunk down, and Linka has to change her clothes. Wheeler considers peeking in on her but changes his mind at the last moment. |
| 153 | * CommanderContrarian: His role in the series is to disagree with his more ecologically sensitive friends. Usually it's to prove that certain "common sense" impressions of environmental problems are actually wrong. |
| 154 | * TheComplainerIsAlwaysWrong: |
| 155 | ** Technically, at the beginning of the episodes "Wheeler's Ark" and "[[Recap/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteersS4E14BugOff Bug Off]]", he said things that ''Gaia'' later repeated using different words. The former was about letting wild animals live in the wild, the latter advising Linka to stay on Hope Island when she had a cold, instead of spreading the bug around. Yet, the others never gave him any credit for it, even though they should have. |
| 156 | ** It's occasionally [[TheDissenterIsAlwaysRight inverted]], such as in "Beast of the Temple", when he correctly assumed the beast wasn't a real dragon, in "Domes of Doom", when his cynicism makes him ProperlyParanoid about [[TooGoodToBeTrue how good Giftus' announcement sounds]], and in "[[Recap/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteersS5E2Hollywaste Hollywaste]]", where he turned out to be RightForTheWrongReasons when the others (most notably Linka) blamed Dr. Blight's sister for the week's problem. |
| 157 | ** It's also zig-zagged in "Stardust", where he's the first of the Planeteers to notice that Linka's favorite rock star, Sky Runner, is funding a strip-mining operation. However, it turns out Sky Runner wasn't actually in charge of the strip-mining; Hoggish Greedly was. |
| 158 | * ConflictBall: Almost all internal dissent comes from Wheeler, to the extent that when ''anybody else'' has a beef with the group, it's a big deal. |
| 159 | * CrazyJealousGuy: Easily gets jealous and suspicious of any other male character who shows an interest in Linka (or she shows an interest in). The episode "Missing Linka" had him stewing the entire time until Linka told him the guy from her village she was hanging around with was [[RelativeError her brother]]. |
| 160 | * DarkAndTroubledPast: Wheeler spent his childhood in a home so abusive he eventually decided to run away. That night, he was attacked by a gang of thugs (though luckily two street teens came to the rescue). The fact that he's out and about on the dark streets when Gaia sends him the Fire Ring implies that he remained homeless until becoming a Planeteer gave him a new place to stay. |
| 161 | * DeadpanSnarker: He will sometimes make sardonic remarks about the environmental problems he's tasked to deal with. Linka explicitly calls him a wise guy in "The World Below Us." |
| 162 | * DistressedDude: If Linka's not the one captured or put in peril, then it's most likely going to be Wheeler. That doesn't keep him from [[DefiantCaptive mouthing off to his captor]] or [[DamselOutOfDistress trying to escape]], though. |
| 163 | * TheDragAlong: Unlike his more eager comrades, he's much less enthusiastic about his mission to save the planet. He does care about the environment, but sometimes it just seems like too much work with no payoff. |
| 164 | * DubNameChange: Willy in the Italian dub. |
| 165 | * {{Eagleland}}er: Wheeler is the "mixed" variation. He perpetually holds the StrawmanBall, is the most prone to fighting, and incorrigibly hits on most attractive women in the vicinity (especially Linka). He's also deeply good-natured (in "Two Futures", Ma-Ti even praises the amount of heart he has) and fiercely protective. |
| 166 | * EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: Downplayed. Even before Wheeler joined the team, it would have been a stretch to call him a bad guy; he's just a somewhat reluctant, sometimes jerk-ish hero compared to the others. However, he loves Gaia as deeply as his more environmentally sensitive counterparts. One of the fastest ways to make the already HotBlooded Wheeler target you is to hurt her, as various eco-villains can attest. He's also fond of his actual mother, hugging her during the one episode in which she appears. |
| 167 | * FieryRedhead: Wheeler has red hair and the temper to match, so naturally, Gaia chose him to wield the power of fire, making it literal. |
| 168 | * FireIsMasculine: Wheeler is the Planeteer of fire. He's also the ManlyMan of the group. Kwame, while fairly tall and well-muscled, is the geeky sort and Ma-Ti is a slightly-built SensitiveGuy. |
| 169 | * ForgotTheCall: The episode "A Twist of Fate" has him suffer amnesia and therefore led astray from his mission as a Planeteer. |
| 170 | * FreudianExcuse: Wheeler's lack of environmental sensitivity and more cynical bent make sense considering his backstory -- he grew up in a poor urban neighborhood where presumably he had very little contact with nature. In contrast to the other Planeteers' families, he also had to deal with an alcoholic father, who ultimately drove him to run away by berating him for failing to bring him another bottle. |
| 171 | * FriendsAreChosenFamilyArent: Despite his tendency to disagree with them, Wheeler has a pretty warm and smooth relationship with the other Planeteers, Gaia and Captain Planet. His father, an alcoholic who verbally abused him until he ran away from home, is another story. |
| 172 | * TheFriendNobodyLikes: Downplayed. Wheeler and Ma-Ti have a friendly big brother/little brother relationship and Gi and Kwame don't dislike him for the most part, with [[WhenHarryMetSvetlana Linka]] doing the bulk of the snarking at him (and even that is implied to result partly from her crushing on him and not knowing how to handle it). However, once the issue of the episode comes up, Wheeler (being the StrawmanBall-holder and [[TheComplainerIsAlwaysWrong dissenter]] of the group) regularly irritates the others. However, he remains a part of the team because Gaia selected him as part of it, because all five rings are necessary to summon Captain Planet, and because, at the end of the day, the others do care about him and recognize he's good-hearted. |
| 173 | * GracefulInTheirElement: He's not exactly well versed in the environmental problems that most episodes cover, but in the "special" episodes relating to city problems (like drug use, HIV, and gang violence), he's usually the one most understanding and on top of things. |
| 174 | * HadToBeSharp: It's all but stated that Wheeler's fighting skills and semi-belligerent demeanor resulted from his tough upbringing. While the other Planeteers had some form of healthy family[[note]]Kwame was raised by his mother, Linka has her grandmother and older brother and had her father at some point, Gi has both her parents, and Ma-Ti had his parents and currently has his grandfather[[/note]], Wheeler's father drove him out onto the streets, where he had to learn to defend himself to survive. In "[[Recap/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteersS4E1And2MineIsTerribleToWaste A Mine is a Terrible Thing to Waste]]", he explicitly tells Gi that he's used to relying only on himself from sheer necessity. |
| 175 | * HomelessHero: Before being given his own hut on Hope Island, Wheeler lived on the streets of Brooklyn. He still preferred that to having to return to his family's apartment and his fault-finding father. |
| 176 | * 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; both of them are strong, experienced fighters with a love for dropping one-liners and cracking puns while they're working. He's also pretty emotionally expressive, especially in his relationships with the others (platonic and romantic). |
| 177 | * InnocentlyInsensitive: As part of his role as [[TheComplainerIsAlwaysWrong the complainer]], Wheeler often expresses some kind of anti-environmental opinion, such as thinking an ivory necklace would make a great present for Linka. However, it's usually because he grew up in a poor area of New York City as opposed to the more rural areas the other Planeteers come from, and therefore he doesn't know most of the information that's second-nature to them. Whenever he finds out ''why'' the others hold alternate opinions, he's usually on board with them. |
| 178 | * InverseLawOfUtilityAndLethality: His ring is definitely the best option in a straight-up fight, but it's virtually useless for anything other than setting stuff on fire. Some episodes have him using it as a laser, welding torch, or something similar to HeatVision to burn away barriers. |
| 179 | * JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Wheeler tends to be the least sensitive (ecologically and otherwise), though this is partly because being a city kid means he lacks experience. However, he still goes on all the Planeteers' missions, accepts when he does something wrong, and cares deeply about the other Planeteers, Captain Planet, and Gaia. In "Heat Wave", upon returning to Hope Island, the Planeteers find Gaia very sick and weak. The one to cradle her caringly is none other than Wheeler. |
| 180 | * JumpedAtTheCall: Although less so than the other Planeteers. He goes along without question for their first mission, but he complains the whole time. |
| 181 | * KnightInSourArmor: He (usually) does what's right and rushes with the others to stop the eco-villains and rescue endangered wildlife/threatened habitat/his friends, is brave, and certainly has heroic moments despite generally being the ButtMonkey. Still, that doesn't mean he doesn't complain or grumble about it at times, and even though he's usually outwardly cheerful and flippant, he's also one of the more cynical Planeteers, and is revealed to have come from an abusive background. |
| 182 | * TheLancer: Lancer and counterbalance to the more down-to-earth and thoughtful Kwame. |
| 183 | * 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).[[invoked]] |
| 184 | * LeeroyJenkins: Typical of fire elementalists, he tends to act without thinking first. |
| 185 | * LickedByTheDog: Wheeler is the least enthusiastic about the group's mission and has the shortest temper in the lot. However, his heart of gold is hinted at given that Ma-Ti (whose powers render him less vulnerable to deception) enjoys his company and shows mild BigBrotherWorship towards him. |
| 186 | * LovableJock: Downplayed; Wheeler loves basketball and windsurfing (though his job means he's not part of a sports team during the show). While he can be insensitive, it tends to be unintentional. Anyone genuinely malicious messing with someone in front of him is asking for trouble, and multiple times during the show, he shows a soft side when one of the others is having a bad day. |
| 187 | * ManlyTears: At the end of "Summit to Save Earth, Part 1", he visibly sobs when Zarm attacks Gaia and turns her mortal. |
| 188 | * MartialPacifist: Wheeler is the group's most combat-capable member, and he also has the shortest fuse. However, he doesn't use his firepower in ways that could seriously harm human targets and when he actually fights, rather than just getting confrontational, it's because the target is threatening him or someone else. |
| 189 | * MrFanservice: He has quite the body. Just look at "Population Bomb", "Never the Twain Shall Meet", and "Frog Day Afternoon". |
| 190 | * TheNicknamer: Wheeler often opts to use pet names for other members of the team: "Cap" for Captain Planet, "(little) buddy" for Ma-Ti, and "babe" for Linka. When the team is dealing with an eco-villain, [[YouFightLikeACow he's the most likely to come up with colorful insults]] to [[NicknamingTheEnemy match the ones the bad guys use]]. |
| 191 | * NonUniformUniform: While the Planeteer dress code seems to be loose if it even exists, Wheeler is the only member who wears jeans as opposed to the shorts the others usually choose. |
| 192 | * PlayingWithFire: His ring controls fire. He uses it to burn things or as a sort of HeatVision. |
| 193 | * PungeonMaster: Wheeler loves making puns about the situations that the group finds themselves in just as much as Captain Planet, but his teammates are less tolerant of it when he does it. |
| 194 | -->'''Wheeler:''' Looks like Plunder's plan was DOMED to failure.\ |
| 195 | '''Others:''' [[LamePunReaction Wheeler!]] |
| 196 | * RedIsHeroic: He has red hair and is one of the heroes. Even before Gaia inducted him into the group, he protected others (his first scene involves him interrupting a mugging), and, while he's less knowledgeable and enthusiastic than his teammates, he tries to be a good Planeteer. |
| 197 | %%* RedOniBlueOni: He's the Red to the rest of the team's Blue. |
| 198 | * RelativeButton: Gaia, Captain Planet and the rest of the team serve as a sort of family for him, especially given that he didn't have a happy home life. Harming them can send Wheeler from breezy to ballistic in record time. During "[[Recap/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteersS1E17DontDrinkTheWater Don't Drink the Water]]", Plunder gloated about having "eliminated" the Captain, Kwame, Linka and Ma-Ti. Only [[LetMeAtHim the fact that he had Bleak and Rigger present]] kept Wheeler from pounding him flat. |
| 199 | * TheRunaway: Wheeler spent a lot of time away from home growing up, trying to avoid his father, and ultimately, he left home entirely in frustration, [[HomelessHero preferring to live on the streets]]. |
