Characters / Asterix: The Gaulish Village

Main Character Index The Gaulish Village | Romans | Others

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The Gaulish Village

In General

A small village that serves as the last holdout against the Roman conquest of Gaul, thanks to a magic potion that grants Super-Strength, inhabited by a boisterous but close-knit population of Gaulish barbarians.

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• Apathetic Citizens: They're not too concerned with liberating Gaul from the Romans, preferring a simple life of hunting boar (the forest they live in generally provides them with enough to get by) and brawling with Romans. But any direct means to force change on them will be resisted.
• Attack on One Is an Attack on All: Whenever the Romans hurt or kidnap a villager all the male Gauls respond by attacking the local Roman camp responsible for it. The Mansions of the Gods invokes this as a scheme by Asterix - he puts Cacofonix into the flats, and when his singing gets him kicked out the village takes this as an excuse to tear down the flats.
• Berserk Button: The Battle of Alesia is one for all of them (except for Asterix, who is usually the one on the receiving end of their anger when he brings the name up). As Vitalstatistix puts it:
  Vitalstatistix: WHAT DO YOU MEAN, ALESIA? I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHERE ALESIA IS! NOBODY KNOWS WHERE ALESIA IS!
• Big Eater: They will take any and every opportunity to stage a banquet, with lots of roast boar. Unsurprisingly, this has made a few of them fat, and Vitalstatistix ends up suffering liver damage in the "Chieftain's Shield" story.
• Bullying a Dragon: The Gauls constantly come up against Romans who think they're the one who will bring them down, despite having held out against the Romans for years.
• Boisterous Bruiser: The reason why they're constantly getting into Escalating Brawls. The instant they find a reason to fight, they fight. Even the womenfolk have their brawls with the Romans and each other.
• Crippling Overspecialisation: The village has the wisest druid, the strongest warrior and the smartest warrior to rely on, and without all three (most importantly the druid) they would have been beaten by the Romans long ago. Getafix is often targeted by the Romans, and "The Roman Agent" showcases just how serious a flaw this is when slander drives away Asterix, Obelix and Getafix temporarily.
• The Dreaded: The Gaulish village has gained quite a reputation as the most feared district by the Roman army. In “Asterix in Corsica” the antagonist, a Roman praetor, is threatened to be posted to the Gaulish village if he fails. And in “Asterix in Beligum” they are surprised to find they have been surpassed by the Belgians as the most fearsome Gaulish people.
• Gossipy Hens: The womenfolk of the village enjoy gossip easily, and it causes a detriment in "The Roman Agent" and to a lesser level in "Asterix and Son".
• Happily Married: Despite often stormy relations, the husbands and wives in the village (Vitalstatistix-Impedimenta, Unhygienix-Bacteria, the Geriatrixes and Fulliautomatixes) are truly fond of each other.
• Never Bareheaded: All the men who wear an helmet rarely take it off (except for eating and sleeping).
• Nominal Hero: The vast majority of the villagers are like this. They're only heroic at all because they're fighting against The Empire, which they mostly just pick on, usually for fun, rather than make any serious rebellion against them. They have two reasons for fighting them — they love fighting (even turning on each other when Romans aren't available) and they're incredibly set in their ways, usually even when the Roman way is better. They started out intended more as a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits La Résistance but got Flanderized into this mostly because it's funnier. Asterix, Obelix, and Getafix are much nicer people, though.
• Not So Above It All: Asterix, Getafix, and to an extent Vitalstatistix are the sanest heads in their village, but even they at times have their share of comic mishaps.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy: They have nothing against Romans, but they will not be dominated or ruled by anyone.

Asterix (Astérix)

Asterix Astronomigos^*"Asterix, [son] of Astronomix."

