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1[[foldercontrol]]
2
3!!Main Characters
4[[folder:Arthur Dent]]
5[[quoteright:169:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/arthur1_6244.jpg]]
6[[caption-width-right:169: "I seem to be having tremendous difficulty with my lifestyle."]]
7->'''Played in the radio and TV series by''': Simon Jones\
8'''Played in the film by''': Creator/MartinFreeman
9The main lead of the series, a British man who is one day thrust into the galaxy against his will when his friend Ford Prefect saves him from the destruction of the planet Earth. All he really wants is to find a place where he can settle down and have a cup of tea.
10----
11* AchievementsInIgnorance: In ''Life, the Universe, and Everything,'' Arthur stumbles across the technique for unassisted flight (which turns out to be principally psychological).
12** In ''So Long and Thanks for All the Fish'' he buys a computer and attempts to plot out the location of the cave he lived in while on prehistoric earth. He has no idea how to actually do so, and so relies on a lot of guesswork and fuzzy logic. Not only does he somehow get it exactly right, but when he goes to visit the place he is accidentally reunited with Fenchurch.
13* ActionSurvivor: Has survived many crazy science fiction adventures.
14* AdaptationalWimp: By comparison, at least. The original radio version has Arthur be the one to convince Mr. Prosser to take his place and lie down in the mud for a bit. Every version since has Ford do it instead. He's a ''bit'' more assertive at other points as well.
15* AntiHero: In the befuddled sense.
16* BadassLongRobe: His PajamaCladHero getup does include a long dressing gown.
17* BritsLoveTea: Arthur has little goals in life beyond the acquisition of a good cuppa. Something of a problem when Earth and all sources of tea have been destroyed, and the only source of drinks on the ''Heart of Gold'' is the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation Nutri-matic which produces a vile liquid which is almost, but not quite, entirely ''un''like tea.
18* ButtMonkey: Nothing ever goes his way.
19* CharacterCatchphrase:
20-->'''Arthur''': So this is it. We're all going to die.
21** And some variation of: "Where's the tea?"
22** Zaphod claims that "What?" could be another one. When Arthur responds with an indignant "What?", he declares victory (and gets punished by Trillian in some physically painful way.)
23* TheComicallySerious
24--> "Now, I am the first to appreciate a joke," said Arthur and then had to wait for the others to stop laughing.
25* CosmicPlaything: Hinted at. The man who learned the whole truth of the universe suffers a serious case of the giggles on meeting him. In the book, whatever it was is enough to actually fatally injure the man before he can stop.
26* DeadpanSnarker: Clearest and strongest in the original radio drama, where his sarcasm actually makes him famous among the bird people of Brontitall. In other versions this side of him is usually downplayed quite a bit, but he still occasionally gets in a few sarcasms.
27-->'''Ford''': How would you react if I said I'm not from Guildford after all, but from a small planet somewhere in the vicinity of Betelgeuse?\
28'''Arthur''': I don't know. Why, do you think it's the sort of thing you're likely to say?
29* EarnYourHappyEnding: He was due the huge break life gave him in ''Literature/SoLongAndThanksForAllTheFish''. Too bad it didn't stick. (Though it does in the radio version.)
30* FantasticRacism: Ford, Trillian, and Marvin are the only ones who don't call him "Earthman" or "Monkeyman". [[CosmicPlaything Why they call Trillian by her name and not him is just another one of the universe's cruel tricks.]]
31* {{Flight}}: Learns how to fly by accident in the third book.
32* GivingRadioToTheRomans: Attempts to do this on Lamuella but realizes he doesn't know how anything works and ends up inventing the sandwich.
33* HeroicNeutral: Arthur shares this with most of the characters, which is one of the reasons Adams found the books so difficult to write: all Arthur really wants out of life is a nice cup of tea and maybe his planet back, so he has to be forced to have adventures. Arthur in the film is a bit more impetuous and hot-blooded than the diffident Arthur of the book/radio/TV.
34* HeterosexualLifePartners: With Ford. Even if they don't always act like the best of friends, Arthur is very happy to see Ford at the beginning of ''Literature/LifeTheUniverseAndEverything''.
35* HowDoIShootWeb: When he learns to fly in ''Literature/LifeTheUniverseAndEverything''.
36* IconicItem: His dressing gown and his towel.
37* LastOfHisKind: Apart from Trillian, anyway. Subverted when the Earth reappears in ''Literature/SoLongAndThanksForAllTheFish'' and later with Random, though this fact is important to her origin.
38* LimitedWardrobe: He's stuck in his pyjamas and dressing gown until ''Literature/SoLongAndThanksForAllTheFish''.
39* NoRespectGuy: He saves the ''Heart of Gold'' from missiles, but Zaphod brushes this off immediately when Arthur tells him [[ExactWords "it was nothing really."]] Justified in that Zaphod is from Betelgeuse, where they don't have sarcasm, and presumably lack other figures of speech too.
40-->'''Zaphod''': That was good thinking, Earthman. You just saved your lives!\
41'''Arthur''': Oh, well, it was nothing really.\
42'''Zaphod''': Oh, was it? Oh, well, forget it then.
43** Averted later on Lamuella when he becomes the Sandwich Maker: the blacksmith and baker both consult his wisdom in matters related to cutlery and baking, and everyone appreciates his mad aptitude in the field of sandwich-making.
44* OnlySaneMan
45* PajamaCladHero: Is clad in pajamas and a dressing gown (the British term for a bathrobe) when he and Ford first leave Earth. Despite his dressing gown being iconic, Douglas Adams himself didn't realize that Arthur would logically still be wearing it after leaving Earth until the TV series was made, meaning that Arthur's pajama-clad status was not mentioned in the radio series or the first two books.
46* ScreamsLikeALittleGirl: Not very often, but lets out unusually high shrieks at times in the radio series.
47* SolidGoldPoop: Funds his travels across the galaxy by selling samples of various body tissues/fluids, which are valuable because he's the last human male in the universe. Sperm samples bring in enough to let him fly first class.
48* SupremeChef: When he gets stranded on Lamuella in ''Mostly Harmless'', having nothing better to do with his time he becomes a supremely brilliant sandwich maker, revered by the local community.
49* UnfazedEveryman: The former TropeNamer.
50* UnknownRival: [[spoiler:Agrajag, a reincarnating being whom Arthur has unknowingly killed many, many times over. Agrajag is understandably annoyed.]]
51* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: When standing around in Slartibartfast's office, Arthur casually remarks he "seem to be having tremendous difficulty with [his] lifestyle". Through a freak of probability, a small wormhole momentarily passes through the room, carrying Arthur's words through time and space to where the heads of two armies are about to go to war over a grievous insult. As it turns out, "I seem to be having tremendous difficult with my lifestyle" is the ''most'' hideous insult in the Vl'hurg language, kick-starting a long and bloody war that eventually results in both armies putting aside their differences and launching a combined attack on the Earth...being eaten by a small dog. All without Arthur ever knowing.
52* TheWatson: He's new to the whole universe thing. Bonus points for being played by ''Creator/MartinFreeman'' who played the TropeNamer on ''Series/{{Sherlock}}''.