| 200 | * SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan: Wheeler enjoys basketball and windsurfing while off the clock and has the muscle to match. While quite capable of tenderness and even tears, he has a short temper and the most fighting experience of anyone besides Captain Planet himself. Ma-Ti's looks (short and slender with chin-length hair) sometimes make viewers mistake him for a girl. [[TheHeart He's heavily associated with softer emotions]] and is the least aggressive of a fairly peaceful group (though pushing him [[BewareTheNiceOnes is still ill-advised]]). They share an odd bond: Ma-Ti brings out Wheeler's softer side and can count on his protection when things go south. |
| 201 | * TheSoftHeartedWarrior: Wheeler is unquestionably the most confrontational of the team, and he's one of the only members to show any experience with fighting before being selected. However, in non-combat situations, he shows a significantly sweet and playful side. His focus in combat situations also seems to revolve around protecting the potential victim rather than simply beating up the aggressor, and he understands the value of stopping one's assault once the attacker poses no threat; he even talks [[BewareTheNiceOnes Gi]] out of killing a gangster in revenge for shooting a friend. |
| 202 | * ThisLoserIsYou: Downplayed; Wheeler is brave, resourceful, and warm-hearted (even if it's not immediately evident), but Turner created him as a stand-in for United States citizens who display behaviors the show wanted to change. As such, he becomes a frequent victim of the need for a holder of the StrawmanBall. |
| 203 | * TheWatson: Wheeler's role largely consists of being the one member of the group who doesn't know anything about saving the environment so that his teammates have someone in-universe to explain to. It's occasionally subverted; in "Ozone Hole", the entire team learns something about air-conditioner chemicals, and in episodes where the problems are city-based (e.g., "'Teers in the Hood"), Wheeler is the one who knows what he's talking about, while the others have a limited grasp on the situation. |
| 204 | [[/folder]] |
| 205 | |
| 206 | [[folder:Linka]] |
| 207 | !Linka |
| 208 | [[quoteright:152:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cplinka_5062.gif]] |
| 209 | ->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/KathSoucie |
| 210 | |
| 211 | A 16-year-old ornithology expert from the (former) Soviet Union (most likely Ukraine), Linka is the team's no-nonsense strategist and computer expert. Linka likes to think logically and use common sense when on missions but has developed feelings for the impulsive Wheeler. Linka's ring was the element of wind, used to command it to swirl or gust, or create small tornadoes. She can even use it to levitate herself or others (and Linka's power is what enables Captain Planet to fly), but she can only do it for short periods. |
| 212 | ---- |
| 213 | * AffectionateNickname: "Babe" from Wheeler. |
| 214 | * BelligerentSexualTension: She's the {{Tsundere}}, Wheeler's the JerkWithAHeartOfGold. Their relationship consists of playful quarreling most of the time. |
| 215 | * BlowYouAway: Her powers range from small gusts to localized tornados and everything in between. |
| 216 | * BluntMetaphorsTrauma: Sometimes gets her figures of speech mixed up. |
| 217 | * BreakTheCutie: The episode "[[Recap/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteersS2E1MindPollution Mind Pollution]]" puts her through the wringer. She becomes addicted to the drug Bliss after her cousin Boris slips it in her food, and then near the end of the episode, Boris [=ODs=] on Bliss and dies. Thankfully, the process of [[HealTheCutie healing the cutie]] has begun by the episode's end. |
| 218 | * CaptiveDate: Hoggish Greedly Junior kidnaps her for a date in "Smog Hog". However, Junior has an asthma attack and she saves him out of pity. |
| 219 | * CharacterCatchphrase: She frequently exclaims "Bozhe moi" ("Oh my God" in Russian) whenever she's frustrated by something. |
| 220 | * ClingyJealousGirl: She claims not to be interested in Wheeler but shows obvious jealousy when he shows interest in any other girl, or any other girl shows interest in him. On one occasion, she complained that Wheeler was acting like a ''durak''[[note]]"idiot" in Russian[[/note]], causing Kwame to remark that Wheeler wasn't the only one who was acting stupidly. She snapped (unconvincingly) that he didn't know anything. |
| 221 | * ChummyCommies: She's from the Soviet Union but gets along just fine with Wheeler and her other comrades. Downplayed in that she treats Wheeler with some coldness when they first meet because he's an American, but this doesn't last long. |
| 222 | * DamselInDistress: Chances are good that if someone's getting captured by the villain, it's Linka. |
| 223 | * DefrostingIceQueen: She starts off particularly icy towards Wheeler, but she gradually warms up to him. |
| 224 | * GeniusBruiser: She has brains to go with her brawn. |
| 225 | * HairOfGoldHeartOfGold: This blonde girl is a little on the unfriendly side, but she's undoubtedly a good person. |
| 226 | * HeIsNotMyBoyfriend: She insists anyone who claims she likes Wheeler ''that'' way has no idea what they're talking about, but nobody actually believes her protests. |
| 227 | * {{Malaproper}}: Linka's grasp on English isn't that good, and she often gets figures of speech mixed up. Luckily, Wheeler finds it amusing and cute rather than irritating. |
| 228 | * MaleGaze: In the intro, the camera pans up her legs in a close up. |
| 229 | * MistakenNationality: Wheeler guesses her nationality as "Russian" in the first episode, which she immediately corrects as "Soviet". |
| 230 | -->'''Wheeler:''' Love your accent, babe. You Russian?\ |
| 231 | '''Linka:''' Soviet! (pushes Wheeler) Now please, GO AWAY!\ |
| 232 | '''Wheeler:''' ...love it. |
| 233 | ** 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]][[invoked]] |
| 234 | ** However, in the German Dub, which was made after the Soviet Union fell apart, as well as in the Russian one, she was stated to be from Russia unambiguously. |
| 235 | * PluckyGirl: She's had a difficult life, but you could never tell just by looking at her. |
| 236 | * RaceNameBasis: Downplayed; she and Wheeler call each other "Russkie" and "Yankee" in addition to their regular names (or, in [[TheNicknamer Wheeler]]'s case, an AffectionateNickname). |
| 237 | * RecoveredAddict: In "Mind Pollution", she becomes horrifically addicted to the destructive drug "Bliss" (which turns addicts into heroin/meth zombies). Linka kicks the addiction by the next episode and never falls [[OffTheWagon into relapse]]; if not for the unusual darkness of the episode, most viewers and fans would forget that the Planeteers then have a former drug addict on their team from that point forward. |
| 238 | * {{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]] |
| 239 | * SheCleansUpNicely: She's hardly plain to begin with, but in a fancy dress? [[http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/captainplanet/images/5/5a/173.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20120810214404 See for yourself.]] |
| 240 | %%* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: Girly girl to Gi's Tomboy, even though she is still an ActionGirl. |
| 241 | * {{Tsundere}}: Linka is dismissive and sarcastic towards Wheeler, but she not-uncommmonly flirts with him and becomes insanely jealous when another girl attracts his attention. Furthermore, if he's actually in danger and the others can't immediately verify that he's all right (as in "Beast of the Temple" and "Two Futures"), Linka becomes passionately distraught. |
| 242 | * UptightLovesWild: Linka is a great strategizer and during one episode, Gi declares that her picture is in the dictionary next to "perfectionist." She quickly develops feelings for Wheeler, the most passionate and impulsive of the group (though she tries to hide them). |
| 243 | * WellExcuseMePrincess: To Wheeler. She's the most critical of him out of everyone, despite ([[BelligerentSexualTension or perhaps because of]]) their constant flirting. |
| 244 | [[/folder]] |
| 245 | |
| 246 | [[folder:Gi]] |
| 247 | !Gi |
| 248 | [[quoteright:152:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cpgi_4113.gif]] |
| 249 | ->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/JaniceKawaye |
| 250 | |
| 251 | A college student of marine biology from East Asia (probably South Korean or Japanese, given her name), Gi is skilled in high-tech equipment and, like Linka, is a computer expert. She is very passionate and protective of both ocean life and her friends and family. Gi's ring was the element of water, used to control any water source, creating small squirts to waves and water spouts depending on the size of the source. |
| 252 | ---- |
| 253 | * AchillesHeel: She can't make water with her ring, so if there is no water nearby, her power is useless. |
| 254 | * AsianAndNerdy: She is Asian (though the fact that she's the only Planeteer who speaks unaccented English lessens the impact) and a marine biologist in training. |
| 255 | * AsLongAsItSoundsForeign: Gi occasionally uses bits of Japanese (in which Creator/JaniceKawaye ''is'' fluent), but otherwise (after the pilot episode) has no discernible accent. Her name, however, could be either Korean ("Brave") or Japanese ("Righteousness"). There are many individuals living in both Korea and Japan with mixed Japanese/Korean ancestry, so she could conceivably be both Korean and Japanese. |
| 256 | * BlueMeansSmartOne: Gi is the team's best expert on science and technology, and her water powers are colored blue. |
| 257 | * BoyishShortHair: She starts out with short hair, though it does go to her shoulders in Season 6. |
| 258 | * BrainyBrunette: She's highly knowledgeable about marine biology, and she's pretty good with machines. Compare Linka who, while not stupid by any means, is far less cerebral. |
| 259 | * CoolBigSis: To Ma-Ti, to whom she acts as sort of a mentor. |
| 260 | * DidntThinkThisThrough: One of her most notable flaws is her tendency to charge into situations without thinking them through first (such as the time she and Kwame raced off to stop Greedly from overfishing with drift nets, resulting in them getting captured) and jumping to conclusions (such as suggesting Wheeler was saying that "only rich people should have children" when he stated he didn't understand why people have kids when they can't afford them). |
| 261 | * ElementalBaggage: Her ring can only manipulate water sources (though this changes depending on the episode), so if she's not near a lake, the ocean, or another source, she can't use her powers. |
| 262 | * IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim: The reason why she didn't drown the gangster was because she didn't want to be like the one who nearly killed her friend. |
| 263 | * MakingASplash: She controls water. |
| 264 | * MeaningfulName: The name "Gi" means "brave" in Korean, and "righteousness" in Japanese. She is a courageous, heroic protector of the planet and innocent people, so it fits in either case. |
| 265 | * NatureVersusNurture: She gets into this debate with Zarm, Gi believing that children become evil by being taught, and Zarm believing that humanity is self-destructive by nature. |
| 266 | * PluckyGirl: Very high-spirited, even for this group. |
| 267 | * RousseauWasRight: Her philosophy of life. |
| 268 | -->'''Gi:''' The world would be different if it were in the hands of children, before hate and prejudice mess up their minds. |
| 269 | * SheCleansUpNicely: She is occasionally seen in a dress and wears it well. |
| 270 | * ShipTease: Occasionally with Kwame, though they never seem to become official. |
| 271 | * TheSmartGirl: The designated technician of the group, and the one with the most scientific knowledge of the group. |
| 272 | * TeamMom: When Gaia's not around, she's usually the team's maternal member. |
| 273 | %%* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: Tomboy to Linka's girly girl. |
| 274 | * TomboyishName: Gi is actually a boy's name in Korean. |
| 275 | * UnstoppableRage: When she snaps, she goes directly into this. |
| 276 | * 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. However, 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. |
| 277 | * 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. |
| 278 | * WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway: While Ma-Ti has this reputation among the fanbase, in-universe, Gi's power is the most often rendered useless due to her ElementalBaggage, something she doesn't share with the others. (Kwame and Ma-Ti are always near the elements they manipulate with their powers, and Wheeler and Linka can create limited amounts of the elements they control with their rings.) |
| 279 | * WrenchWench: Can be seen fixing the Eco Vehicles now and again. |
| 280 | [[/folder]] |
| 281 | |
| 282 | [[folder:Ma-Ti]] |
| 283 | !Ma-Ti |
| 284 | [[quoteright:152:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cpma-ti_9701.gif]] |
| 285 | ->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/ScottMenville |
| 286 | |