Voiced in French by: Guy Piérauld (radio play, 1960), Roger Carel (1967-2014), Christian Clavier (2018), Jean-Claude Donda (Attention Menhir!, 2019 - present)

Voiced in English by: Lee Payant (Asterix the Gaul and Asterix and Cleopatra); Sean Barrett (The Twelve Tasks of Asterix); Jack Beaber (Asterix Versus Caesar and Asterix in Britain); Bill Oddie (Asterix and the Big Fight UK dub); Henry Winkler (Asterix and the Big Fight US dub); Craig Charles (Asterix in America); Paul Giamatti (Asterix and the Vikings); Ken Kramer (Asterix: The Mansions of the Gods, Asterix: The Secret of the Magic Potion); Brian Bowles (Asterix & Obelix Slap them All!)

Voiced in Latin American Spanish by: Alvaro Tarcicio (Asterix the Gaul and Asterix and Cleopatra/First dubbed version), Hugo Navarrete (Asterix the Gaul and Asterix and Cleopatra/Second dubbed version), Luis Alfonso Mendoza (Asterix in Britain and Asterix & Obelix: God Save Britannia ), Jesse Conde (Asterix and the Big Fight and Asterix in America), Ernesto Lezama (Asterix Versus Caesar, Mexican dub), Ariel Abadi (Asterix Versus Caesar and Asterix and the Vikings, Argentinian dub), Jose Manuel Rosano (The Twelve Tasks of Asterix), Mario Castañeda (Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra), Moises Palacios (The Secret of the Magic Potion)

Played by: Christian Clavier (1999-2002), Clovis Cornillac (2008), Edouard Baer (2012), Guillaume Canet (2023)

The main character of the series, Asterix is the best warrior in the Gaulish village, despite his small size, possessing both combat prowess and guile. Together with his childhood friend Obelix, Asterix has gone on many fantastic adventures both across Gaul and the rest of the world.