53[[/folder]]
54
55[[folder:Ford Prefect]]
56[[quoteright:143:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ford_3774.jpg]]
57[[caption-width-right:143: "Hey, you sass that hoopy Ford Prefect? There's a frood who really knows where his towel is."]]
58->'''Played in the radio by''': Geoffrey [=McGivern=]\
59'''Played in the TV series by''': David Dixon\
60'''Played in the film by''': Music/MosDef
61A hitchhiker by trade who is working to gain more info to add to the Guide. He is mostly concerned with finding a good place to get a drink and spend time with girls.
62----
63* TheAlcoholic: Among other things, he plays a psychic drinking game to lose, and [[SkewedPriorities decides in the third book he'd rather get drunk and dance with girls if the universe is ending than do anything to save it]].
64* ArtifactAlias: Ford Prefect is so named due to a research error in which he mistook the name 'Ford Prefect' as an equivalent to 'John Smith', without realizing that it was the name of a popular model of car, which his shoddy research had led him to believe was Earth's dominant species.[[note]]This is backed up in the Author's Note in The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the one-volume compilation of the Trilogy, published well before the movie deal was finally struck.[[/note]] However, he continues to be called this (as opposed to his birth name, which is unpronounceable, or his childhood nickname, Ix) by everyone long after Earth is destroyed. Even characters who hadn't seen him since before he was stranded on Earth and would have [[FridgeLogic no way of knowing this pseudonym]], like childhood friend and semi-cousin Zaphod Beeblebrox. The explanation is apparently that the Galactic civil service has access to time machines - who doesn't? - and finds it easier to change his name so that it has ''always'' been "Ford Prefect" than it would be for them to maintain two records for the same person.
65* BearerOfBadNews: When you tell everyone you meet that the world is going to end in a few minutes, you are indeed a bearer of bad news.
66* TheBlindLeadingTheBlind: Anytime Ford tries to attempt {{Technobabble}}, it becomes abundantly clear he knows as little about it as Arthur, or sometimes less. One moment in the radio series had him try to explain TimeTravel with [[FoldThePageFoldTheSpace a wine bottle and a napkin]].
67* CheshireCatGrin: Smiles "a little too broadly, giving people the unnerving impression he was about to go for their neck." David Dixon in the TV series took this and ran with it.
68* CreepyBlueEyes: In the TV series. The actor tried using purple contacts but they were just gilding the lily of his already creepily intense eyes. (In ''Literature/AndAnotherThing'' it's revealed that Ford finds it relaxing to not blink and can go for eight minutes without doing so -- he's timed it and wonders if it's a new record.)
69* DeadpanSnarker: Actual verbal irony is not a concept they have on his planet, but he still manages to be a smart-ass without it.
70* DiedLaughing: [[spoiler: As the Earth is destroyed in ''Literature/MostlyHarmless''.]]
71* DoctorWhomage: He's [[Series/DoctorWho The Doctor]], if The Doctor were incompetent. Or at least totally uninterested in interfering and righting wrongs; on those rare occasions when he manages to rise out of his indifference, he can pull off some pretty impressive schemes.
72* TheDragAlong: In ''Life, The Universe, and Everything'', Ford isn't too keen on the whole "saving-the-universe" thing, but is dragged along by Slartibartfast anyway.
73* FashionDissonance: Ford wears tacky abstractions of Seventies fashion.
74* {{Herald}}: Sends Arthur on an adventure, but far from a traditional example and in no way a mentor to the protagonist.
75* HeterosexualLifePartners: With Arthur. Of all the humans to save from Earth's untimely destruction, Ford chooses his best mate in the hopes that they can bum around the galaxy together and have a laugh.
76* HumanAliens: Despite presumably being the same species as Zaphod (they're semi-cousins) Ford doesn't have any extra appendages and looks perfectly human, give or take a disturbing smile.
77** It should be noted that Zaphod's third arm is not a natural feature, but something he acquired (either to help with his "ski-boxing", or so he could fondle all three of famed prostitute Eccentrica Gallumbits' breasts at the same time).
78* IconicItem: His leather satchel, in which he carries the essential tools of his trade (including a good-sized bath towel).
79* ItsAllAboutMe: Not as bad as Zaphod, but he was more concerned with his sacrifice of a pair of shoes than Arthur's daughter going missing.
80-->'''Arthur''': [[LampshadeHanging I think we have different value systems.]]\
81'''Ford''': Mine's better.
82* LastOfHisKind: To some minor degree, according to a {{footnote|Fever}}, but he doesn't seem to let it get him down.
83* HumanAlien: The [=TV=] show and the movie portray him as one.
84* MrExposition: He tries to be this to Arthur, [[TheBlindLeadingTheBlind but barely knows as much as Arthur.]]
85* NoNameGiven: "Ford Prefect" is an alias used on Earth due to Ford believing that cars were the dominant life form on the planet. A footnote reveals that Ford's father was the last remaining survivor of the Great Collapsing Hrung Disaster on Betelgeuse VII, and named Ford in the language of Betelgeuse VII, but Ford could never learn it, causing his father to die of shame, and his original name was thus lost. His schoolmates on Betelgeuse V nicknamed him 'Ix', which in ''their'' language means [[TranslationYes "boy who is unable to satisfactorily explain what a Hrung is, or why it should collapse on Betelgeuse Seven."]]
86* RaceLift: Appears to be, or is described as, white in all versions but the film, where he is black.
87* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: According to the books, he is approximately two-hundred years old.
88* RummageSaleReject: In the TV series, he wears a carefully clashing outfit involving a striped cricket blazer and an Argyle sweater.
89* SarcasmBlind: They don't have sarcasm on Betelgeuse. He eventually learns it in ''Literature/AndAnotherThing'', to Arthur's pride.
90* TheUnblinking: At least in the novels, it's noted that he doesn't blink very much, and if a human has a conversation with him, after a while their own eyes start watering in sympathy.
91[[/folder]]
92
93[[folder:Zaphod Beeblebrox]]
94[[quoteright:254:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/zaphod_127.jpg]]
95[[caption-width-right:254: "If there's anything more important than my ego around, I want it caught and shot now."]]
96->'''Played in the radio and TV series by''': Mark Wing-Davey\
97'''Played in the film by''': Creator/SamRockwell
98The former Galactic President who stole the ship The Heart of Gold, and Ford's cousin. Extremely self-absorbed, and everything he does seems to work out in the end. He is also unwittingly wrapped up in a conspiracy, much to his chagrin.
99----
100* AdaptationDyeJob: Blonde in the books, dark hair in the TV series.
101* AmnesiacDissonance: He blocked off a section in each of his brains so he could become President, resulting in a new persona who finds he's not really on-board with the plans those sections devised.
102** We get to see his past self briefly in ''Literature/YoungZaphodPlaysItSafe''. He's got more moral scruples than the Zaphod we know.
103* BizarreAlienBiology: Two heads and three arms. Depending on the version of the story, they're either natural for his species, or Zaphod added them himself for a multitude of reasons.