| 287 | A member of the Kayapo tribe in Brazil, Ma-Ti is the youngest Planeteer at 12. Ma-Ti's ring was the element of heart, which enables him to communicate telepathically with animals, the other Planeteers and Gaia, as well as induce empathy in people. |
| 288 | ---- |
| 289 | * AchillesInHisTent: Once he refuses to go into a mission because he's too insecure about his own self-worth. When he finds out the other Planeteers are trapped, he takes his ring again and goes after them. |
| 290 | * AffectionateNickname: "Buddy" or "little buddy" from Wheeler. |
| 291 | * AfraidOfTheirOwnStrength: Ma-Ti is potentially the strongest of the group. If he used his powers to their fullest extent, he could knock people unconscious, mind-control them, or sic wild beasts on them. However, he doesn't like using the non-peaceful abilities of the ring, and ones that involve mentally manipulating people are right off the table. |
| 292 | * AllLovingHero: He's friendly and compassionate to everyone, even the villains. He rarely gets angry, and even when he does, it's almost unheard-of for him to lash out. |
| 293 | * 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 make him powerless. |
| 294 | * TheBabyOfTheBunch: At 12, Ma-Ti is the youngest of the team and painfully aware of the limitations this can put on him. "Rain of Terror" has him struggling with a climbing wall that was presumably built with the other, teenage, Planeteers in mind. It doesn't help that the rest of the crew sometimes shows some inclinations towards babying him, which he dislikes. |
| 295 | * BigBrotherWorship: Downplayed; while he doesn't think Wheeler is flawless, he's one of the members of the group most likely to express admiration when he shows off his skills or has a good idea. |
| 296 | * CheerfulChild: Ma-Ti is the only non-teenage Planeteer. He's happy-go-lucky and idealistic, as well as being the only member besides Wheeler with a fondness for practical jokes. |
| 297 | * ChildOfTwoWorlds: As seen in his flashback in "[[Recap/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteersS4E1And2MineIsTerribleToWaste A Mine Is a Terrible Thing to Waste]]", his mother was a Kayapo woman and his father – a white rubber tapper. Just before their tragic deaths, they sent their son off with his grandfather the shaman, [[RaisedByGrandparents who raised him afterwards]]. Presumably, this is why despite his mixed heritage, Ma-Ti associates himself more with the Kayapo tribe than with the white people. |
| 298 | * CripplingOverspecialization: There's been quite a bit of cultural commentary [[HeartIsAnAwesomePower for]] and [[WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway against]] power of "heart," and other powers of the nature of little ''apparent'' use. That said, while Ma-Ti doesn't have tremendous power over the physical world like his teammates, he's king when dealing in his own element. |
| 299 | ** TheEmpath: He can sense other people's emotions. |
| 300 | ** ImmuneToMindControl: He cannot be mentally manipulated while he's got the ring on. |
| 301 | ** LivingLieDetector: He can tell when people aren't being honest. |
| 302 | ** SpeaksFluentAnimal: He can communicate with animals via telepathy. |
| 303 | * DarkAndTroubledPast: Though it's not evident from his demeanor, he's got one of the nastiest backstories of the Planeteers. His parents sent him away to stay with his grandfather because an upcoming confrontation with some clear-cutters was too dangerous for him to stay. He lost both parents and his village that night. |
| 304 | * DistressedDude: He's one of the most likely Planeteers to end up captured by the villains of any given episode. It doesn't help that he's got the worst fighting skills of the group and the least inclination for, and therefore practice with, using his powers offensively. |
| 305 | * DubNameChange: Matthias in the Italian dub. |
| 306 | * EveryonesBabyBrother: The Planeteers hate seeing villains mess with members of the team, but Ma-Ti, being the youngest, physically weakest and most innocent, amplifies that protective instinct. |
| 307 | * GottaGetYourHeadTogether: If his power of Heart is being overwhelmed, he'll clutch his head. Makes sense, considering that "Heart" is essentially "Mind" or "Soul." |
| 308 | * TheHeart: Naturally. Being the kindest and most level-headed of the group is why he is given the power of heart in the first place. He's practically incorruptible and the least likely to fight verbally or physically. |
| 309 | * HeartIsAnAwesomePower ->WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway: {{Trope Namer|s}} and [[TropeCodifier Codifier]]. "Heart" seems like a stupid power when compared to the ability to create earthquakes, floods, tornadoes, and fires at will. However, Heart is actually potentially the most powerful of all of the elemental powers. |
| 310 | ** It grants the user the total power to influence anyone and anything, including animals, people, and even the ''cells inside a human body''. |
| 311 | ** Its telepathic abilities have no defined limits, meaning that Ma-Ti can communicate with anyone and everyone on the planet if he wanted to. |
| 312 | ** 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. |
| 313 | ** In "A Hero for Earth", Gaia flat-out says that without the Heart, the other elements are ''useless''. Then, in "The Conqueror", when the other Planeteers "go on a power trip" (as Wheeler puts it) with the Iron Fists, they almost start a war. In short, Heart is the only thing that can stop the elements from destroying everything in sight and make them serve a good cause instead. |
| 314 | * HeartwarmingOrphan: Ma-Ti lost his parents when people who didn't like their stance on clear-cutting the Amazon burned down their village, and in consequence was raised by his grandfather. He's an incredibly NiceGuy in spite of his tragic backstory, and no one besides the villains dislikes him. |
| 315 | * HeroicSelfDeprecation: Though he's very aware of his power's importance, he takes a dim view of himself and makes this known to others. |
| 316 | * IncorruptiblePurePureness: Key to his Heart power. |
| 317 | * IntergenerationalFriendship: Downplayed. Most of his older teammates are in their mid-teens and Wheeler, at seventeen, is almost an adult by American standards; Ma-Ti isn't even a teenager yet. |
| 318 | * InverseLawOfUtilityAndLethality: He's on the opposite end of this with Wheeler. He's pretty much useless in a fight (except on the rare occasions he applies his power very creatively), but his power is the most useful for pretty much everything else. It's one of the reasons why HeartIsAnAwesomePower. |
| 319 | * JustAKid: They're all kids, but he's just 12 and feels like he hinders the team sometimes because of it. |
| 320 | * KidAppealCharacter: Ma-Ti's purpose is to demonstrate to the target audience that yes, kids can also make a difference in the environment. |
| 321 | * KidHero: Again, he's a good bit younger than the other Planeteers, who vary from middle teens to practically adults. |
| 322 | * TheLoad: Self-admitted as not being much use to the team at some points. While he's very useful for non-combat purposes (being immune to deception, able to speak to any living thing, and capable of sensing things from a distance), he has the least combat skill or desire to fight, and is also the smallest, which means it takes less force to restrain him. This often ends up with him being the DistressedDude. |
| 323 | * LogicalWeakness: His power is Heart. He can't affect TheSociopath, so a couple of the worst eco-villains, such as Zarm and Blight, are beyond his ability to influence. That's what the other elements are for. |
| 324 | * LovedByAll: Pretty much the only people in the show who would consider harming Ma-Ti, physically or emotionally, are the eco-villains. He doesn't have much trouble with people in general, outside of a few anti-racism episodes. His older teammates all have a massive soft spot for him (including Wheeler, who bickers with almost everyone) and Gaia seems closer to him than she is even to the other Planeteers. |
| 325 | * {{Malaproper}}: Though not nearly as bad as Linka, he sometimes confuses his words. This especially comes up in "The Big Clam-Up", given that he's attempting to mimic American noir slang. |
| 326 | * TheMedic: Ma-Ti is one of the only members of the team to show any experience with taking care of the sick and injured (Gi also demonstrates these capabilities sometimes). It helps that his grandfather taught him enough about plants that he can put together medicines and poultices when necessary. |
| 327 | * MoralityPet: Wheeler doesn't understand Ma-Ti's power, but he bonds with the gentler boy from the start and, despite their disagreements, doesn't fight with him the way he does with the others. |
| 328 | * MySignificanceSenseIsTingling: As part of his Heart power, he can sense when he and his friends are in danger or something important is happening. |
| 329 | * NiceGuy: The nicest of them all, in fact. |
| 330 | * NobleSavage: Ma-Ti is Kayapo (a Native American tribe from the Amazon region) and the most peaceful and least corruptible Planeteer. It's exaggerated whenever they visit the Amazon. |
| 331 | * OddFriendship: Ma-Ti is a peaceful, eternally friendly NatureHero. Wheeler is a slightly jerk-ish and very snarky city slicker. The two are also some of the farthest apart in age, with 12-year-old Ma-Ti being the youngest Planeteer and 17-year-old Wheeler being almost an adult. They're even opposite in terms of group dynamics, with Ma-Ti being the darling of the team and Wheeler tending towards being TheFriendNobodyLikes. The two are still pretty close, often hanging out and goofing off together. |
| 332 | * ThePrankster: He enjoys both pulling and observing practical jokes. |
| 333 | * RaisedByGrandparents: While parents are pretty rare in the series, he's specifically mentioned to be an orphan raised by his grandfather after his parents were killed for standing against clear-cutting. |
| 334 | * SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan: Ma-Ti's appearance (short and slender with chin-length hair) sometimes makes viewers mistake him for a girl. [[TheHeart He's heavily associated with softer emotions]] and is the least aggressive of a fairly peaceful group (though pushing him [[BewareTheNiceOnes is still ill-advised]]). Wheeler [[LovableJock enjoys basketball and windsurfing]] while off the clock and has the muscle to match. While quite capable of tenderness and even tears, he has a short temper and the most fighting experience of anyone besides Captain Planet himself. They share an odd bond: Ma-Ti brings out Wheeler's softer side and can count on his protection when things go south. |
| 335 | * SpiderSense: His ring/power often acts as a sixth sense, warning him of danger. |
| 336 | * TagalongKid: He's younger than the others. |
| 337 | * TookALevelInBadass: "Captain Planet And The Planeteers issue #3", made famous by WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall, though there are other examples of him managing to use his Heart power in impressive ways. |
| 338 | * UndyingLoyalty: Towards Gaia. He's the only Planeteer to never have betrayed her (even unwillingly or unwittingly). |
| 339 | [[/folder]] |
| 340 | |
| 341 | [[folder:Suchi]] |
| 342 | !Suchi |
| 343 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/suchi.png]] |
| 344 | ->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/FrankWelker |
| 345 | |
| 346 | Ma-Ti's troublesome pet monkey, whom he had rescued before he became a Planeteer and from whom he received his ring. |
| 347 | ---- |
| 348 | * BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: His UndyingLoyalty towards Ma-Ti presumably results from their first meeting, in which Ma-Ti scared off a jaguar before it could eat him. |
| 349 | * MischiefMakingMonkey: In "Creep from the Deep", Gi scolds him for bothering her while she's working on the eco-sub, implying that he's known to distract or get in the way while people are trying to do things. (In this case, though, at least part of this is trying to warn her that she dropped a bolt.) In another episode, he takes a pair of scissors to Dr. Blight's hair, much to her dismay, [[KarmicTrickster after she had tried to use him as a test subject.]] |
| 350 | * NearlyNormalAnimal: Suchi doesn't talk (except to [[SpeaksFluentAnimal Ma-Ti]]), and things like using a fan are attributable to his being a monkey and thus more capable of copying human behavior. However, he's capable of understanding things that might be beyond a monkey's comprehension, such as the importance of an eco-sub part that Gi loses in "[[Recap/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteersS3E2ACreepFromTheDeep Creep from the Deep]]." |
| 351 | * NonHumanSidekick: Ever since Ma-Ti rescued him from a jaguar, Suchi constantly follows the boy around, trying to be as helpful as it's possible for a monkey to be. |
| 352 | * RidiculouslyCuteCritter: A capuchin, so cute even for a monkey. |
| 353 | * TeamPet: Mainly Ma-Ti's pet, but he travels with the group. |
| 354 | * TimmyInAWell: Suchi sometimes starts freaking out when something's going wrong and the team hasn't noted it. In "Domes of Doom", he alerts his master and Wheeler to someone trying to burn part of the forest and in "Creep from the Deep", he goes nuts trying to warn Gi that she lost a bolt for the eco-sub. |