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• The Ace: Astérix is, despite his small size, the best warrior of the village. And he also happens to be one of the smartest characters in the whole series representing all the positive ideals of a Frenchman.
• Art Evolution: He started out crude and lumpy-looking but got more rounded, cuter features.
• Badass Normal: The rare times he has to get out of a pinch without the Magic Potion, he still proves more than skilled enough.
• Bash Brothers: With Obelix. Being born on the same day they are thick as thieves and the village's champions.
• Big Guy, Little Guy: The latter, with Obelix as the big guy. Well he is little compared to most other characters as well.
• Brains and Brawn: Is smarter than his best friend and companion, the strong Obelix.
• Celibate Hero: He generally shows old school chivalry towards women and rarely pays much attention to them, having no interest in settling down and becoming a family man. Although when Panacea kisses him at the end of Asterix the Legionary, he falls for her just as hard as Obelix did. He also appreciates Cleopatra's nose ("Very pretty!"). It's implied that he has a thing for Bravura (and maybe Latriviata).
• Classical Antihero: A very downplayed one. He has all the belief in justice of an outright hero, he just stops short of being an Ideal Hero because of his plain, unimpressive looks and slight lack of physical prowess (which is still pretty good for someone of his physique) which he balances out by being a playful and sneaky fellow who has no trouble outwitting his mostly dim-witted opponents.
• Cool Helmet: Almost never seen without wearing his winged helmet. This is actually used as a plot point in The Great Crossing; when Obelix finds Asterix's helmet on the ground he instantly and correctly deduces that something must have happened because Asterix never takes his helmet off except to eat or sleep, and he wouldn't have been doing either of those things.
• Deadpan Snarker: Usually good-natured, but he seldom passes up an opportunity to deliver some snarky remarks. And there are lots of such opportunities...
• Expressive Accessory: His helmet's wings are in different positions depending on his mood.
• Friendly Enemy: With Caesar, whenever they interact in person. Especially so in Asterix And Son because the infant Asterix has been taking care of is Caesar's son.
• Guile Hero: Where even magic-potion powered brute strength fails, Asterix uses his brains to defeat the obstacles in his way. In the Twelve Tasks story, he tricks a martial artist into telling him how to defeat him, gets a hypnotist to hypnotize himself and drives an entire asylum of bureaucrats insane by playing their own game against them.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Blond-haired and the most heroic and noble of the main cast.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Obelix. Best friends, comrades in arms and typically roommates.
• Ideal Hero: Asterix is kind, does the right thing all the time, won't fight physically unless there are no better options even though he has super strength, always stands up for people who are suffering, and plays by the rules. However, he also has a sneaky side, especially in earlier stories.
• Indy Ploy: His plans are often on-the-spot improvisations. They don't always work.
• Irony: At his birth, his father hoped that Asterix would become a 'big and strong' warrior. He didn't, though it's shown that Asterix is a decent fighter in his own right even without the magic potion.
• Invincible Hero:
  • Asterix himself along with the rest of the village is one. Every single battle between Romans (or, really, anyone) and Asterix and the rest of the Gauls, results in the Gauls curb-stomping their opponents, thanks to their magic potion that grants Super-Speed, Super-Reflexes, Super-Strength, and arguably Nigh-Invulnerability. Plus, even in case of a shortage, they have Obelix, who doesn't need to drink any potion since he fell in it during his childhood, and the effect never wore off. As a result, the Romans never, ever, in any comic, manage to gain even the smallest durable advantage over the Gauls. Asterix also has the advantage of being one of the smartest and sanest Gauls, so unlike the others he is hard to outwit.