104* CorruptCorporateExecutive: The TV series has a blink-and-you'll-miss-it mention of a Beeblebrox Enterprises, which among other things sells firelighters made out of discarded Vogon paperwork.
105* CorruptPolitician: He is mentioned as being one of the most successful Presidents the Galaxy has ever had, having already spent two years of his ten-year term in prison for fraud.
106* TheFool: Mostly because many of his apparently random impulses are actually related to memories he isolated within his mind years ago. He'd rather not think about it too hard.
107* GeniusDitz: He's a hedonistic, self-absorbed thrill seeker but he has moments of brilliance. His past self was much smarter, given the master plan he cooked up to meet and confront the ruler of the universe.
108* TheHedonist: Just like Ford.
109* HeelRealization: When he’s hit with the POV gun, he suddenly learns how Ford and Tricia really think and feel about him, especially the latter when she finds out [[spoiler:he signed the order to destroy Earth (without bothering to check what it actually was).]] He starts treating his comrades better after that scene.
110* HumanAliens: There's some implication that he originally looked human, his third arm is outright said to have been added but there's some inconsistentcy on whether he always had two heads or not:
111** When Arthur first boards the Heart Of Gold, he says that when he met Zaphod on Earth he had only two arms and one head.
112** we see an AlternateUniverse in ''Literature/MostlyHarmless'' where he first met Trillion at a costume party. He was dressed as a pirate with his second head hidden in a covered parrot cage. It's implied this universe is otherwise the same as the main one with the divergence point being in the original he waited for Trillion to pack her things while in the alternate he left Earth without her.
113** The movie implies the two heads are a recent thing and he justifies Ford's surprise by saying a president can't have a full brain. He implies his brain was split into two. Here his second "head" is actually a face in his throat so he can cover it with a scarf and pass for human.
114* InferioritySuperiorityComplex: He claims to be insecure, but he may just be doing it for the attention.
115* InformedAttribute: Voted the Worst-Dressed Sentient Being in the Universe seven years running, but quite a few characters compliment his outfit.
116* {{Jerkass}}: Is just generally rude and nasty to Arthur for no real reason. He is also a complete scoundrel, will screw almost anything over for personal gain, and is far from a role model. Practically the reason why he is the president of the galaxy in the first place, actually.
117* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: In more than one way. He is a jerk, but is a nice guy at heart. Also, his ship is called The Heart of Gold.
118* LargeHam: Especially the Sam Rockwell Zaphod.
119* TheLoad: In [[Film/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy2005 the movie]], he spends the latter half somewhere between this, TheMillstone, and vaguely useful, because he's missing one of his heads. Ford actually has to drag him around in one or two scenes. Also, when they're getting shot at, he apparently thinks it's a dance party. Fortunately, Vogon soldiers make even the ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy look good by comparison.
120* MultipleHeadCase: Subverted in most adaptations (where there's no distinction between the two heads), pretty much played straight in the movie, and zigzagged in the sixth novel, where the second head has a distinct personality after being removed and attached to the Heart of Gold.
121** In the film, Zaphod's second head often sports a SlasherSmile while making serious threats, like promising to pull Arthur's spleen out through his throat.
122* MyOwnGrampa: Apparently there was "[[NoodleImplements an accident with a contraceptive and a time machine]];" the details are not explained, but his ''father'' is Zaphod Beeblebrox the 2nd, his grandfather is the 3rd, and so on (it is strongly hinted) back literally billions of years into the past.
123* {{Narcissist}}:
124-->''"If there's anything more important than my ego around, I want it caught and shot now."''
125* ObfuscatingStupidity: Also quite capable of ''actual'' stupidity. Telling the difference is tricky.
126** And sometimes it's a case of BrilliantButLazy: he's quite capable of figuring it out for himself but wants someone else to spare him the bother.
127* PuppetKing: The purpose of being President of the Galaxy is not to actually be in power, but to distract everyone from where the power actually lies. Zaphod, we are told, was one of the most fantastically successful presidents the galaxy had.
128* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: According to the books, he's two-hundred years old.
129* RidiculouslyLonglivedFamilyName: A throwaway gag reveals that there was "an accident with a contraceptive and a time machine" which means that Zaphod Beeblebrox's father was Zaphod Beeblebrox II, his grandfather was Zaphod Beeblebrox III and so on. In ''Literature/LifeTheUniverseAndEverything'', in a historical flashback scene set billions of years ago, we meet a Zaphod-like character called Zipo Bibrok 5 x 10^8.
130* SmallNameBigEgo: Downplayed in that he's a Big Name, Big Ego.
131* ThatManIsDead: In the back story he lobotomised himself to keep his plans secret even from himself. However, turns out that the 'new him' hates the old one and actively works against those plans.
132[[/folder]]
133
134[[folder:Tricia [=McMillan=]/Trillian Astra]]
135[[quoteright:259:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/trillian_9227.jpg]]
136[[caption-width-right:259: "It was either this or the dole queue again on Monday."]]
137->'''Played in the radio by''': Susan Sheridan\
138'''Played in the TV series by''': Creator/SandraDickinson\
139'''Played in the film by''': Creator/ZooeyDeschanel
140A woman who is picked up by Zaphod at a party, six months before the destruction of Earth. At first she is content to go along with Zaphod and whatever he is doing, but eventually gets a career as a reporter.
141----
142* AccidentalMisnaming: ''BBC.co.uk'' thinks her surname is "[=McMill=]'''i'''an" instead of "[=McMillan=]".
143* AdaptationDyeJob: She has dark hair in the books, blonde in the TV series.
144** The radio adaptation of ''Mostly Harmless'' [[RecursiveAdaptation plays with this]] by introducing a parallel universe version of her that is both blonde and American (see Adaptational Nationality below).
145* AdaptationalNationality: She's American in the TV series and the film.
146* AdvertisedExtra: In the radio version.
147* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Dumps the boring nice guy Arthur Dent for bad boy Zaphod. (How much of a relationship she and Arthur actually had varies with the different versions.)
148* AlternateSelf: In ''Mostly Harmless'', there's Tricia and Trillian. The former is a Trillian who, when asked by Zaphod to come with her, went back for her bag and by the time she had Zaphod had already left. She is extremely confused at the end of the book when she meets Trillian. The radio version is also, for no reason the narrative feels to explain, blonde and American-raised (on account of being played by Sandra Dickinson instead of Trillian's Susan Sheridan).
149* AmbiguouslyBrown: In the books, where she's "darkish", with black hair and brown eyes and a "vaguely Arabic" appearance when she wears a headscarf, although her actual ethnicity is never mentioned.
150* BadassDriver: Having grown up on Earth and having spent what can only have been a couple of weeks aboard the ''Heart of Gold'', Trillian becomes such a good pilot that she successfully evades two guided missiles for several minutes. After one especially spectacular manoeuvre.
151-->'''Ford''': Where the hell did you learn that, Trillian?\
152'''Trillian''': Going around Hyde Park Corner on a moped.
153* BrainyBrunette: Originally an astrophysicist and mathematician.
154** Directly in contrast to the DumbBlonde from the TV-series and her ''Tricia [=McMillan=]'' reporter-self from ''Literature/MostlyHarmless''.