| 355 | * UndyingLoyalty: He is always loyal towards Ma-Ti. |
| 356 | [[/folder]] |
| 357 | |
| 358 | [[folder:Captain Planet]] |
| 359 | !Captain Planet |
| 360 | [[quoteright:152:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cplanet_7457.gif]] |
| 361 | ->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/DavidCoburn |
| 362 | |
| 363 | Captain Planet is the result of the Planeteers powers being combined and magnified. He is summoned by the Planeteers as a last resort to save the day. He can use all the Planeteers powers and blend them to make more. His weaknesses are various forms of pollution and hate ('''mental''' pollution). |
| 364 | ---- |
| 365 | * EightiesHair: That mullet could probably make Series/{{MacGyver|1985}} jealous. |
| 366 | * TheAce: He is a very skilled and competent hero. As the ending theme song says, "He's our powers ''magnified''". |
| 367 | * AffectionateNickname: Wheeler often shortens his name to "Cap". Gi also does it, but much less frequently. |
| 368 | * AllYourColorsCombined: He has all of the colors of the Planeteers' elements reflected in his design: Earth is his green hair, Fire is his red clothes, Wind and Water are his blue-white skin, and Heart is his yellow chest piece. |
| 369 | * AllYourPowersCombined: He's created from combining the powers of all the Planeteers' rings. {{Trope Namer|s}}[[note]]Sort of. The actual phrase was "By your powers combined"[[/note]]. |
| 370 | * BoisterousBruiser: Take Spider-Man's wisecracking and make it hammier and more bombastic, and you'll have Captain Planet. |
| 371 | * CaptainSuperhero: Provides the trope image. He's a superhero called "Captain". |
| 372 | * CharacterCatchphrase: "The Power is Yours." |
| 373 | * ChromeChampion: His skin is entirely a shining, metallic blue and he's the team's heavy hitter. |
| 374 | * CompleteImmortality: While he can be weakened and defeated by enough pollution, so long as Earth is around, Captain Planet cannot die by any means. He also will never age, having existed as long as Earth. |
| 375 | * ADayInTheLimelight: Typically, he only shows up at the climax of an episode to solve the eco-crisis of the week, but there's an occasional episode or two where he'll be summoned early on or repeatedly and get significantly more screentime than usual. For example, in the episode "Greenhouse Planet", when Kwame and Ma-Ti were trapped in space, Captain Planet was stuck summoned for the duration of the episode because their rings were too far for him to return to, although he was also left with limited power such as needing to use a crowbar to open a door and rescue the others. |
| 376 | * DramaPreservingHandicap: His weakness to pollution never really comes into play unless the episode needs to last a bit longer or is a two-parter (e.g., "Two Futures"). |
| 377 | * ElementalPowers: Since his power comes from the Planeteers' rings, it would make sense that he'd have elemental abilities. |
| 378 | ** AnIcePerson: He can create ice. |
| 379 | ** BlowYouAway: He can control wind. |
| 380 | ** DishingOutDirt: He can manipulate earth. |
| 381 | ** MakingASplash: He can control water. |
| 382 | ** PlayingWithFire: He can project flame. |
| 383 | ** ShockAndAwe: He has power over lightning. |
| 384 | * EternalHero: Captain Planet has existed and will continue to exist as long as the planet has a will to protect itself. |
| 385 | * FlyingBrick: Even without his elemental powers, he's still super strong and NighInvulnerable. However, he can't fly unless he has Linka's wind power. |
| 386 | * TheGoodCaptain: A textbook example. His EvilCounterpart Captain Pollution is an intentional inversion. |
| 387 | * GoodHairEvilHair: His green mullet, which, surprisingly, he pulls off rather well. |
| 388 | * HeartIsAnAwesomePower: He puts all of the Planeteers' powers to better use than any of them can individually, including Ma-Ti's and Gi's. |
| 389 | * 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... |
| 390 | * IncomingHam: Announces his presence with a hearty "By your powers combined, I AM CAPTAIN PLANET!" He only gets ''less'' subtle from there. |
| 391 | * InvincibleHero: He can be hurt by pollution, but in most episodes, he literally just appears and fixes everything in two minutes, tops. |
| 392 | * LargeHam: Holy crap, is he. Loud, over-the-top wisecracking, HurricaneOfPuns, a costume that's essentially a man-bikini with boots, a dark green mullet. Yeah. |
| 393 | * LimitBreak: He's, essentially, the Planeteers' walking, talking LimitBreak. He's summoned when it's time to whip out the big guns, and, as mentioned in the theme, he's their powers magnified. |
| 394 | * LogicalWeakness: Some Eco-Villains are quick to exploit this at times since Planet is powered by nature and weakened by pollution. Can sometimes teeter into WeaksauceWeakness territory. Luckily, a simple wash or exposure to sunlight will get him right back up. |
| 395 | * ManaDrain: Because he's the physical manifestation of all of the Planeteers' powers combined, summoning him will deactivate their power rings until he dematerializes and releases their energy back again, forcing the team to rely on their own individual skills when Captain is around. |
| 396 | * MutualDisadvantage: He and Captain Pollution are essentially walking Kryptonite to one another. Captain Planet does have one advantage, being that while pollution can weaken him, it cannot kill him. |
| 397 | * NighInvulnerability: One of his most displayed powers. Even [[KryptoniteFactor pollution]] isn't a surefire way to kill him because he can be washed off and charged up with solar energy. In fact, it actually can't kill him, period. It can render him useless and unable to save the day, and at worst force him to return to the rings, but after a recovery period, he can be summoned again good as new. He can't ever be destroyed so long as the planet is still turning. |
| 398 | * OurSpiritsAreDifferent: This spirit of Earth also happens to be a hammy CaptainSuperhero. |
| 399 | * PapaWolf: Notice to villains: messing with his Planeteers (especially when he ''sees'' you doing it) is a ''huge'' mistake. When Skumm got Linka addicted during his latest scheme (to a powerful drug with very nasty aftereffects), Captain Planet dropped most of the puns and was sorely tempted to dose the villain with his own product, before settling for throwing him out of a helicopter. |
| 400 | * PrimaryColorChampion: His skin is blue, he has red boots, trunks, a red top, and red gloves. He also has a yellow belt buckle and the yellow Planeteer signature. In contrast however, his hair is green and his eyes are brown. |
| 401 | * PungeonMaster: Every single word out of his mouth is some sort of pun, except when he's giving exposition or [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness when the stakes are high enough.]] |
| 402 | * ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: "The Conqueror" implies Cap was around back when Zarm was getting banished – ages ago. Suffice it to say, he's older than he looks. |
| 403 | * SaveTheVillain: He's had to keep the Eco-Villains from meeting their doom many times, which is occasionally {{lampshaded}}, and according to Dr. Blight: "It's in [his] hero's manual!" |
| 404 | * SelectiveMagnetism: He inherits selective magnetic powers from Kwame, only with much more power behind it. |
| 405 | * ShowyInvincibleHero: Cap likes to think of himself this way, frequently handling the situation with ease while making puns. |
| 406 | * SixthRanger: Despite his name being in the show's title, episodes usually centre around the five Planeteers efforts to investigate and resolve environmental issues. Captain Planet himself is usually only summoned in the episode climax to deal with a threat too great for the Planeteers to handle. |
| 407 | * SpaceWhaleAesop: [[DefiedTrope Defied.]] There's a reason why his catchphrase is "the power is ''yours''" and he won't get called in unless there's an emergency. First and foremost, he's there to remind kids that there is no Captain Planet in real life to fix environmental damage, and that they'll have to do the hard work themselves. |
| 408 | * SuperStrength: There's really nothing he's been shown to not be able to lift, crush, or reshape with ease. |
| 409 | * ThisIsUnforgivable: In the episode "Mind Pollution", he was not happy when Verminous Skumm turned innocent kids [[TheCorruption into mindless, drug addled zombies]] that would obey Skumm's every command if it meant they could keep poisoning themselves with Bliss. [[PungeonMaster Captain Planet]] [[PluckyComicRelief was not only uncharacteristically angry]], he only cracked two jokes [[PreAsskickingOneliner and even they were used without irony]]. |
| 410 | * TransformationNameAnnouncement: "By your powers combined, I am Captain Planet!" |
| 411 | * UnderwearOfPower: Not really underwear, but he has red trunks. Oddly, he wears a belt as if they were red short pants. It likely serves as a simple accessory. |
| 412 | * UpUpAndAway: He flies in the traditional pose. He doesn't need to, but does it anyway because he's a showoff. |
| 413 | * WeaksauceWeakness: He is vulnerable to pollution, which makes sense as a LogicalWeakness, but there is also (famously) the hate behind Hitler's DeathGlare, which qualifies as mental pollution. To make things really problematic, these are the same things that fuel Captain Pollution |
| 414 | * WoundedHeroWeakerHelper: There are multiple occasions throughout the show when Captain Planet ends up incapacitated and has to be rescued by the (currently powerless) team working together. |
| 415 | [[/folder]] |
| 416 | |
| 417 | ---- |
| 418 | !Eco Villains |
| 419 | |
| 420 | The Eco Villains are a small group of villains and their subordinates who wreak havoc on 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]]. |
| 421 | |
| 422 | [[folder:General]] |
| 423 | * 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. |
| 424 | * AllegoricalCharacter: They each represent the root causes of societal and environmental problems, whether directly or indirectly. |
| 425 | * AntiRoleModel: The eco-villains' schemes/behaviors of the week, from poaching to drug-dealing to introducing foreign species, are intended to show the audience what not to do or support. |
| 426 | * BadBoss: As one might expect, at least some of the Planet villains are terrible employers. |
| 427 | ** In "Beast of the Temple", Rigger grabs onto Greedly and begs him to save him after his boss provokes Gi into flooding the base. Greedly dismisses him and says he's saving himself, though he's too busy hanging on to a pipe to try to throw him off. |
| 428 | ** In "Two Futures", Greedly explicitly tells Rigger that he's not sure if the time pool is safe, so Rigger will serve as a guinea pig. |
| 429 | ** In "Last of Her Kind", Looten Plunder makes his employees pay for the vehicles Captain Planet wrecked. When one of them, Belo, asks how he'll feed his family, Plunder flatly states that he'll probably do so poorly if he doesn't obey orders. |
| 430 | ** In "A Mine is a Terrible Thing to Waste", Plunder and Sludge fire Ooze when he's no longer useful and leave him to get out of the desert (or not) on his own. It backfires on them when Ooze makes his way back, heat-stricken and very angry, and helps the Planeteers nail them in revenge. |
| 431 | ** Though Dr. Blight often treats MAL better than the other villains treat their lackeys, she can be similarly nasty to him. "A Good Bomb is Hard to Find" sees her leave him behind on a crashing ship. He tells the Planeteers about her latest scheme in revenge. In "101 Mutations", he comments about her not feeding her guard dogs, and she says that they might take some "bytes" out of him. |
| 432 | ** Zarm outright forces the other eco-villains into working with him, viciously insulting them in the process. |
| 433 | * BullyingADragon: The eco-villains, most of whom are ordinary humans, think it's a good idea to keep offending two superbeings with the entire power of nature by hurting their planet and threatening [[LikeASonToMe their kids]]. Admittedly, this is semi-justified by the fact that Cap and Gaia are harmed by the same pollutants that the villains regularly make during their schemes of the week. However, they're still banking on the fact that Gaia and her superhero are too nice to drown them with a hurricane, drop a mountain on their heads from twenty feet up, or [[MurderByInaction just sit on their hands]] while the eco-villains [[HoistByHisOwnPetard get killed by their own backfiring schemes]]. |
| 434 | * EcocidalAntagonist: The Eco-Villains embodied the concept of the trope, generally just polluting ForTheEvulz, and they generally acted as representations of destructive behaviors. To whit: |
| 435 | ** [[ToxicInc Hoggish Greedly]] represented toxic emissions and by-products, along with unrestricted industry. He eventually underwent a HeelFaceTurn when [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes his son]] befriended the Planeteers and convinced him that it was possible to be environmentally-friendly ''and'' still produce things. |