  • Most plot tension actually comes from Asterix being excessively prudent and avoiding confrontation with Roman troops, even though he and Obelix are more than able to defeat hundreds of Elite Mooks on their own, and have already done so a few times. When trying to steal Caesar's laurel wreath, Asterix states that the magic potion doesn't protect from being harmed by Roman weapons. Whether it's true or not is unclear, but they never seem to be hurt anyway. ^note What he seems to be getting at at the time is that the legionaries they're used to are the rank and file, but the ones who guard Caesar himself are, logically, in a whole different league and going to be skilled enough to do some real harm before the Gauls can land a punch.
  • Getafix in the first volume did mention that the potion doesn't stop injury and Asterix had been knocked out once from a catapult shot in Asterix and Obelix All at Sea, but by the nature of the comic book even non-Amusing Injuries aren't lethal.
• Manipulative Bastard: Part of his Guile Hero status. Notable examples:
  • In Mansion of the Gods, he terrorizes a Roman tenant living in the titular apartment complex by having Obelix act Ax-Crazy. When the tenant leaves in fear, he arranges for Cacofonix to take over the lease, resulting in all the other tenants leaving. And when the Roman army moves into the apartment and evicts Cacofonix, he uses this as a Pretext for War to kick the Romans out of Gaulish land.
  • In Twelve Tasks of Asterix, he turns the "Place that Drives You Mad" Obstructive Bureaucrat tendencies against themselves, confusing them, thus allowing him to meet with the director of the place and obtain the requisite form.
• Master Swordsman: Uses his sword in battles once in a blue moon, but he uses it very well. His fight against two Giant Mooks Romans in the movie The Mansion of the Gods is a thing to behold.
• Megaton Punch: Asterix' signature attack is one of these, an uppercut that sends his enemies flying (and leaves their sandals behind).
• Mercury's Wings: His helmet has decorative wings, as do those of some other Gauls as expectedly they use primitive accessories in their clothing.
• Not So Stoic: He views himself justifiably as the Only Sane Man as he remains much more level-headed and much less irascible than most of his fellow villagers, which makes the times that he loses his cool (often because of growing impatient with Obelix's immaturity), to the point of shouting, a sight to behold.
• Only Sane Man: Shares the role with Getafix. Never falls for superstitions, fads, and political passions.
• Ornamental Weapon: His sword. He tends to use his fists thanks to the potion as his main weapon and rarely draws his sword. Occasionally subverted, especially when he's without magic potion does it become a backup weapon. For example in Asterix and the Cauldron, he had to fight the evil chieftain who got him banished, and then in Asterix and Caesar's Gift, he used it to duel a Roman drunkard and later on cut a rope. He has also used it to slice food on occasion.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: He is very short but is a powerhouse hero. Mainly after taking the magic potion, but Asterix can still hold his own reasonably well without it.
• Punny Name: From French "astérisque", English "asterisk", a small typographical symbol (*) used for footnotes. It originally comes from Greek "asteriskos" meaning small star, and he is the small star of the series.
• Shorter Means Smarter: Is much smaller than Obelix. He is not only the smarter of the two but smarter than most of the characters in the comics who tower over him, being mature (thinking and seeing ahead), even a bit wise and sly, and knowing how to trick others by using the right words.
• The Snark Knight: Especially in the first live-action movie. Asterix gets annoyed by the stupidity around him a lot and won't hesitate to snark at how bad the situation got.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Astérix and Obélix have an argument or falling-out pretty much Once per Episode. It never takes long for them to make up, though.