155* InformedAbility: Trillian is described by Arthur as "devastatingly intelligent" and has a degree in maths and another in astrophysics, but she doesn't get to show it very often. In ''Life, The Universe and Everything'' she argues skilfully with the Krikkit War Council, but most of the time Trillian is just slightly more intelligent than everyone else. She does get to put her academic training to use in ''Mostly Harmless'', working up astrological charts for the Grebulons who are stationed out beyond Pluto.
156* [[LastOfHisKind Last Of Her Kind]]: After the Earth is blown up, she's the last female Earth person. Again, subverted later.
157* LikeADuckTakesToWater: Unlike Arthur, she has very little trouble dealing with life in outer space.
158* MarriedToTheJob: As a reporter in ''Literature/MostlyHarmless''.
159* MyBiologicalClockIsTicking: At the time she had Random.
160* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Has one of these in ''Literature/AndAnotherThing'' when she realizes just how badly her negelectful parenting affected Random.
161* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: "Trillian" is just a "spacy" nickname based on her real name, Tricia [=McMillan=]. It's never established how she acquired it.
162* OutofFocus: She really doesn't have a lot to do after the first book, at least until she becomes a mother in ''Literature/MostlyHarmless''.
163* ParentalNeglect: Her MarriedToTheJob lifestyle means she is a pretty neglectful mother towards Random.
164** She becomes less neglectful in ''Literature/AndAnotherThing''.
165* PromotedToLoveInterest: In the film, she's Arthur's love interest. In every other version, Arthur tried unsuccessfully to flirt with her at a party before the events of the story and that was that.
166* PutOnABus: In the second series of the radio version, she gets a rather brutal one-line send off. In later series, she's brought back.
167* RaceLift: Described as "vaguely Arabic" in the first book but is played by white actresses in both the TV series and the film. In the comic book, she has the same pale skin as Arthur and brown hair instead of the black she has in the books.
168* StraightMan: To Zaphod.
169* TheSmurfettePrinciple: The only female character of note until Fenchurch and Random came along in the fourth and fifth books, respectively.
170* WomenAreWiser: She gives the impression of having her act together even when she doesn't. She's easily the most sensible and mature person aboard the ''Heart of Gold.'' (And there's an OverlyNarrowSuperlative if there ever was one.)
171[[/folder]]
172
173[[folder:Marvin "the Paranoid Android"]]
174[[quoteright:217:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/marvin123_3914.jpg]]
175[[caption-width-right:217: "Life. Don't talk to me about life."]]
176->'''Played in the radio by''': Stephen Moore\
177'''Played in the TV series by''': Stephen Moore (voiced), David Learner (portrayed)\
178'''Played in the film by''': Creator/AlanRickman (voiced), Creator/WarwickDavis (portrayed)
179A robot with a "brain the size of a planet" and the prototype for the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation's personality chips, who came along with The Heart of Gold. Unfortunately, the combination of his massive computational power with nothing to do and his flawed chip leaves him extremely bored and depressed.
180----
181* AddedAlliterativeAppeal: Well, added rhyme appeal-- "Marvin the Chronically Depressed Android" just doesn't have the same ring to it.
182* BerserkButton: By the time it's pressed, he's too ancient (and, of course, depressed) to explode about it, but Arthur's usage of the word "time" in ''So Long, and Thanks For All The Fish'' clearly touches some very frayed nerves.
183* CharacterCatchphrase: "I think you ought to know I'm feeling very depressed", "Life? Don't talk to me about life." some of the first two lines he says when introduced in every continuity of [=H2G2=]. There's also his "Here I am, brain the size of a planet..." speeches.
184* TheChewToy: He gets treated like crap (or makes himself believe he is, at times) by almost everything in the entire universe. The fact that (due to time travel) he is several times older than the universe itself in the later books doesn't help much, either.
185* TheConstant: And he's ''not'' happy about it.
186* CoolAndUnusualPunishment: In the second radio series, his autobiography is used to torture an evil lawyer. As we hear him narrating, there's the occasional noise of the poor bastard groaning and screaming in pain.
187* CuteMachines: More than anything, you can't help but want to hug him.
188* TheCynic: If his reaction to something going on isn't [[StrawNihilist ennui from the sheer futility of it all]], it's usually barely-disguised contempt for the person, place, thing, idea or situation he is forced to endure in that very moment.
189* DeadpanSnarker: You'd be snarky too if you hated everyone and everything. Unlike most examples of the trope however, Marvin gets no pleasure from his sarcasm. Crosses over into ServileSnarker.
190* TheDragAlong: He has to be dragged along by the other characters: he'd much rather lie somewhere, moping. Unless he thinks he's starting to enjoy ''that''.
191* TheEeyore: Alive and not happy about it.
192* EyeLightsOut: [[spoiler:His death at the end of ''Literature/SoLongAndThanksForAllTheFish'', after he sees God's final message to His creation.]]
193* {{Flanderization}}: In the original radio series, Marvin is mostly grumpy, charmless, gloomy and caustic. By his later appearances he's become a virtually catatonic black hole of depression who can barely stir himself to move.
194* FlawedPrototype: Marvin was the unsuccessful prototype for the personality chip. Everything else that has it is irrepressibly cheerful all the time-- including Eddie, a ship AI who will cheerfully tell you you're about to be vaporized by nuclear missiles, and even the ''individual doors'' which all thank you for passing through them. Marvin hates them all.
195* GoOutWithASmile: [[spoiler:As his last words- "I think I feel good about it"- imply, reading God's last message to His creation seems to instill in Marvin the closest feeling to happiness he ever experienced before he finally expires.]]
196* ImageSong: He had four such songs sung by Stephen Moore, his actor from the original radio and TV series.
197** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5I83bVvD8Fw Marvin.]]
198** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YX-IPyjFmuQ Reasons To Be Miserable.]]
199** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owr2sbcUHwA Metal Man.]]
200** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ImiqaXBMkM Marvin I Love You.]]
201* IncrediblyLameFun: In "Life, the Universe and Everything", he's spent several million years in a swamp, walking in a circle. It's the closest he'll get to enjoying himself.
202* InformedAttribute: Marvin is described (including by himself) as "manically depressed" but we never see him being manic, only depressed.
203* InsufferableGenius: He's ten thousand times smarter than everyone else, and regularly insults and shoots down other people's suggestions.
204* IntelligenceEqualsIsolation: Marvin often ends up alone by himself- not just to sulk, but because most everyone he interacts with gets bummed out by his depressing worldview and either leaves him alone or, in two cases, kills themselves.
205* KilledOffForReal:
206** In the TV version, he dies when the Disaster Area ship does its sun dive.
207** In the books, he dies shortly after reading God's final message to His creation.
208* LongLived: By the end of ''So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish'', [[spoiler:he reveals that, thanks to time-travel, he is no less than 37 times older than the universe itself]].
209* MundaneUtility: Marvin has a brain the size of a planet, and yet he's only assigned simple household tasks.
210* PersonalityChip: As stated above: A flawed prototype.