| 436 | ** [[ConMan Sly Sludge]] represented short-term thinking and improper disposal. Like Greedly, he also underwent a HeelFaceTurn when the Planeteers convinced him that there was actually good money to be made from recycling and proper disposal (e.g. precious materials could be harvested from discarded electronics for only the fraction of the price of mining raw ore). |
| 437 | ** [[CruellaToAnimals Dr Blight]] was scientific advancement at the cost of the biosphere and environment. |
| 438 | ** [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Looten Plunder]] was an EvilPoacher (among other things). Like Greedly and Sludge his main aim was money, but he was far worse than the other two in that he also represented unchecked, short-sighted capitalism that sought maximum short-term profit, long-term consequences be damned. |
| 439 | ** Duke Nukem and Verminous Skumm differed from the others in that pollution was their actual objective: Nukem sought to create an irradiated wasteland to create others like him while Skumm sought to pollute the body and mind via methods such as drugs and self-destructive behaviour. |
| 440 | ** [[SatanicArchetype Zarm]] may be an Earth spirit like Gaia, but he easily embraces destruction, war, and hatred, and is a cruel god who had driven a different planet he visited to oblivion via nuclear war, and intends to bring Earth into WorldWarIII, caring little about the environmental collateral damage, and has even led the other Eco-Villains against the Planeteers on occasion. |
| 441 | * EvilRedhead: Greedly and Plunder, contrasting RedHeadedHero Wheeler. |
| 442 | ** Greedly sports a distinctive red mohawk and is not a very nice man. |
| 443 | ** Plunder is auburn-haired and has no scruples against poaching, bribery, and threatening or outright attempting to murder anyone who won't fall in line with his plans. |
| 444 | * ForTheEvulz: Many of their goals lead to environmental damage to the world and its creatures, and they don't care about the consequences. Otherwise, they simply pollute for the hell of it. |
| 445 | * NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: All of the human ones of them have disgusting, villainous-sounding names, which also double as {{Punny Name}}s or {{Meaningful Name}}s as well. |
| 446 | ** Hoggish Greedly; References his AnimalMotifs and his greed, in a PunnyName sort of way. |
| 447 | ** Looten Plunder; Sounds like "Loot and Plunder" (read: steal stuff), fitting his motif as a CorruptCorporateExecutive. |
| 448 | ** Sly Sludge; References his criminal motif, ''slyly'' disposing of garbage and ''sludge'' in ways that ultimately hurts the environment to make a quick profit. |
| 449 | ** Duke Nukem; Combines obvious AristocratsAreEvil connotations with "nuke 'em", referencing his status as a NuclearMutant. |
| 450 | ** Verminous Skumm; References both his rodent-like nature (making him vermin, or literally verminous), his status as ThePigPen, and his status as the show's KnightOfCerebus when Zarm isn't around to take the position (making him a real scumbag). |
| 451 | ** Dr. Blight; References her criminal motif, using science to blight and befoul the world around her, just because she can. |
| 452 | * NicknamingTheEnemy: They tend to call the team "Planet pests" and other variations on their title. |
| 453 | * PickOnSomeoneYourOwnSize: While one could say that the immensely powerful adult-looking Captain Planet is the eco-villains' ArchEnemy, he's around relatively rarely, and it's no secret that they absolutely hate the Planeteers. The group is composed of four teenagers (Gi, Kwame, Linka, and Wheeler) or and one pre-teen (Ma-Ti). None of this keeps them from doing nasty things to their underage nemeses (up to and including attempted murder) constantly. |
| 454 | * ThePsychoRangers: 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. |
| 455 | * PunnyName: Many of the eco-villains' names are puns on some sort of negative thing. In "Domes of Doom", Looten Plunder, who's incognito while trying to get control over the planet's forests, even creates a punny name as an alias: Baron Giftus (as in "beware of Greeks bearing gifts"). |
| 456 | * VillainTeamUp: They did this on rather frequent occasions, with Dr. Blight in particular being prone to this. The only time ''all'' of them teamed up was in the two-parter "Summit to Save Earth'', with Zarm acting as their leader. In fact, the debut episode for Blight and Duke Nukem was a team up between them. |
| 457 | * WouldHurtAChild: Some of the Eco-villains-- Blight, Nukem, Skumm, and Zarm mostly -- will more than gladly attempt to hurt, sicken, manipulate, exploit, or outright kill children (including Ma-Ti in the first season, given that he's only twelve when initiated) if it benefits them. Skumm stands out as he'll do it simply ForTheEvulz, as seen in "Talkin' Trash". |
| 458 | [[/folder]] |
| 459 | |
| 460 | [[folder:Hoggish Greedly]] |
| 461 | !Hoggish Greedly |
| 462 | [[quoteright:152:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cphoggish_7090.gif]] |
| 463 | ->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/EdAsner |
| 464 | |
| 465 | A man resembling a pig who represents the environmental damage caused by the exploitation of natural resources and over-consumption. |
| 466 | ---- |
| 467 | * {{Acrofatic}}: His obesity doesn't get in the way of his running speed or endurance, even being able to outrun Ma-Ti in a race. |
| 468 | * 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. |
| 469 | * AnnoyingLaugh: As part of his pig motif, he has the stereotypical "pig snort" laugh. His son Junior also has it. |
| 470 | * AttackOfThe50FootWhatever: In "Trouble on the Half Shell", he and Verminous Skumm team up to gather turtle eggs. He trips whilst carrying some eggs poisoned by Skumm, and grows into a gargantuan monster version of himself. |
| 471 | * CorruptCorporateExecutive: He seems to be more concerned with consuming as much as he can than he is with actually turning a profit. It's implied that he can get away with it because he's got an obscene amount of OldMoney in reserve, but his final appearance has him living in a hovel with Rigger, suggesting that his luck finally ran out. |
| 472 | * DubNameChange: Mr. Virus in the Italian dub. |
| 473 | * EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: 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. |
| 474 | * FatBastard: As part of his AnimalMotifs and pollution symbolism. He's not morbidly obese, but he's definitely a hefty man, and less than healthy as a result. He's also a big jerk who doesn't care about anyone other than himself and his son, and is willing to kidnap or murder those who get in his way. |
| 475 | * GenerationXerox: He's very similar to his grandfather Don Porkaloin, and his son Junior is just like him. [[spoiler:Ironically, both end up reforming and becoming very different.]] |
| 476 | * 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. Sadly, it didn't stick.]] |
| 477 | * MoralityPet: He has a son [[GenerationXerox who is like him]] but not quite evil, and when said son was in danger due to the air pollution Greedly caused, Greedly chose to work with the Planeteers rather than let him die. |
| 478 | * MoralMyopia: Greedly cares about his own son quite passionately, but it doesn't make him more sympathetic to the danger and trouble he causes to other people's families. |
| 479 | * 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 "[[Recap/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteersS2E13TroubleOnTheHalfShell Trouble on the Half Shell]]", when he and Verminous Skumm team up, the gigantic Greedly does look a bit more like a pig-man as a result of [[ItMakesSenseInContext coming into contact with Skumm's latest concoction]]. |
| 480 | * PointedEars: As a part of his pig motif, he has pointed ears. |
| 481 | * ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney: He does a whole bunch of things that are not only unethical, but blatantly illegal. He doesn't care because, hey, he's rich. |
| 482 | * ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Upon seeing Captain Planet's first ever summoning, he immediately gives the order to get his mobile oil rig out of the area. It does him little good when Captain Planet smashes it to pieces. |
| 483 | * StarterVillain: Though he is a recurring villain, Greedly serves as the very first threat for the Planeteers in their first mission of the series. |
| 484 | * StrawCharacter: His episodes often revolved around the negative parts of fossil fuel use. |
| 485 | * VillainousGlutton: He eats and litters constantly. |
| 486 | * VillainousParentalInstinct: Greedly's sole redeeming characteristic appears to be his concern for his son, Junior. He actually calls off his plan and begs the Planeteers for help when his teenage son got poisoned due to said plan. Note that this does not inspire a Heel–Face Turn on Greedly's part. |
| 487 | [[/folder]] |
| 488 | |
| 489 | [[folder:Looten Plunder]] |
| 490 | !Looten Plunder |
| 491 | [[quoteright:152:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cplooten_2555.gif]] |
| 492 | ->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/JamesCoburn in 1990–1992, Creator/EdGilbert in 1993–1995 |
| 493 | |
| 494 | A wealthy poacher and greedy businessman who represents the evils of uncontrolled capitalism, unethical business actions, and globalization. |
| 495 | ---- |
| 496 | * TheBadGuyWins: He got away with cutting down a forest where endangered species live in "Whoo Gives a Hoot?", making him the only villain to defeat the Planeteers. |
| 497 | * BaitTheDog: He seems not ''that'' bad in "Bitter Waters", to the point that Linka questions if he's actually doing something wrong initially. He ''does'' give a poor reservation money and jobs by irrigating the desert but does so the wrong way. Later on, when they develop a cleaner source of energy and income, admits they can make just as much using what they have, compared to what they would make doing things his way. However, his focus on keeping the Planeteers from revealing the environmental damage to the reservation (which would violate their contract) implies that he was more interested in taking advantage of their desperation than actually helping. |
| 498 | * CorruptCorporateExecutive: The most prominent example of an unethical businessman who does blatantly illegal things for profit in the show. |
| 499 | * DubNameChange: Max Malis in the Italian dub. |
| 500 | * EvilCounterpart: As one of the Captain Pollution ring bearers, he serves as one to Kwame because of his Deforestation ring. |
| 501 | * EvilPoacher: He's often involved in illegally killing animals, either for profit or for his own pleasure. |
| 502 | * ImpossiblyTackyClothes: His suit has pink leopard-skin lapels. |
| 503 | * InformedAbility: In the episode where the Eco Villains create evil duplicate of the Planeteers' rings, Looten Plunder get Earth's counterpart, Deforestation. He's never seen using it despite being close to an island full of trees. The only time he used the ring is for summoning [[EvilCounterpart Captain Pollution]]. |
| 504 | * KickTheDog: To make his victory in clear-cutting the forest in spite of endangered species living there in "Whoo Gives a Hoot?" even more hurtful for our heroes, the ending of the episode has him rub it in the Planeteers' faces that they've lost this time and dare them to try and stop him from clear-cutting the next forest he intends to target. |
| 505 | * LargeHam: He tends to be hammy at times, the most notable instance being when he famously hollers "You'll pay for this, Captain Planet!" in "Last of her Kind". |
| 506 | * NGOSuperpower: Not only is he an international arms dealer with access to the latest, fanciest weaponry, in certain episodes he has also boasted [[PrivateMilitaryContractors his own armed forces]] ... including [[TheBattlestar his own supercarrier]]. |
| 507 | * NothingCanStopUsNow: In his very first appearance, poaching ivory in [[DarkestAfrica Africa]], he boasts that no one can stop him. Of course, the Planeteers soon show up and summon a certain someone to prove him wrong. |
| 508 | * 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. |
| 509 | * ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections: Implied in "Bitter Waters". Doesn't help if you commit a crime on an Indian reservation. |
| 510 | * SmugSnake: He often has a smug sense of superiority and acts condescending to those he considers beneath him. |
| 511 | * StrawCharacter: An extreme case of showcasing the negative side of corporations and land development. |
| 512 | * WellIntentionedExtremist: In "Bitter Waters". He approaches a poor Indian reservation and offers them jobs and money by irrigating the area. A noble goal, but he does so the wrong way. |
| 513 | [[/folder]] |
| 514 | |
| 515 | [[folder:Sly Sludge]] |
| 516 | !Sly Sludge |
| 517 | [[quoteright:152:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cpsly_806.gif]] |
| 518 | ->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/MartinSheen in 1990–1992, Creator/JimCummings1952 in 1993–1995 |
| 519 | |
| 520 | An unscrupulous waste disposer who represents the harm caused by ignorance, short-term thinking, laziness, and the environmental problems caused by waste disposal. He is probably the most "realistic" of the Eco-Villains in that he seems to not be truly evil, but merely unconcerned with the environmental effects of his various schemes. |