Obelix (Obélix)

Obelix Obelodaligos

Voiced in French by: Albert Augier (radio play, 1960), Jacques Morel (1967-1976), Pierre Tornade (1985-2005), Jacques Frantz (2006), Guillaume Briat (2014-present)

Voiced in English by: Hal Brav (Asterix the Gaul and Asterix and Cleopatra); Michael Kilgarriff (The Twelve Tasks of Asterix); Bill Kearns (Asterix Versus Caesar and Asterix in Britain); Bernard Bresslaw (Asterix and the Big Fight UK dub); Rosey Grier (Asterix and the Big Fight US dub); Howard Lew Lewis (Asterix in America); Brad Garrett (Asterix and the Vikings); C. Ernst Hath (Asterix: The Mansions of the Gods, Asterix: The Secret of the Magic Potion); George Weightman (Asterix & Obelix Slap them All!)

Played by: Gérard Depardieu (1999-2012), Gilles Lellouche (2023)

Asterix's best friend and constant companion. As a baby, he fell into a cauldron of magic potion and it had a permanent effect on him. Because of that, he's absolutely huge, and always wants to drink more potion (though Getafix won't let him). He sells menhirs.

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• Acrofatic:
  • He is very fat, but he has super-strength, is invincible in combat, and can defeat a Roman legion single-handed. It's canon that he fell in a cauldron of magic potion when he was little and is thus permanently under the effect of the potion. And don't call him fat. He's just well-covered.
  • Both Obelix and Asterix mention a few times that Obelix is considered an excellent dancer — in fact, one of the best in the village. He only does this a few times, but he is consistently very talented, if indelicate with his partners. By contrast, Asterix (who is not fat) openly admits that he's a terrible dancer.
  • According to Asterix and Obelix's Birthday, Obelix is brilliant at Twister.
  • Also because of the super-strength granted by the potion, Obelix is deceptively fast for a man his size. Depending on the situation this can turn into him having outright Super-Speed.
• Anything but That!: Being put on a diet when he and Asterix went undercover at a spa in The Chieftain's Shield, to the point that he had a nervous breakdown when his "dessert" consisted of a single grape. When it turns out that the guy they were looking for didn't even work at the spa anymore, making the whole ordeal pointless, Obelix was absolutely furious with Asterix.
• Art Evolution: Obelix started off quite crude and lumpy-looking but got more rounded, cuter features. Obelix also traded pointed helmet horns for small nubby ones, lost his body hair, and stopped carrying an axe.
• Bash Brothers: With Asterix. Although one of them is enough to take on any opposition they work together because they don't like being separate from one another.
• Berserk Button: Whatever you do, NEVER call him fat. Or mention the word "fat" while he's in earshot, for that matter.
• Beware the Nice Ones: He is nice, friendly, and pets the dog. But won't hesitate to beat anyone when enraged.
• Big Eater:
  • The biggest in the saga. When he ends up lovesick in "Asterix the Legionary" he takes only two boars.
  • The Twelve Tasks of Asterix takes this to ludicrous proportions, with one of the tasks being finishing a meal cooked by Calorofix the Belgian, a chef famous for making meals for the Titans. Obelix cleans him out (eating — as the first course — a boar with french fries, a flock of geese, several sheep, an omelette made with eight dozen eggs, a whole school of fish, an ox, a cow and two veal ("because to separate ze family... zat would not be right!"), a huge mound of caviar (with a single piece of toast), a camel, and an elephant stuffed with olives)... and is STILL HUNGRY after eating all of this...
• Big Fun: He is a big guy who really is out to have fun, in and out of the battlefield.
• Big Guy, Little Guy: The former, with Asterix as the little guy.
• Blood Knight: He actively seeks fights with Romans because he enjoys it. To the point where a dream he had where Caesar withdrew all the Roman legionaries surrounding their village qualified as a nightmare for him.
• Boisterous Bruiser: A bruiser who has huge appetites for everything — especially food, drink, and punching Romans.
• Braids of Barbarism: The Gauls are technically a barbarian tribe. Obelix is a barbarian warrior who styles his hair in pigtails.
• Brains and Brawn: Is stronger than his best friends and companion, the smart Asterix.
• Breakout Character: In the first Asterix album he was a minor supporting character. He would go on to become Asterix's best friend and a big part of every following story. He became popular enough that the series is occasionally referred as "Asterix and Obelix" instead of its original name.
• Bruiser with a Soft Center: OK, so Obelix loves fighting, but he's a big softie away from the battlefield. Especially where his dog is concerned or when Panacea walks around.
• Cannot Talk to Women: Obelix is so smitten by Panacea's beauty that he can only sprout strings of sounds that don't make any sense.