211* PetTheDog: He's unfailingly critical of all life forms, as well as all robots (including himself, except in the area of intelligence). But he does have a kind word for Trillian's deductive ability in ''Life, the Universe and Everything''.
212--> '''Marvin''': That girl is one of the least benightedly unintelligent life forms it has ever been my severe displeasure not to be able to avoid meeting.
213* RedOniBlueOni: He is the blue oni to Eddie’s red.
214* RiddleForTheAges: In the radio version, he survives being eaten by a Haggunenon and makes his way to Ursa Minor Beta by means that are never satisfactorily explained, not even to him.
215* RidiculouslyHumanRobot: Subverted. While ''humanoid'', his emotion chip is supposed to emulate real emotions. Unfortunately, it does that ''[[GoneHorriblyRight too]]'' well, and only with depression.
216* RobotBuddy: Under certain [[WithFriendsLikeThese definitions]] of the word "buddy". The marketing division of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation was probably referring to a different robot when it advertised "Your Plastic Pal Who's Fun To Be With!"
217* SecondLawMyAss: Marvin is a low-grade version of this trope: he'll obey, but he won't like it, and he'll never let you forget it.
218* SlidingScaleOfRobotIntelligence: Easily of DeusEstMachina levels intelligence, but it's ''never'' put to full use.
219** At one point he is put in charge of all the computing for a robotic army and fleet that can take on the whole galaxy at once, and is still so under-challenged that he composes little poems to keep himself occupied.
220* SparedByTheAdaptation: Sort of. In the radio, he's revived after his death in the Quandrary Phase, much to his irritation.
221* SuperPoweredRobotMeterMaids: Brain the size of a planet, and yet they only ask him to do [insert menial task here]? How very depressing.
222* ThrowTheDogABone: After a literal eternity of being depressed and neglected, he seems moderately satisfied (in as much as he's ever satisfied) with a promotion at the car park at the end of the Quintessential Phase. Unless he's being sarcastic.
223* TimeAbyss: Oh so very, very much. In one instance he stays in one spot from approximately 1980 until ''the end of the universe''[[note]]Five hundred and seventy-six thousand million, three thousand five hundred and seventy-nine years[[/note]]. By the end of the series he is, by virtue of TimeTravel, ''thirty-seven'' times older than the universe itself! He is then brought back to life again because numerous characters that lived when he was created were still alive, and [[InsaneTrollLogic that went against the Lifetime Insurance Policy]] of Sirius Cybernetics Corporation.
224--> ''"The first ten million years were the worst. And the second ten million, they were the worst, too. The third ten million I didn't enjoy at all. After that, I went into a bit of a decline."''
225* TinCanRobot: His look in the live-action series, which infamously had no budget. However, given Sirius Cybertnetics Corporation are a bunch of complete idiots, it helps visually indicate how shoddy they are.
226* TinmanTypist: Marvin sometimes uses vocal commands. In the TV version he opens the black spaceship's airlock by saying "Abracadiodularservosystems". It would be hard to judge whether he would find a plug in or voice control easier. He'd certainly be depressed by either option. In the novels, on the one occasion he directly interfaced with another AI it was DrivenToSuicide, so it's probably justified.
227* YouNeverAsked: On the stolen spaceship, he reveals he could've read the Answer imprinted in Arthur's brain the whole time, but no-one asked. Of course, he never gave any indication he could've in the first place.
228[[/folder]]
229
230[[folder:Fenchurch]]
231->'''Played in the radio by''': Jane Horrocks\
232'''Played in the TV series by''': uncredited
233The woman from the beginning of the first and fourth books, who had a startling revelation about the nature of life but was interrupted by the Earth exploding and is thus in search of what this revelation was that she lost. Eventually becomes Arthur's LoveInterest.
234----
235* BrickJoke: She is the subject of one, when the [[Literature/SoLongAndThanksForAllTheFish fourth book]] opens with a narration identical to that of the first book, then reveals that Fenchurch was the woman mentioned therein.
236* ChekhovsGunman: She is revealed to have been the woman at the start of the first book who had the startling revelation.
237* DistaffCounterpart: She's slightly awkward, very ordinary, extremely British and carries a great secret of the universe around in her head but she can't remember exactly what it is. Arthur without the Y chromosome, really.
238* DroppedABridgeOnHer: She's removed from the narrative very quickly in ''Literature/MostlyHarmless''. [[CreatorBreakdown Douglas Adams was having a miserable year.]] [[spoiler: She returns in ''And Another Thing'' but only very briefly as [[YankTheDogsChain poor Arthur is whisked away from her again.]]]]
239* MeaningfulName: Named for the Fenchurch Street railway station, where she was conceived in the ticket queue.
240--> '''Fenchurch''': You would be astounded how bored people can become in that queue.
241* LookMaNoPlane: While entering the MileHighClub.
242* LoveInterest: To Arthur.
243* OnlyOneName: Her surname is never given.
244* ReplacementGoldfish: In the sixth book, Arthur tries to replace her with a ship's hologram that takes on her appearance, with mixed results.
245* RetGone: At the start of ''Mostly Harmless'', she suddenly never existed.
246* SparedByTheAdaptation: In the radio, she survives being erased from existence, via means never explained, and winds up waiting for Arthur at the end of the universe.
247* {{Unfazed Every|man}}woman: She matches Arthur nicely here.
248* UnusualPopCultureName: PlayedWith. Fenchurch is an important London street; upon meeting her, Arthur immediately makes the connection to ''Theatre/TheImportanceOfBeingEarnest''[[note]]where the protagonist, Jack Worthing, was found in a handbag at Worthing Station as a baby[[/note]] and asks if she was found in a handbag at Fenchurch Street Station (ie. if her name is a reference to the show). No, she was conceived there.
249[[/folder]]
250
251[[folder:Random Frequent Flyer Dent]]
252->'''Played in the radio by''': Samantha Béart
253Trillian and Arthur's daughter, after Trillian got a sperm donation from the only other human in the galaxy (which he gave so he could have a first-class seat on a flight). Because all she has ever known is flying from one world to the next, has no world to call her own, and neither parent really being equipped to be a parent, she struggles with trying to find a place she belongs.
254----
255* ApocalypseMaiden: Random's actions lead directly to the annihilation of the Earth. (The second one.)
256* BrattyTeenageDaughter: Extremely rude towards her father.
257* DeadpanSnarker: In one line towards the Guide Mark II;
258--> ''"'Oh, great. A laser show,' said Random fractiously. 'Never seen one of ''those'' before, except at about five million rock concerts.'"''
259* {{Foreshadowing}}: Unintentionally; there's a throwaway line Arthur makes near the beginning of the story about [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor wishing he had a daughter so he could forbid her to marry a Vogon.]] The stage adaptation treats this as a BrickJoke.
260* FreudianExcuse: Trillian had her because she wanted a kid, then decided to focus on her career, which meant Random frequently got dropped off at places, sometimes for years at a time. It's the reason for her personality.
261* IronicName: Trillian named her "Random" because she was born using a sperm donor and, therefore, her parentage was random. At the time, there was only one male human alive who could possibly have been the donor, and Trillian knew this perfectly well.