| 521 | ---- |
| 522 | * ALighterShadeOfBlack: The most humane and realistic of the villains. Waste disposal is a legitimate business that can be very good for the environment and would normally make him an ally to environmentally friendly people, it's just that he's so lazy and negligent that he goes about his work in the wrong way. [[spoiler:He finally wises up in his last episode.]] |
| 523 | * AlliterativeName: '''S'''ly '''S'''ludge. |
| 524 | * AntiVillain: He's not as actively malicious as the other Eco-Villains, though he certainly has no scruples about attacking the Planeteers and will even turn on his partners in crime under the right circumstances. 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.]] |
| 525 | * BaldOfEvil: Almost, in that he's not entirely bald. [[spoiler:And he does eventually clean up his act and quit being an Eco Villain.]] |
| 526 | * BrilliantButLazy: He's able to come up with complex schemes and invent incredible technology to do his job, but he is so lazy and negligent that he goes about it the completely wrong way. |
| 527 | * 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.]] |
| 528 | * 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.]] |
| 529 | * CutLexLuthorACheck: More than once, he's come up with relatively ingenious ways of handling waste disposal, just not recycling, and is good friends with Dr. Blight, who can create just about anything technological. He never thinks to use any of his resources beyond quick waste dumping scams. |
| 530 | * EvilCounterpart: To Linka, as one of the Captain Pollution ring bearers, his ring being Smog to Linka's wind. |
| 531 | * FatBastard: He's an overweight felon, but not as fat nor as mean as Hoggish Greedly. |
| 532 | * FatIdiot: Most of his plans backfire because [[DidNotThinkThisThrough he doesn't think about the long-term consequences or the processes involved]]. |
| 533 | * GreenwashedVillainy: He's meant to represent short-sightedness and improper disposal. Hence, many of his get-rich-quick schemes revolve around finding a new "environmentally friendly" method of disposing of things like toxic waste, only for it to turn out to be a scam. He eventually [[spoiler:undergoes a HeelFaceTurn when the Planeteers convince him that there's genuine money to be made in recycling]]. |
| 534 | * HeelFaceTurn: In his final appearance in "No Small Problem", [[spoiler:he finally wises up and realizes he can make a fortune by running an honest recycling facility rather than being a villain]]. |
| 535 | * LazyBum: Many of his waste dumping scams harm the environment because of how short-sighted and hasty they are. As noted above, if he weren't so lazy and short-sighted, he'd probably be able to get rich ''and'' help the public good, with the added benefit of not attracting the Captain's attention. [[spoiler:In fact, he does exactly that in his final appearance.]] |
| 536 | * ThePigPen: He's implied to be rather dirty; his lackey Ooze sings a version of "Jingle Bells" that describes him as stinking badly enough to be smelled fifty miles away. It probably doesn't help that he doesn't dislike the waste he usually handles, despite how repulsive most people find it. |
| 537 | * 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. |
| 538 | * VillainousFriendship: He is good friends with Dr. Blight, despite her being much worse than he is. [[spoiler:It's unknown if they could still be considered friends after he turned himself around.]] |
| 539 | [[/folder]] |
| 540 | |
| 541 | [[folder:Duke Nukem]] |
| 542 | !Duke Nukem |
| 543 | [[quoteright:152:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cpduke_2851.gif]] |
| 544 | ->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/DeanStockwell in 1990–1992, Creator/MauriceLaMarche in 1993–1995 |
| 545 | |
| 546 | [[VideoGame/DukeNukem No, not that one.]] A radioactive mutant who represents the perils of nuclear power and ozone depletion. Also one of the few enemies on the show to have superpowers like the protagonists. |
| 547 | ---- |
| 548 | * 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. |
| 549 | * AtomicSuperpower: Duke Nukem is able to generate, manipulate and control radiation. |
| 550 | * TheBrute: He was the only one of the main villains who was a direct physical threat to Captain Planet, so he often fulfilled this role even though he originated as a MadScientist. |
| 551 | * DependingOnTheWriter: Frankly, Duke Nukem's portrayal, abilities and goals ping-pong all over the place during the show, with different episodes giving him different traits and rationale. |
| 552 | * DubNameChange: |
| 553 | ** Dick Disastro in the Italian dub. |
| 554 | ** In the German dub, he's renamed "Graf Atomar", literally "Count Nuclear". |
| 555 | * DumbMuscle: In the later episodes, he becomes less articulate and guileful, and his plans for gaining radiation became even more simplistic and bare. If you're feeling charitable, you can chalk it up to his progressing mutation robbing him of his higher brain functions. |
| 556 | * 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. |
| 557 | * ForTheEvulz: ...Kind of? In some episodes, he needs nuclear materials to eat; in others, 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. |
| 558 | * HorrorHunger: DependingOnTheWriter. In some episodes, he's portrayed as actively needing nuclear radiation to survive. |
| 559 | * MadScientist: Supposedly, Duke Nukem became the way he is due to a nuclear experiment, and he was once referred to Kwame as "Dr. Duke Nukem". |
| 560 | * ObviouslyEvil: He's a yellow rock-skinned monster with menacing green eyes. Do you really need any more of a hint that he's evil? |
| 561 | * PlagueMaster: Radiation sickness and fallout rather than plague, but close enough. |
| 562 | * PlayingWithFire: '''Poison''' fire, baby. |
| 563 | * RadiationImmuneMutants: He is a mutant of the "actively absorbs radiation and is nourished by it" variety. |
| 564 | * SuperStrength: He's stronger than an average human as part of his mutation, which is another reason not to let him get too close. |
| 565 | * SympathyForTheDevil: Depending on your interpretation of him, Duke Nukem can become a guy who just wants the things any normal human wants; food, a good living environment, and companionship. Only thing is he's a walking dirty reactor, so getting those things would require polluting the world with radioactive fallout and transforming humanity into mutants like himself, and if World War III happened, he'd get his wish. |
| 566 | * VillainSong: He can once be heard singing in the shower whilst bathing in the radioactive coolant of a nuclear power plant. ''"My name is Duke Nukem/I'm a nuclear shark/I'm hotter than Elvis/and I glow in the dark!"'' |
| 567 | * WalkingWasteland: DependingOnTheWriter. Sometimes he's portrayed as leaving a heavy trail of fallout in his wake, making it a ''very'' bad idea to go near him without protective equipment. Other times he can interact with people harmlessly. It may depend on how much radiation he's recently absorbed. |
| 568 | * XRayVision: Hey, it's radiation too! |
| 569 | [[/folder]] |
| 570 | |
| 571 | [[folder:Verminous Skumm]] |
| 572 | !Verminous Skumm |
| 573 | [[quoteright:152:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cpvskumm_8161.gif]] |
| 574 | ->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/JeffGoldblum in 1990, Creator/MauriceLaMarche in 1991–1995 |
| 575 | |
| 576 | A part man, part rat creature who represents the evils of poor sanitation, disease, urban decay, and uncontrolled crime. Unlike the other villains, he tends to focus more on destroying humanity than destroying nature. |
| 577 | ---- |
| 578 | * BigNo: Lets out a terrifying one at the end of "Mind Pollution" when he accidentally eats one of his own Bliss pills, in effect polluting himself. |
| 579 | * CardCarryingVillain: He revels in the fact that he's evil, mostly because he's also a huge misanthrope. |
| 580 | * DamnItFeelsGoodToBeAGangster: He's the leader of the chaotic youth gangs in "Utopia" and "Talkin' Trash", using this trope in full effect to trick them into trashing their own communities. |
| 581 | * DubNameChange: Rodirogna (literally, "Mange Gnaw") in the Italian dub. |
| 582 | * EvilCounterpart: To Gi, as one of the Captain Pollution ring bearers, with his ring giving him the power over Toxics in order for there to be a polluting equivalent to water. |
| 583 | * {{Expy}}: He's ''very'' similar to [[Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles The Rat King.]] |
| 584 | * ForcedTransformation: In "Skumm Lord" he has a toxic chemical compound called "rat rot" that can mutate humans into rat-people like himself. |
| 585 | * ForTheEvulz: Eventually his only reason for doing anything is apparently to destroy the environment or (more often) ruin people's lives for laughs, and he only occasionally mentions ruling the wreckage he intends to leave behind. An entire episode focuses on his efforts to stir up prejudice against an HIV-positive kid just for the hell of it (although he also mentions that it helps his long-term goals by reinforcing misinformation about the disease, encouraging the spread). |
| 586 | * GagNose: His large nose evokes a rat-like snout. |
| 587 | * GRatedDrug: "Mind Pollution" has him distributing a drug in Washington, DC, under the name "Bliss", with the same addictive properties as a RealLife drug. Linka's cousin dies from overdose, and Linka herself is affected to the point of losing access to her Wind power. Thankfully, she gets better and Skumm unwittingly serves himself a taste of his own medicine after his defeat. |
| 588 | * InexplicablyAwesome: We get no explanation for where he came from (outside of a throwaway line about how he was "born and raised in toxic waste") or why he is a rat man, and none of the other characters ever really questioned it. While other rat people appeared as his henchmen, Skumm having the means to turn normal humans into RatMen indicates that the rat people are Skumm's creations, and not an actual species of which he is a member. However, he refers to the people around him as "humans" while invading a hospital in "Hate Canal", implying that whatever he is, he doesn't see himself as human. |
| 589 | * InTheHood: Always wears a hood to cover up his hideous, rodent-like facial features. |
| 590 | * KnightOfCerebus: The episodes with him as the main villain are normally DarkerAndEdgier. For example, a couple of kids have actually ''died'' as a direct result of his actions, and one of them was even a relative of a main character. He's usually focused on hurting people rather than the environment. In his first episode, he creates a cloud of acid rain, not to destroy a forest or something but to ''destroy a city.'' Most notably, in "A Formula for Hate" and "Mind Pollution", his actions were so heinous that Captain Planet [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness completely dropped the quips and wisecracks]] and was truly ''furious''. |
| 591 | * LaserGuidedKarma: He gets a literal taste of his own medicine at the end of "Mind Pollution" when he ends up addicted to his own drug. |
| 592 | * LittleBitBeastly: He has rodent-like facial features, verminous claws for hands/feet and a lashing rat's tail. |
| 593 | * ObviouslyEvil: Oh, gee, the giant man with a rat's tail and rat-like facial features running around in dirty, smelly clothes in the sewers and garbage dumps and calling himself Verminous Skumm is evil. However would you have guessed? |
| 594 | * PlagueMaster: He tends to rely on toxic chemical compounds, like his "Skummy Brew" (which turns people into RatMen) and Bliss (a highly addictive drug), but the effects are ultimately the same. |
| 595 | * RatMen: He looks like a cross between a rat and a human. |
| 596 | * RodentOfUnusualSize: Specifically, he's part of an entire race of RatMen, and his ultimate goal is often stated as being to destroy humanity so they can take over the ruins. |
| 597 | * ThisIsUnforgivable: Even Captain Planet isn't happy about this rat distributing drugs. |
| 598 | * VillainousCrush: It's briefly implied 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. |
| 599 | * YouDirtyRat: He's a villain with rat-like traits that are used for the symbolism of pollution, decay and death. |
| 600 | [[/folder]] |
| 601 | |
| 602 | [[folder:Dr. Blight]] |
| 603 | !Dr. Barbara "Babs" Blight |
| 604 | [[quoteright:152:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cpblight_6220.gif]] |
| 605 | ->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/MegRyan in 1990, Creator/MaryKayBergman in 1991–1995 |
| 606 | |
| 607 | A MadScientist who represents the dangers of uncontrolled technology (specifically dealing with the military-industrial complex) and unethical scientific experimentation. |
| 608 | ---- |
| 609 | * AffectionateNickname: |
| 610 | ** "MAL, Baby" for her computer assistant MAL. |
| 611 | ** Similarly, in "Who's Running the Show?" she calls Duke Nukem "Nukey baby". |
| 612 | * AlliterativeName: '''B'''arbara '''B'''light. |
| 613 | * BeautyIsBad: She's pretty attractive (except for what's under her hair), but she's also a total ''bitch''. |