• Can't Hold His Liquor: Obelix usually drinks goat milk or beer. When he drinks anything stronger, especially wine, Obelix gets drunk out of his mind. Best demonstrated in Asterix in Switzerland, where he downed a whole barrel of Swiss plum wine, and Asterix in Britain, where he quickly gets drunk from taste-testing wine from Dipsomaniax's stolen barrels.
• Catchphrase:
  • "These Romans are crazy! (Ils sont fous, ces romains!)", frequently adjusted to complain about whichever nationality is being parodied in this particular issue. (Oddly, this phrase is spoken by Asterix on the inside cover of the French hardbound editions).
  • "Good, some Romans! (Chic, des romains!)" right after he spots them and gets ready for the inevitable brawl.
  • Any remark on his weight will inevitably push him to protest: "I am not fat!" or "Who's fat?", sometimes followed by "I'm just well wrapped."
  • "On y va? On y va? (Shall we go? Shall we go?)" before a brawl. This catchphrase is even revealed to have become the motto of Obélix's descendants in a 1963 short story.
• Characterization Marches On: Partially due to the artwork. He started out as an angular, burly warrior with hairy arms and big, pointed horns on his helmet with a more stupid, surly and straightforward attitude, but within the first few books got a rounder, softer, more childlike look with beatific expressions and little nubby horns to suit his increasingly innocent, slightly Cloudcuckoolander, childlike personality.
• Cloudcuckoolander: His thinking processes don't usually result in logical conclusions.
  Obelix: [to a semi-conscious Indian warrior]] Where's Asterix?? [no answer] Asterix would know how to make him talk, so first I must find Asterix!
• Comically Missing the Point: One of his biggest sources of comedy; Obelix often misunderstands the details of what he and Asterix are dealing with, and the latter rarely bothers to explain it to him, as it would take longer to catch Obelix up to speed than just push onwards. Examples include not understanding why he's banned from taking part in the Olympics in Asterix At the Olympic Games, not getting the value of the missing coins in Asterix And the Cauldron and the need for subterfuge in Asterix And the Laurel Wreath.
• Crush Blush: Obelix will blush red when he's close to beautiful young women.
• Does Not Know His Own Strength: He's not unaware of his limits, but he often does not seem to realize that not everyone is as strong or invulnerable as he is.
• Dramatic Irony: When he and Asterix were in Rome, Obelix wanted to go up against the Praetorian Guard. Asterix didn't let him. Obelix's Super-Strength lets him defeat all the legionaries that patrol Gaul, a conquered country. The Praetorian Guards, however, are Elite Mooks that Asterix reckons could destroy Obelix. Just because Obelix has never been effectively challenged by anyone, does not mean he has no limits. Obelix's strength is his weakness because it makes him unaware of danger.
• The Dreaded: For the Romans. Every Gaulish villager is dangerous to them, but Obelix tends to beat more people than anyone else. And he has gained a reputation for it.
• Dumb Muscle: He is probably the strongest warrior in the series and has permanent superhuman strength. As a result of this and relying on Asterix' superior intellect, he uses his brain very little and gets easily confused.
• Extreme Omnivore: He can eat everything with ease, including, in one memorable occasion in The Twelve Tasks of Asterix, an Eldritch Abomination. The only exceptions are the meals of the Roman Army in "Asterix the Legionary", as those are too disgusting even for him and dog meat in "The Great Crosssing" since he has a dog.
• Fat Idiot: The fattest and (seemingly) the dimmest of the Gauls. But as described below, he shows above-average intelligence in certain situations.
  Getafix: You know, that boy does have his bright moments.
• Friend to All Children: Perhaps because he's One of the Kids, Obelix quickly bonds with kids, including Apeldjus despite him being a Roman. The only exception is Pepe, for obvious reasons, yet Obelix was initially friendly towards him as well.
• Genius Ditz: He's usually dim, but when speaking Latin, his hovercraft is never full of eels.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Asterix. Best friends, comrades in arms and typically roommates.
• Hidden Depths: Has been known to have the occasional good idea when the situation demands it, such as in "Asterix and the Normans" where he has to track down Cacofonix and remembers the bard's plan to go to Lutetia. "Obelix and Co" shows him as quick on business tactics. He can also read and write decently well in both Gaulish and Latin, in this time an extremely rare skill in even a single language.
• Hopeless Suitor: Has a crush for Panacea, but she's engaged (and later married).
• I Am Big Boned: He never admits to being fat and telling him so is one of his Berserk Buttons. His chest has just "slipped a bit". One Roman centurion places an APB on Obelix by asking to be on the lookout for a "low chested man."