262* LittleMissBadass: Well, she does like to throw rocks at people who annoy her. And keeps a specially sharpened one in her pocket for the right occasion, which she can "cause a lot of trouble with".
263* MoodSwinger: Goes from bad mood to bad mood at the drop of a hat.
264* PerpetualFrowner: Never smiles. Ever.
265* UnwittingPawn: [[spoiler:Being manipulated by the Guide Mk II.]]
266* VagueAge: "Teenager". Anything beyond that, thanks to time-travel and alternate universes, is a toss-up.
267[[/folder]]
268
269!!Important/Recurring Characters
270[[folder:The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy ("The Book")]]
271->'''Played in the radio by''': Creator/PeterJones (first and second series), William Franklyn (third, fourth, and fifth) John Lloyd (sixth)\
272'''Played in the TV series by''': Creator/PeterJones\
273'''Played in the film by''': Creator/StephenFry
274The titular guide to the galaxy. It is full of information that is apocryphal at best and BlatantLies at worst, but nonetheless is a best seller throughout the galaxy and provides valuable insights to Ford, Arthur, and the audience.
275----
276* CozyVoiceForCatastrophes: Particularly Creator/PeterJones. In one particularly stressful scene in the television series, he assures the main characters' safety in advance while pleasant images appear on the screen.
277* EncyclopediaExposita: Is constantly quoted throughout the story on every subject in the galaxy the audience needs (or doesn't need, for that matter) to be told about- PlayedForLaughs, of course.
278* EveryoneHasLotsOfSex: As far as The Guide's editors are concerned. The guide justifies it on the grounds that there's nothing else to do.
279* ExecutiveMeddling: In-universe. "Mostly Harmless" gives this as being (one of) the reasons for the Guide's general uselessness and inaccuracy. Any work sent in to the Guide is ground through the mill of secretaries and lawyers until anything resembling useful information has been comprehensively stripped, while the actual editors are busy at lunch.
280* FootnoteFever:
281** The glossary, since it's ripped off a cereal box (which sued the Guide for plagiarism, only to be defeated when the Guide's publisher used time travel to make it looked like the cereal company copied ''them'').
282** According to a scene in the TV series, the glossary itself is actually larger than the rest of the guide put together.
283* InsaneTrollLogic: Used to prove that the universe is actually not populated at all. To whit - the universe is infinite. While there could be an infinite number of worlds, they can't all be inhabited. Any finite number divided by infinity is next to zero as makes no odds, so all those people out there are actually the result of a deranged imagination.
284* ItSeemedLikeAGoodIdeaAtTheTime: According to the second radio series a lot of the Guide's entries seem to have no reason for their inclusion other than someone thinking it was a good idea at the time.
285* KnowNothingKnowItAll: The Guide proclaims to be definitively accurate, even though it has many glaring omissions, and contains much that is apocryphal. The Guides' creators eventually stated that the Guide ''was'' accurate, and it was reality that was getting it all wrong. In instances where it cannot deny being inaccurate, it at least justifies that it is ''definitively'' in-accurate.
286* MadeOfIndestructium: The copies used by both Ford and Arthur undergo some serious abuse over the course of the series, including being thrown in a river and buried in mud, and keep right on working.
287* MotiveDecay: The earliest version of the Guide was founded on the principals of knowledge and enlightenment. Then, after falling into bankruptcy, the Guide's founder took an extremely long lunch break, looked at those principals, and decided where they could be stuffed.
288* PhraseCatcher: "Oh, that thing."
289* TheRival: With fellow publication the Encyclopedia Galactica. The Guide generally outsells it despite its many, many, ''many'' flaws on the grounds it's ''slightly'' cheaper, and of course it has the words "Don't Panic" on the cover.
290* StrangeMindsThinkAlike: On the subject of the marketing division of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation, the Guide states that they're "a bunch of mindless jerks who'll be the first against the wall when The Revolution comes". A copy of the Encyclopedia Galactica which had fallen through a time warp from a thousand years in space said much the same, only it states they ''were'' the first against the wall when The Revolution came.
291[[/folder]]
292
293[[folder:The Vogons]]
294[[quoteright:220:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/vogon_7866.png]]
295[[caption-width-right:220: "Bloody apathetic planet, I've no sympathy."]]
296The bitter, bureaucratic aliens that evolution simply gave up on. They were tasked with blowing up the Earth to make way for a new hyperspace bypass, and to get rid of anything else that gets in the way of that.
297----
298* AlwaysChaoticEvil: Subverted. According to the Guide itself, they are "''not actually evil, but bad-tempered, bureaucratic, officious and callous.''" The book states that they wouldn't even lift a finger to save their own grandmother from the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal without loads of paperwork first. It's mentioned they have tried to improve themselves, and acquire style and social grace, but the modern Vogon is little removed from his primitive forebears.
299* BadBoss: A Vogon captain killing most of his crew in a violent rage is pretty normal for them.
300* BlueAndOrangeMorality: They genuinely don't understand why humans are horrified by them destroying the Earth, especially when their plans had been clearly laid out in a series of charts set on Alpha Centauri fifty years earlier.
301* CardCarryingVillain: They're well aware of their reputation for unpleasantness and revel in it.
302-->'''Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz''': No, well you're completely wrong. I just write poetry to throw my mean callous heartless exterior into sharp relief. I'm going to throw you off the ship anyway.
303* {{Determinator}}: By all indications, the Vogons were never supposed to survive, or become sentient (where their brain should be is actually a malformed, misplaced liver). And yet, they're still around, being too damn stupid to kill. In ''Mostly Harmless'', Ford manages to weaponise their mindless determination against them.
304* EvolutionaryLevels: They're a species evolution didn't so much forget, but rather completely gave up on the minute it saw them.
305* GreenAndMean: Vogons aren't exactly known for their kindness.
306* LawfulStupid: Vogons as a whole aren't particularly bright, capable of imagination or even spelling sometimes. They just run things and do what they're told.
307* ObstructiveBureaucrat: That's right, [[PlanetOfHats the entire race]]. So much so that Vogons won't lift a finger to save their own grandmothers from a painful death without an overly elaborate amount of paperwork being signed first. In triplicate.
308* PlanetOfHats: They're all unpleasant bureaucrats. Every last one of them.
309** Except for the ones who just want to shout their way through life.
310* RubberForeheadAliens: In the TV series. In the film, thanks to a much bigger budget, they look much more impressive and alien.
311* SuckinessIsPainful: Vogon poetry is often used as a torture device. Only one or two creatures in the universe ever made worse poetry (including a human). Vogons are under no illusions about the quality of their poetry, and use technological means to make the experience ''worse'' for any poor bastard unfortunate enough to be subject to it.
312* WhatIsThisFeeling: According to the radio version, Vogons don't know what happiness is. When Jeltz does experience joy, and is told this is what it is, he kills the Vogon who told him so because he assumes the guy ''must'' be lying.
313[[/folder]]
314
315[[folder:Slartibartfast]]
316[[quoteright:259:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/slarti_8755.jpg]]
317[[caption-width-right:259: "Hang the sense of it all and keep yourself busy."]]