| 614 | * BadPeopleAbuseAnimals: Experiments on animals. Even Suchi was a victim, though not worse for wear. |
| 615 | * CainAndAbel: Has a twin sister named Bambi, who's her complete opposite, which also carries onto her [[MadScientistsBeautifulDaughter daughter]], Betsi. |
| 616 | * CardCarryingVillain: Though not always, she often takes pride in being evil. |
| 617 | * CorruptCorporateExecutive: Many of her experiments seemed to have money in mind, and her business ventures revolved around profitable animal-related tests (Draize testing for cosmetics companies, running a puppy mill). |
| 618 | * 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. |
| 619 | * CruellaToAnimals: |
| 620 | ** In one episode, her project of the week involves animal testing. She even kidnaps Suchi; however, [[PlotArmor being one of the regular characters]], he makes it out not much worse for wear. |
| 621 | ** The episode "101 Mutations" shows Dr. Blight running a puppy mill, being cruel to her guard dogs, and otherwise showing that her lack of concern applies to animals too. |
| 622 | * DubNameChange: Lady Velenia (literally "Lady Poisonia") in the Italian dub. |
| 623 | * EvenEvilHasStandards: She shows concern when Nukem decides to use an actual nuclear bomb on the TV studio in "Who's Running the Show?". Mostly because it'd take out her, Greedly and Skumm in the process and make the land uninhabitable, neither of which she actually wants. |
| 624 | * EvilCounterpart: To Ma-Ti, as one of the Captain Pollution ring bearers, with the polluting equivalent of heart being Hate. |
| 625 | * EvilGenius: She's the smartest of the main villains, being a MadScientist. |
| 626 | * EyeScream: [[spoiler:Her hair covers up the burn on her face that also destroyed her eye.]] |
| 627 | * FamilyFriendlyFirearms: Her machines are guaranteed to fight with laser weaponry. |
| 628 | * TheFashionista: Shows quite a vain streak for a scientist. |
| 629 | * ForScience: Why she wrecks the environment; she cares more about doing science than thinking about the potential consequences of her experiments on the world around her. |
| 630 | * HandicappedBadass: [[spoiler:Considering she takes on Captain Planet and the Planeteers after losing her eye.]] |
| 631 | * HidingBehindYourBangs / HidingTheHandicap: She wears her hair partially over her face. [[spoiler:Turns out it's to hide the fact she's TwoFaced.]] |
| 632 | * LaserGuidedKarma: In "Frog Day Afternoon", she gets her comeuppance for pureeing endangered amphibians in an attempt to heal her scarring when it turns out that MAL miscalculated and that using frog extract on her facial scar is actually going to make the scarring ''worse''. |
| 633 | * LastNameBasis: The team only knows her as "Dr. Blight." When her good twin sister calls her "Babs", they have no idea who she means until she uses the surname and title. |
| 634 | * MadScientist: She's a scientist and actively seeks out destructive ways to use her intelligence. According to Gi in "Two Futures, Part 1", it's exaggerated even compared to others of her kind. |
| 635 | -->'''Gi:''' Dr. Blight again? Even mad scientists call her crazy! |
| 636 | * MaleGaze: Provides some close-ups of her anatomy in "Tree of Life". |
| 637 | * MsFanservice: The skintight clothing and the sultry, seductive voice are the closest this show ever gets to fanservice. |
| 638 | * MuggedForDisguise: She incapacitates her sister Bambi to steal her clothes and impersonate her in "[[Recap/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteersS5E2Hollywaste Hollywaste]]". |
| 639 | * OmnicidalManiac: She's the only Eco-Villain, other than Zarm, who seems actively excited by the prospect of killing off the entire planet. In "A Good Bomb Is Hard To Find", as mentioned under RefugeInAudacity, she decides to go back in time and ''sell a nuclear bomb to Hitler''. Another, equally powerful example is the episode "Planeteers Under Glass", in which she seizes control of a virtual reality simulator and uses it to create a virtual Earth that she pollutes until it becomes completely incapable of supporting life, culminating in the program imploding after it depicts the last human -- a grotesque, demonic-looking cyber-mutant -- dying as it sinks to its knees and raises a fist in defiance at the heavens. Blight wonders for barely a second if maybe she went too far, then [[IgnoredEpiphany gleefully dismisses the idea]], lamenting that she can't start it up again and enjoy running the nightmare scenario all over again. |
| 640 | * PinkMeansFeminine: She's a vain woman who wears a pink jumpsuit. |
| 641 | * ThePowerOfHate: She got the EvilCounterpart of the Heart Ring - that is, the Ring of Hate. |
| 642 | * RedRightHand: Her haircut covers up the fact that [[spoiler:the entire left side of her face is horrifically burned.]] |
| 643 | * RefugeInAudacity: "A Good Bomb Is Hard to Find" has her build a time machine, steal some plutonium with her future self, then go back in time ''to sell a nuke to [[ThoseWackyNazis Hitler]]''. If it weren't for ''Website/{{YouTube}}'', most people wouldn't even believe the episode exists. |
| 644 | * RichBitch: Generally, she's shown as extremely wealthy. Her brand of science may be destructive and evil, but the profit margins are clearly extreme. |
| 645 | * {{Robosexual}}: She and MAL flirt with each other at least [[OnceAnEpisode once every episode that they're both in]]. She even kisses him once in a while. "Little Crop of Horrors" also implies that she has a crush on [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Lt. Commander Data]], an android, [[TalkingInYourSleep given that she can be heard flirting with him in her dreams.]] |
| 646 | * ScienceIsBad: Her entire purpose is to showcase just how terrifying science can be if it's not held back by some level of morality or sanity. |
| 647 | * ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney: She's even more successful at bankrolling her brand of evil than Plunder and Greedly are. |
| 648 | * TheSmurfettePrinciple: The only female among the villains, and generally more subtle in her machinations than the others. |
| 649 | * TooManyBelts: Downplayed. She wears two belts around her waist, for no particular reason. |
| 650 | * TwoFaced: [[spoiler:The left side of her face is badly scarred.]] |
| 651 | * WellIntentionedExtremist: Sometimes Dr. Blight thinks her actions actually make the environment a nicer place, like when she planned to turn the Sahara into a big garden. |
| 652 | [[/folder]] |
| 653 | |
| 654 | [[folder:Zarm]] |
| 655 | !Zarm |
| 656 | [[quoteright:152:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cpzarm_6143.gif]] |
| 657 | ->'''Voiced by:''' Music/{{Sting}} in 1990–1992, Creator/DavidWarner in 1993, Creator/MalcolmMcDowell in 1994–1995 |
| 658 | |
| 659 | A former Spirit of 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. |
| 660 | ---- |
| 661 | * AnthropomorphicPersonification: He embodies war and hatred. While not touched on in depth, Zarm was most likely representative of nature as uncaring and driven by competition. It's not a stretch to imagine how a nature spirit that once simply represented survival of the fittest could become a spirit of conquest and subjugation.\ |
| 662 | It makes even more sense if both Gaia and he were affected by the emergence of sentient creatures (humans) and also became more sentient and aware (what with them being a representation of nature and humans being a part of nature). Gaia most likely took on human traits that she had the most affinity with (compassion, understanding, love) while Zarm had a greater affinity with mankind's more negative aspects (callousness, ambition, and hate). |
| 663 | * ApocalypseHow: Zarm makes a habit of subjecting every planet he visits to total extinction on a global scale. For example, he drove the last planet he visited to fight a global nuclear war. As a result it became, as Gaia says, "a lifeless cinder". With Duke Nukem representing the dangers of nuclear energy, Zarm is the very manifestation of the fear of World War III without nuclear deterrent and the United Nations to prevent it. |
| 664 | * ArtEvolution: His hair is blue in seasons 1 and 2, but it's later changed to black. |
| 665 | * BigBad: The opposing spirit to [[BigGood Gaia]], who forces the other villains to cooperate under his command and decimate the world under the war and hatred he symbolizes. |
| 666 | * CardCarryingVillain: He makes no bones about the fact that he's a spirit of destruction and domination. |
| 667 | * CompellingVoice: His voice is incredibly effective in getting people to obey his orders; the only person it doesn't work on initially is Ma-Ti. However, given that he fails to retain control after the corrupted Planeteers find out what he's like, it seems vulnerable to HeroicWillpower if the victim is aware of how nasty he is. |
| 668 | * TheCorrupter: He managed to corrupt four of the Planeteers with Iron Fists. If it weren't for Ma-Ti resisting the temptation and alerting Gaia, the others would have started ''a nuclear war'', a.k.a. WWIII. |
| 669 | * DisabilityImmunity: This is 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. |
| 670 | -->'''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... you ''have'' no heart. |
| 671 | * DivideAndConquer: His ''modus operandi'': play on people's ignorance to turn them against each other or manipulate their hearts to stoke hatred and strife. |
| 672 | * EvilBrit: His British accent is evident especially in the episodes where Sting voices him. |
| 673 | * EvilCounterpart: He is a villainous equivalent to Gaia, being a Spirit of Earth like her, except much more malevolent and destructive. |
| 674 | * EvilerThanThou: In "Summit to Save Earth, Part 1", he unites the other Eco-villains under his command... and manages to get away with flat-out insulting them. |
| 675 | -->'''Zarm:''' You, miserable worms, develop a ''plan''? HA! You'll never figure out a way to stop Captain Planet. And he ''will'' show up; and wipe ''you'' off the face of the Earth! ''That's'' why you ''bumbling incompetents'' will be working for ''me''. |
| 676 | * FauxAffablyEvil: He's good at feigning kindness. He managed to: fool the Planeteers in "The Conqueror"; turn a naive boy's wishes against his village in "The Dream Machine"; and escalate the conflict between parents of two kids in "In Zarm's Way". |
| 677 | ** In "The Conqueror", he's also noted to have manipulated an entire planet's population to destroy itself by helping it develop nuclear weapons. |
| 678 | * ForTheEvulz: Despite the stereotype, the other villains ''generally'' had [[MotiveDecay some kind of motive]] for whatever harm they were doing to the planet. Zarm, on the other hand, was out to foment conflict and destruction (up to and including nuclear wars) just because he hated humans, Earth and Gaia. |
| 679 | * IcyBlueEyes: Depending on the episode, he has either these or gray, or even greenish irises. All these colors ultimately mean the same, though: he's cold, cruel and definitely ''not'' the type of guy you should trust. |
| 680 | * JackassGenie: Did this in "The Dream Machine", twisting a naive and oblivious kid's wishes and letting the people of his village do it too until the entire village almost became a wasteland and a warzone. |
| 681 | * 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 kids are about to leave and can't stop him, he accelerates Gaia's aging significantly. Later, when the team's rescue attempt goes wrong, he's shown mocking her mercilessly. Eventually, 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. |
| 682 | * KnightOfCerebus: He's by far the most deadly and dangerous villain, capable of laying waste to entire planets. Much like Skumm, he primarily targets people rather than the environment. In his very first appearance he comes close to manipulating the Planeteers into starting a nuclear war, a.k.a. WWIII. |
| 683 | * LargeHam: Quite surprisingly, yes; especially in "Summit to Save Earth, Part 1". |
| 684 | -->'''Zarm:''' At last! The Earth is finally polluted enough for me!\ |
| 685 | ''Plunder walks in, hitting him with the door.''\ |
| 686 | '''Zarm:''' ''No one sneaks up on me!'' |
| 687 | * 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/{{The Twilight Zone|1959}}'' episode "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S1E22TheMonstersAreDueOnMapleStreet The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street]]". |
| 688 | * LightIsNotGood: In his first appearance, and occasionally thereafter in disguise, he posed as a benevolent spirit of the same kind as Gaia. |
| 689 | * MasterOfIllusion: He uses illusions for disguise. It makes him an even more effective manipulator than he already is. |
| 690 | * MightMakesRight: Says this word for word in "The Conqueror" when Gi questions destroying things for the sake of destruction itself. |
| 691 | -->'''Zarm:''' You must either conquer, or ''be'' conquered! |
| 692 | * NatureIsNotNice: He's an Earth spirit like Gaia but he embodies the amorality and cruelty of nature where [[MightMakesRight only the strong survive]]. He also encourages [[TheSocialDarwinist ruthless competition and natural selection]] by supporting dictatorships and spreading conflict. |