• Irony: When he's born, his father hopes that Obelix would grow to be a smart man. He didn't, though his loyalty and friendship to Asterix as well as his permanent Super-Strength more than makes up for it.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: He's in love with Panacea, and is understandably heartbroken when he learns that she's engaged to Tragicomix. However, he still decides to help Panacea by going off to Africa and bring Tragicomix back to her.
• Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Getting pummeled with his Super-Strength (or the threat of) will loose even the tightest lips.
• Kindhearted Simpleton: He is immature and slow but has a big, friendly heart. Has a tendency to pet the dog.
• Lightning Bruiser: Don't be fooled by his, ahem, "big bones". As a result of his potion overdose, he is not only gigantically strong but also lightning-fast and quick on his feet.
• Manchild: He is a full adult, but has a very innocent attitude to life despite his superhuman strength. He sulks when there's no wild boar (in Asterix in Spain he imitates little Pepe and holds his breath until they get some), and he can't think in the long term (eats the whole boatload of food on the first day at sea).
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: Invoked. He constantly needs to be reminded of that one time he fell into a cauldron of magic potion.
  Obelix: [annoyed] Yes, as we all know, I fell into a cauldron of magic potion as a baby and it had a permanent effect on me.
• One-Man Army: He can single-handedly take out multiple opponents and frankly enjoys doing it. So much that an entire fortified camp of Romans for him to fight is his birthday present.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Obélix tries a number of these in attempts to get a taste of the magic potion in Astérix and Cleopatra, failing miserably every single time. He fails to figure out how Getafix keeps recognizing him, despite the fact that he weighs about five times more than any of the Egyptian laborers who the potion is supposed to be going to, or that his disguise is a striped headdress instead of his helmet.
• Punny Name: From French "obélisque", English "obelisk", meaning a type of standing stone similar to the menhirs he makes, and also a typographical symbol (†) which may be used for footnotes together with asterisks (which are much smaller).
• Running Gag: Besides his various catchphrases, there's him trying to convince Getafix to give him some magic potion like the others. Turns out a little bit is okay and will super-charge his strength for a little while, but a regular-sized dose will have some very nasty consequences. Also knocking on a door and dislodging it from the wall in the process, Asterix has had very limited success in preventing repeats.
• Stock Shōnen Hero: Despite not being the main character and debuting around 20 years before the archetype became a Trope Codifier through Dragon Ball, Obelix showcases many personality traits of this trope, mainly being a Big Eater Idiot Hero Blood Knight. He lacks the Hot-Blooded trait usual with this trope though.
• Stout Strength: He is a very fat man (but don't let him hear you say it) with super-strength.
• Super-Speed: The potion also gives him the ability to run at outrageous speeds.
• Super-Strength: Unlike the other villagers, Obelix's strength is permanent. Three extra drops give him the strength to break a thick stone wall.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Roasted wild boars.
• True Companions: While Obelix enjoys fighting Romans more than almost anything, on at least two occasions (Asterix and the Cauldron, Asterix and the Black Gold) he has accompanied Asterix on journeys when he doesn't need to because he values Asterix over the chance to fight Romans (in Cauldron only Asterix had been banished from the village, and in Black Gold Obelix was explicitly asked to stay behind in case the Romans attacked when they were out of magic potion).
• Unskilled, but Strong: Due to being permanently superpowered, he hasn't even had the benefit of unpowered combat training the others had (with some being veterans of the battles such as Gergovia and Alesia).
  • This is demonstrated abundantly in the (non-canon) animated film The Twelve Tasks of Asterix, where one of the trials pits him against a Germanic Judo master. Obelix's attempts to smash through him with brute force are effortlessly redirected, and he quickly proves entirely unable to hurt the little man, receiving his first and only legitimate defeat. Fortunately, Asterix is there to effectively talk the man into submission... or, rather, distract him with talk and an interest in the man's fighting style that gets the poor German to give Asterix instructions and allow himself to be used as a training dummy, realising he's helped Asterix subdue him only after having his arms and legs tied into knots.
  • There was also an instance of a gladiator trainer who could actually dodge Obelix's telegraphed Megaton Punch blows, at which point Asterix stepped in, punching the dude into the air with a Lightning Bruiser blow, chiding Obelix with a "That's how you do it!"
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Astérix and Obélix have an argument or falling-out pretty much Once per Episode. It never takes long for them to make up, though.