318->'''Played in the radio by''': Richard Vernon (first and second series), Creator/RichardGriffiths (fourth, fifth, and sixth)\
319'''Played in the TV series by''': Richard Vernon\
320'''Played in the film by''': Creator/BillNighy
321A fjord-loving old Magrithean who helped build Earth the first time around (he won an award for Norway). He later goes off on his own to stop time anomalies on behalf of the Campaign for Real Time.
322----
323* AmazingTechnicolorPopulation: Has purple skin in the DC comic.
324* BeleagueredBureaucrat: Comes off as one in the 2005 film as played by Bill Nighy.
325* DoctorWhomage: Of the Series/{{Doctor|Who}} in ''Literature/LifeTheUniverseAndEverything'' due to the book being an adaptation of a rejected Doctor Who serial by Douglas Adams, ''Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen''. Both the Doctor and Slartibartfast are very old HumanAliens who travel through space and time righting wrongs in a weird looking spaceship (a police box for the former, an Italian bistro for the latter). Ford and Arthur even act as [[TheWatson companion]] stand-ins.
326* HumanAliens: Looks human in the TV show and the movie.
327* HumanoidAliens: The comic gives him purple skin and makes him a lot taller than a human.
328* MrExposition: In both the first and third books, he gives out plot relevant information on galactic history and technology.
329* NoNameGiven: Subverted. It's not important.
330* WizardClassic: In the TV series, he looks a lot like Gandalf. While not an actual wizard, he looks and acts the part.
331[[/folder]]
332
333[[folder:Deep Thought]]
334->'''Played in the radio by''': Geoffrey [=McGivern=]\
335'''Played in the TV series by''': Creator/ValentineDyall\
336'''Played in the film by''': Creator/HelenMirren
337The ancient computer tasked with finding the ultimate answer to life, the universe, and everything.
338----
339* {{Anticlimax}}: In-universe. It took Deep Thought seven and a half million ''years'' to work out The Answer. It came out with "42". Its creators were not exactly impressed.
340* BadassBoast: When Lunkwill and Fook are trying to guess what the most powerful computer in the universe is, if it's not Deep Thought, they ask Deep Thought if "[[OverlyLongName The Great Hyperlobic Omni-Cognate Neutron Wrangler]]" could be the computer it's thinking of. Its response:
341--> '''Deep Thought:''' (with TrillingRs) The Great Hyperlobic Omni-Cognate Neutron Wrangler could talk all four legs off of an Arcturan Megadonkey. But only I could convince it to go for a walk afterwards.
342* DeadpanSnarker: In the radio series, when Vroomfondel and Majikthise threaten, on behalf of philosophers, sages, luminaries and other thinking peoples, to go on strike if Deep Thought threatens to give The Answer, it cuts in by asking who, exactly, this was meant to inconvenience.
343* GenderFlip: Voiced by men in the TV and radio versions, while given a female voice in the film.
344* GiverOfLameNames: [[spoiler:Nobody was impressed when it dubbed its creation "the Earth".]]
345* ImpossibleGenius: Before its data banks had even been connected, it had already deduced the existence of income taxes and rice pudding based solely on the phrase "I think therefore I am".
346* InsistentTerminology: Immediately after being turned on, Deep Thought declares itself the ''second'' greatest computer of all time, because there is another, far greater computer which it knows it will one day create.
347-->'''Deep Thought''': I HAVE NAMED MYSELF THE SECOND GREATEST COMPUTER, AND SUCH I AM.
348* LargeHam: The radio, and TV versions especially, what with having Creator/ValentineDyall's booming voice.
349* LiteralGenie: Seven and a half million years were spent working out the Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything. At the end of it, Deep Thought proclaimed the answer was "42". After some incredulous responses, Deep Thought points out they never once bothered to think what the Question was.
350%%* MasterComputer
351* SmallRoleBigImpact: Deep Thought only appears in a flashback, but that flashback reveals it helped kick-start the plot, [[spoiler:what with creating Earth and all.]]
352* SophisticatedAsHell: Deep Though speaks exactly as you'd expect a computer made by a hyperintelligent race of pan-dimensional beings to be... except briefly while pointing out to Vroomfondel and Majikthise how they could benefit while waiting for the Answer.
353-->'''Deep Thought''': So long as you keep violently disagreeing with one another, and slagging each other off in the papers, and so long as you have clever agents, you can keep yourselves on the gravy train ''for life''.
354* ThisIsGonnaSuck: Before giving The Answer, Deep Thought pauses, and tells the people its giving the answer to that they're not going to like it.
355* TinManTypist: In the movie, the gang finds Deep Thought watching cartoons off a smaller screen.
356* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: The radio and novel versions don't really answer what became of Deep Thought after it fails to give the Answer. The TV version suggests the hyper-intelligent, pan-dimensional civilization ultimately collapsed. In the film, she's just been sitting around watching TV.
357[[/folder]]
358
359[[folder:The Ruler of the Universe]]
360->'''Played in the radio by''': Stephen Moore
361An old hermit who runs the universe, completely unbeknownst to him.
362----
363* CaptainOblivious: The Ruler has no idea that he rules the Universe. This makes him perfect for the job. He also has no idea that his table can't talk to him.
364* CloudCuckooLander: He has some very interesting thought patterns.
365* DimensionLord: Rules the entire universe.
366* HairOfGoldHeartOfGold: Downplayed. He's blonde, and he's very, very polite to his guests and his cat. However, he never does any overwhelming acts of good and immediately forgets about Zarniwoop when he leaves the shack.
367* KindheartedCatLover: His only real redeeming feature is that he looks after his cat. Or at least, he ''thinks'' he does, because it pleases him to be nice to what he presumes must be a cat.
368* ManBehindTheMan: As far as most of the galaxy is concerned, Zaphod or whoever else is Galactic president is in charge.
369* {{Manchild}}: He really doesn't know... ''Anything.'' He refuses to accept anything he can't directly perceive right this second. This notably includes ''the past''.
370* ObfuscatingInsanity: It's implied that the Ruler is a lot more on the ball than he appears to be. The narration notes that he listens for the sounds of the ''Heart of Gold'''s engines (despite professing not to believe in anything he can't currently see), and then speaks to cover up the noise so Zarniwoop won't realize Zaphod and Trillian have escaped and stranded him.
371* PointyHairedBoss: He rules a universe that he doesn't believe exists.
372* SimplemindedWisdom: The reason a guy like him rules the universe to begin with. Since he doesn't believe in anything he can't directly perceive at any given moment, ''including his own memories'', he's the only one who can really be impartial about anything anyone asks him about.
373[[/folder]]
374
375[[folder:Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged]]
376->'''Played in the radio by''': Toby Longworth
377
378An alien being who, due to an accident, became immortal. He became bored with the whole thing, and decided his life goal was to insult every single creature in the universe in alphabetical order.
379----
380* AliensSpeakingEnglish: Can be handwaved by the [[TranslatorMicrobes Babel Fish]] but why he seems to alphabetize his victims based on the English alphabet is anybody's guess.
381* AliensStealCable: His ship can pick up channels from nearby planets and ''Film/BladeRunner'' is one of his favourite movies.