| 693 | * NiceJobFixingItVillain: [[NearVillainVictory He almost won]] in "The Conqueror", corrupting most of the team and turning Gaia mortal... and then Gaia goes to talk to the rogue Planeteers – who are still convinced he's a good guy – and he just ''has'' to send an earthquake to kill her. Cue his "conquerors" abandoning him. |
| 694 | * 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 Earth and seeking revenge on Gaia? |
| 695 | * OurSpiritsAreDifferent: In his case, he's the closest thing this world has to the Devil. |
| 696 | * PhysicalGod: Much like Gaia, he's an immortal being of great power. Unlike her, he's a GodOfEvil. |
| 697 | * PowerEchoes: He speaks with an echo effect when he's in his holographic form. |
| 698 | * ThePowerOfHate: He is the power of hate weaponized. Zarm doesn't ''need'' to directly fight most of the time; he's just that good at getting people to hate each other. |
| 699 | * ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: He's been exiled ''ages'' ago. |
| 700 | * RedEyesTakeWarning: Zarm's eyes glow a lot while trying to corrupt the Planeteers, seemingly as a sign of him using PsychicPowers on them. It's possible to NoSell it, however; Wheeler does when Zarm makes a last-ditch effort to retain control over him. |
| 701 | * SatanicArchetype: He's not only plain evil, with no redeeming qualities, but also dangerously intelligent and cunning, and despite his great power, one of his major tactics is acting as TheCorrupter. |
| 702 | * SignificantAnagram: Might be a stretch, but "Mars" was the Roman god of war. |
| 703 | * SocialDarwinist: His "might makes right" philosophy would be a textbook example of this, save for his nasty habit of making both sides of the conflict destroy each other. |
| 704 | * TheSociopath: Zarm checks most of the boxes. He's completely devoid of any affection for other beings, though he does regularly start a scheme by pretending to be benevolent. However, once the scheme has destroyed everything for the victims, he moves on to do it all over again. Ma-Ti distrusts him from the start, initially saying that his heart is "empty" and ultimately stating that he doesn't have one. Most of the time, he doesn't use his physical power, but he doesn't have to given his nasty skill at bringing out the worst in people. He is also quite smug (though admittedly he's a very tough opponent for anyone to handle) and oblivious to his incoming doom until the last few minutes of the entire scheme blowing up in his face. Furthermore, he refuses to admit that he wastes time whenever he tries to destroy Earth and should probably focus his attention elsewhere -- [[{{Pride}} that would mean admitting Gaia, Cap, and their five kids are a problem for him]]. |
| 705 | * VirtueIsWeakness: Being the embodiment of destruction and hatred, Zarm takes a dim view of anything more positive. This turns up during multiple of his appearances: |
| 706 | ** In "The Conqueror", when the four Planeteers he corrupted break loose and reunite with Gaia and Ma-Ti, he calls it "sentimental slop" and asks what happened to their strong selves. |
| 707 | ** In "Summit to Save Earth", he distracts Gaia at a crucial moment by nearly killing the Planeteers. After striking her down, he sneers at her, saying that by saving the Planeteers rather than herself, she made a wrong choice. He's clearly aware that she loves them, [[ActOfTrueLove to the point of sacrificing herself for them]], but he doesn't respect it in the slightest and only sees it as something to exploit. |
| 708 | * VoluntaryShapeshifting: As shown in "Summit to Save Earth, Part 1", 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 him in the latter case, though.]] |
| 709 | [[/folder]] |
| 710 | |
| 711 | [[folder:Captain Pollution]] |
| 712 | !Captain Pollution |
| 713 | [[quoteright:240:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/captain_pollution.png]] |
| 714 | ->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/DavidCoburn |
| 715 | |
| 716 | An evil counterpart to Captain Planet that is a result of the combination and magnification of the powers of rings of destruction created by Dr. Blight. He has the powers of super radiation, deforestation, smog, toxics, and hate and consuming and bathing in more pollution makes him bigger and stronger. He is defeated twice by Captain Planet; the latter may have been for good. |
| 717 | ---- |
| 718 | * BackFromTheDead: [[spoiler:After being destroyed in his first appearance, he is revived in the two-part episode "A Mine is a Terrible Thing to Waste". It doesn't last long.]] |
| 719 | * CardCarryingVillain: Justified: 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 because he's literally the personification of pollution and destruction. |
| 720 | * DubNameChange: Capitan Flagello ("Captain Scourge") in the Italian dub. |
| 721 | * EvilKnockoff: He was created from the Rings of Destruction Dr. Blight made as knockoffs of the Planeteers' rings, and thus is a knockoff of Captain Planet. This part is showcased in that while relatively equal in power and each other's ManOfKryptonite, Captain Pollution isn't truly immortal like Captain Planet and can be killed. |
| 722 | * EvilTwin: Was created from the opposites of Captain Planet's elements. As such, he and Planet are both pretty much each other's KryptoniteFactor, though Pollution is far more willing to use deadly force than Planet is. |
| 723 | * FauxAffablyEvil: He has all of Captain Planet's hammy charm, but none of his positive qualities. |
| 724 | * FlyingBrick: The only powers he shares with Captain Planet are that he's incredibly strong and he can fly. |
| 725 | * KilledOffForReal: [[spoiler:He is destroyed for good after his second defeat, which makes him the first and only Captain Planet villain to actually die in the series.]] |
| 726 | * LavaPit: [[spoiler:Meets his end when Captain Planet drops him into a lava pit. He's last seen sinking in and apparently dies.]] |
| 727 | * MutualDisadvantage: He and Captain Planet are both powered by the things that weaken the other. |
| 728 | * NighInvulnerable: Like Captain Planet, he's nearly impossible to actually harm by conventional means. However, the 'nigh' part is stressed here, as unlike Captain Planet, he's not entirely immortal and can actually be destroyed for good. It's just Captain Planet is likely the only being powerful enough to actually do so. |
| 729 | * OneWingedAngel: [[spoiler:After coming back to life in "A Mine is a Terrible Thing to Waste", he absorbs a great deal of pollution and gets much larger and more monstrous.]] |
| 730 | * OurSpiritsAreDifferent: He's an artificially-created spirit, designed to be an EvilCounterpart to the more benevolent Captain Planet. |
| 731 | * PlagueMaster: He can generate toxins and smog at will. Also nuclear radiation, but this is portrayed more as [[EnergyWeapon Frickin' Laser Beams]]. |
| 732 | * RedIsViolent: He wears just as much red as his counterpart, with the bonus of [[EvilRedhead red hair]] and [[RedEyesTakeWarning red eyes]]. Unlike his counterpart though he's evil and thrives on destruction. |
| 733 | * SurferDude: He inexplicably talks like a Californian surfer. |
| 734 | * UnderwearOfPower: Like his counterpart, he wears a pair of red trunks. |
| 735 | * WalkingWasteland: Anything he touches is instantly polluted. |
| 736 | * WeaksauceWeakness: Earth, fire, wind, and water are his weaknesses. Fortunately, his weaknesses are the same things that power up Captain Planet. |
| 737 | [[/folder]] |
| 738 | |
| 739 | [[folder:The Slaughters]] |
| 740 | !The Slaughters |
| 741 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/slaughters1.jpg]] |
| 742 | ->'''Voiced by:''' Theresa Saldana (Mame Slaughter), Creator/CharlieAdler (Stalker Slaughter) |
| 743 | |
| 744 | A family of poachers led by Mame Slaughter and her son and second-in-command, Stalker Slaughter, represents the dangers of poaching and hunting endangered animals. |
| 745 | ---- |
| 746 | * AdventurerOutfit: Stalker wears the classic 'safari' version, with a safari hat instead of a pith helmet. |
| 747 | * CruellaToAnimals: They're not ''especially'' cruel as far as hunters go, but they do hunt endangered species doggedly without much regard for their long-term survival. |
| 748 | * EgomaniacHunter: Unlike Plunder and Bleak, who hunt with a profit motive, the Slaughters do it just because they enjoy it. |
| 749 | * EvilPoacher: They go above and beyond the call of duty, apparently hunting endangered animals just because they're endangered. |
| 750 | * NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Slaughter is bad enough on its own, but Stalker Slaughter? No thanks. Even Mame sounds like "Maim". |
| 751 | * VillainousMotherSonDuo: They work as a mother-son pair to hunt and poach animals. |
| 752 | [[/folder]] |
| 753 | |
| 754 | [[folder:Henchmen]] |
| 755 | !Henchmen |
| 756 | ->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/JohnRatzenberger (Rigger), S. Scott Bullock (Argos Bleak), Dick Gautier (Oakey Pinehead), Creator/FrankWelker (Dokey Pinehead, Leadsuit, and Tank Flusher III), Cam Clarke (Ooze), David Rappaport (MAL, first four appearances), Creator/TimCurry (MAL, "Don't Drink the Water" and onward) |
| 757 | |
| 758 | The various henchmen for the Eco Villains that include Rigger, Greedly's YesMan (well "yep" man); Argos Bleak, a mercenary soldier, and leader of Plunder's private army; Oakey and Dokey Pinehead, Plunder's two unintelligent lumberjack employees; Ooze, Sludge's whiner sidekick; Tank Flusher III, Sludge's strongman garbage collector; Leadsuit, Nukem's cowardly errand boy; the Rat Pack, Skumm's part man, part rat thugs who eventually dwindle in size into just one rather competent nameless henchman; and MAL, Dr. Blight's evil highly-intelligent supercomputer. |
| 759 | ---- |
| 760 | * CardCarryingVillain: Argos Bleak makes it perfectly clear how ruthless he is. |
| 761 | * 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. |
| 762 | * ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Argos Bleak disappears in the show's final season; the Pinehead Brothers instead take his place as lackeys to Looten Plunder. |
| 763 | * 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. |
| 764 | * TheDragon: Looten Plunder's lackey Argos Bleak is the most physically intimidating henchman character in the show, and the only one that got his own episode as the villain. |
| 765 | * DeadpanSnarker: Rigger makes dry comments whenever he thinks he can get away with it. |
| 766 | * DumbMuscle: Rigger, Tank Flusher III and the Pinehead Brothers are the most prone to slapstick bumbling and angering their bosses through being idiots. |
| 767 | * HarmlessVillain: Leadsuit and Ooze are never a threat to the Planeteers, if they even encounter them at all, and seem to exist just so their bosses can have somebody to talk to. |
| 768 | * HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler:Rigger, Ooze and Tank Flusher III end up reforming.]] |
| 769 | * HypercompetentSidekick: |
| 770 | ** [=MAL=] is more competent as a villain than all of the Eco-Villains and their sidekicks put together. He's always the brains behind the operation when he's involved. His only flaw is that he's loyal to Dr. Blight and will follow her orders even against his better judgment. |
| 771 | ** Also, Argos Bleak is far more effective when he's operating on his own in "The Predator" than he is when working for Looten Plunder in the rest of the series. |
| 772 | * TheIgor: MAL and Leadsuit, who both work for scientist-type villains. Leadsuit himself became a reference to the original Igor in "The Energy Vampire", after an injury gave him a hunched back. |
| 773 | * LegacyOfService: Rigger works for Greedly because his grandfather, a real estate developer, made a deal with Greedly's grandfather, Godfather {{Expy}} Don Porkaloin, that his family would serve the Don's family for three generations in exchange for the Don's less-than-legal help in securing some permits to build on the beach. |
| 774 | * NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: |
| 775 | ** Dr. Blight's computer assistant is named [=MAL=] which is French for "Evil", as well as ShoutOut to [[Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey another evil computer]]. |
| 776 | ** Argos Bleak, "argos" being a near synonym for "bleak" in Greek. |
| 777 | * OhCrap: When Rigger sees Captain Planet after the latter has been summoned for the very first time: |
| 778 | -->'''Rigger:''' Holy smoke! What the heck is ''that''? ''Huh? Huh?!'' |
| 779 | * RhymeThemeNaming: Oakey and Dokey, the Pinehead brothers. |
| 780 | * RodentsOfUnusualSize: The Rat Pack are all humanoid rats the size of normal people. Given what we see about Skumm's "rat rot", they presumably ''were'' normal people at one point. |
| 781 | * SiliconSnarker: MAL being a computer doesn't hinder his ability to keep up a stream of dry remarks about his boss and his boss's partners in crime. |
| 782 | * SycophanticServant: Rigger, Ooze and Leadsuit tend to act obsequious to their bosses, though Rigger is shown to be as technologically proficient as his boss. |
| 783 | * {{Yes M|an}}en: Rigger, Ooze and Leadsuit are often quick to agree with their bosses. |
| 784 | [[/folder]] |
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