382* AscendedExtra: Becomes a major character in ''Literature/AndAnotherThing''.
383* TheCameo: [[spoiler: He shows up at the end of a Douglas Adams short story, "Literature/ThePrivateLifeOfGenghisKhan", and insults Khan to his face, thereby indirectly causing the Mongol's massacres.]]
384* CompleteImmortality: Wowbagger is eternal.
385* DeathSeeker: Subverted. While he envies the dead and dying, he knows there's no point in trying to emulate them.
386* EmbarrassingFirstName: Revealed in ''And Another Thing''; his first name is Bowerick. He stopped using it because people were calling him Bow-Wowbagger.
387* FreakLabAccident: Implied to be what made him immortal.
388* {{Jerkass}}: Wowbagger has become entirely soured by his immortality. He doesn't like anybody. So he decided to tell them so. All of them. Everywhere.
389* LizardFolk: A line in ''And Another Thing...'' implies he looks like an iguana.
390* NoodleImplements: Wowbagger became immortal through a curious accident involving an irrational particle accelerator, a liquid lunch, and a pair of rubber bands. The book throws in a DoNotDoThisCoolThing warning: "The precise details of the accident are not important because no one has ever been able to duplicate the exact circumstances under which it happened, and many people have wound up looking very silly, or dead, or both, trying."
391* RageAgainstTheHeavens: The final person on his list is CrystalDragonJesus, Zarquon whom he calls a "tiresome goggle eyed pillock" and gets his immortality stripped in retaliation seconds before the universe ends.
392* SawStarWarsTwentySevenTimes: In ''Life, the Universe and Everything'', he asks his ship computer if there's any movie he hasn't already seen "over thirty-thousand times."
393* SelfImposedChallenge: In-universe, he recognizes that his purpose in (eternal) life is meaningless and stupid, but he picked it as the only thing he could work up some interest in.
394* WhoWantsToLiveForever: Best shown by the fact that he has watched every movie ever made at least thirty thousand times. He's utterly bored, leading to his impossible goal of personally insulting every living creature in all of time and space.
395[[/folder]]
396
397[[folder:Agrajag]]
398->"Oh no. not ''again'' ".
399
400A poor soul who over their many incarnations has been killed by Arthur Dent many times.
401----
402* BatOutOfHell: The "revenge body" he wears when he finally confronts Arthur is a giant and very distressing-looking bat-like creature, with torn wings and [[MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily a great number of sharp, misaligned teeth]].
403* BerserkButton: He was already tetchy and insane by the time Arthur encounters his final body, but he makes it clear he doesn't accept the explanation that all his myriad deaths have been "coincidence".
404* BlessedWithSuck: He continuously reincarnates, just long enough for Arthur Dent to unthinkingly cause his demise.
405* ButtMonkey: Considering how many times they've died over the series, it would count.
406* ContrivedCoincidence: Some of the more bizarre deaths. like just happening to be crushed by a teleported-in couch.
407* CosmicPlaything: The universe definitely has it out for him, considering Agrajag seems to exist purely so he can die by an unwitting Arthur's hands over and over and over again. Even when he gets a chance to finally enact his revenge, things still don't go his way when it turns out he abducted Arthur too early in the timeline.
408* GrievousHarmWithABody: In one of his incarnations; he was a rabbit that was killed by Arthur Dent and later skinned to make into a handbag. Some time later, Agrajag comes back as a fly which ends up getting squashed by Arthur Dent using the same handbag that his previous incarnation was made into.
409* LargeHam: It happens when you are existentially tetchy, but the radio version as provided by Douglas Adams himself especially.
410* MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily: His final body, but they don't all properly fit, causing Agrajag to bite himself repeatedly, just adding to the tetchiness.
411* NonLinearCharacter: He and Arthur don't encounter each other in the same order, in particular he realizes too late that he met Arthur in his final life before Arthur met his Stavro Mueller Beta incarnation.
412* OhNoNotAgain: Not only their quote on this page, but specifically realizing they were the bowl of petunias materialized above the alien planet, doomed to fall.
413* OneWingedAngel: He incarnated as a giant, BodyHorror-filled bat creature purely for the purpose of killing Arthur, referring to it as his "revenge body." Unfortunately for him, its gruesome condition means that it goes down easily when Arthur proceeds to [[RunningGag accidentally cause his death again]].
414* ThePowerOfHate: Once he figured out who's responsible for his many deaths, he reaches a sort of "existential" tetchiness, and tries clawing his way back to life for one last go at killing Arthur.
415* {{Reincarnation}}: And he's unfortunate enough to remember all his past lives, or at least his deaths at the hands of Arthur Dent.
416* SayingTooMuch: Accidentally lets slip to Arthur about an encounter he remembers, but Arthur doesn't... because it hasn't happened to him yet. Poor Agrajag goes a little insane(er) at this point, and tries killing him anyway.
417* TemptingFate: In one of his lives, he was a married man with a heart condition, whose wife tried to beg him off going to a cricket match. Agrajag assured her there'd be no harm in a simple cricket match. While he was there, two people suddenly materialized on the grounds. The surprise gave him a fatal heart attack.
418* UnknownRival: Agrajag sees Arthur as a nemesis who keeps killing him, and has thus dedicated his many lives to destroying Arthur. Arthur, on the other hand, is literally unaware of Agrajag's existence until the latter spirits him away to the Cathedral of Hate.
419[[/folder]]
420
421[[folder:The Guide MK.II]]
422->'''Played in the radio by:''' Rula Lensca
423
424A new version of the Guide, designed by Infini-dim Enterprises to maximise their profit margin, among other things.
425----
426* ArcWelding: The radio version is connected to the Total Perspective Vortex (because it ''is'' a miniaturised TPV) and Lintilla from the second series (she provided the voice).
427* CreepyMonotone: In the radio version. Especially where TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou.
428-->'''Guide Mk. II:''' Events that draw themselves to a conclusion across multidimensional levels ''will'' draw themselves to a conclusion. Closure will be final and irrevocable. And I am your guide. And in the last ever episode of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, what happens is inevitably what ''must'' happen. Let me guide you. All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds. Even if it does not have much time left.
429* HeroKiller: In the novel, it helps kill all versions of the main characters (except Zaphod and Marvin) and eradicates every possible alternate version of Earth.
430* KnightOfCerebus: ''Mostly Harmless'' is much darker than the previous instalment to begin with, but the New Guide brings a much more sinister atmosphere to the whole thing, culminating in the book's DownerEnding.
431* ManipulativeBastard: You may think you're doing what you want, but the Guide is manipulating reality so you do what ''it'' wants.
432* MechanicalAbomination: It occasionally looks like a tiny bird. It's actually a multi-dimensional... ''thing''.
433* RealityWarper: It uses reverse-temporal engineering to make things happen the way it wants.
434* SmugSuper: Freely admits to being extremely clever and extremely vain.
435* ThisIsNoTimeToPanic: The original Guide has "Don't Panic" written in large, friendly letters on its cover. In its book form, the new Guide does not. Instead, in small print, it has the word "panic".
436
437[[/folder]]

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