Dogmatix (Idéfix)

Voiced in French by: Roger Carel (most movies prior to his retirement in 2014), Unknown (The Secret of the Magic Potion), Benjamin Bollen (Idéfix et les Irréductibles)

Obelix's dog who often accompanies the heroes on their adventures. First appearing outside a butcher's shop in Lutetia, he followed Asterix and Obelix unnoticed during the events of Asterix and The Banquet, and was offically adopted as a pet by Obelix afterwards.

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• Anthropomorphic Shift: A very subtle version, as he's always portrayed as a Nearly Normal Animal — but as the comic develops he shifts from an Almost Normal Animal (almost entirely a normal dog, with a dog's level of understanding and reasoning) to a Mostly Normal Animal (a lot more aware, using more human-like gestures) and up to a Largely Normal Animal (human-level intelligence, capable of a wide variety of humanlike gestures and expressions, and in the spin-off stories focusing on him he's shown as being able to communicate freely with all other animals). The short comic Chanticleerix even strongly implies that he can talk to Obelix as well.
• Art Evolution: Dogmatix went from a squarer, more terrier-like look with drooping ears to a more anthropomorphized, Disney-like appearance with raised ears.
• Ascended Extra: He was introduced as a literal Running Gag character in Asterix and the Banquet, a tiny little dog that keeps following Asterix and Obelix around without them noticing until the end-of-book banquet when Obelix finally notices and feeds him. Readers liked him so much that he returned in the next album as Obelix's dog, and would go on to play important parts in later stories, even starring in short books and comics of his own. invokedHis French name actually comes from a contest Goscinny and Uderzo organized for readers of Pilote magazine.
• Berserk Button: He doesn't like it when someone knocks down a tree.
• Breakout Character: He went from a side character to series regular to becoming the star of some children books as well as his own series of cartoons and comics.
• Butt Biter: His favorite move to attack Romans or other threats is to bite them in the fundament and cling there.
• Canine Companion: The near-constant companion to Obelix. He's a cute little white dog, and very intelligent. Obelix might insist from time to time to give him some important tasks.
• Cartoon Dog Breed: He looks a bit like a small terrier, except for the unusual black spots on the tips of his ears and tail. His mustache also probably has less to do with his breed and more to do with making him look bit like like Asterix.
• From Stray to Pet: He was a stray dog that followed Asterix and Obelix all around in Asterix and the Banquet, until Obelix noticed him in the end.
• Killer Rabbit: On occasions, he will drink Magic Potion of his own, allowing him to become practically as dangerous as the Gauls.
• Nature Lover: He cries whenever he sees trees being cut down.
• The Nose Knows: An excellent tracker. In "Asterix And Cleopatra", he's able to make his way through a pyramid maze to find the lost Asterix, Obelix and Getafix, then lead them back out again.
• Punny Name: From "dogmatic", adhering to beliefs without fail, which also contains the word "dog". It's fortuitously close to the French original which puns on idée fixe, "fixed idea".
• Running Gag:
  • Frequently when Asterix and Obelix are about to travel, Asterix will try to convince Obelix to leave him behind, only for Obelix to find a way to take him anyway.
  • Any time a tree comes down...
    HOOOOOOOWWWWWWWL!
  • He began life as a Running Gag following Asterix and Obelix.
• Team Pet: Whenever the Gauls go on a mission, Dogmatix tends to serve as the literal team pet.
• Uncatty Resemblance: He's got the exact same mustache as Asterix does.

Getafix (Panoramix)

Voiced in French by: Lucien Raimbourg (1967-1968), Henri Virlogeux (1976), Henri Labussière (1985-1994), Vania Vilers (2006), Bernard Alane (since 2014)

Voiced in English by: John Primm (Asterix the Gaul and Asterix and Cleopatra); Geoffrey Russell (The Twelve Tasks of Asterix); Robert Barr (Asterix Versus Caesar and Asterix in Britain); Peter Hawkins (Asterix and the Big Fight UK dub); Danny Mann (Asterix and the Big Fight US dub); Geoffrey Bayldon (Asterix in America); Jeff Bennett (Asterix and the Vikings); John Innes (Asterix: The Mansions of the Gods, Asterix: The Secret of the Magic Potion)

Played by: Claude Piéplu (1999), Claude Rich (2002), Jean-Pierre Cassel (2008), Pierre Richard (2023)

Getafix is the village's elder, druid and a member of the village council. He is responsible for the creation of the magical potion that made the village invincible.

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• Cassandra Truth: He refuses to let Obelix have another dose of potion, as he already got a lifetime dose as a child and drinking any more might have effects on his health. Getafix was completely right - while a taste doesn't do anything, in "Asterix and Obelix All at Sea", Obelix chugs down an unattended cauldron of potion, and ends up turning to stone!
• Chekhov's Gunman: As he is the only one who knows the recipe for the magic potion that makes the Gauls undefeatable, the Romans generally focus on capturing/incapacitating him out of all the others, and one story (Black Gold) has him be tricked by a traitorous fellow druid.
• Cool Old Guy: Significantly older than the the duo of heroes, maker of the magic potion, speaker of Gothic, one of the calmest and most sensible inhabitants of the village. No wonder the Romans are after him.
• Distressed Dude: He's the most-frequently captured of the Gauls, due to his knowledge and crucial role in providing the magical potion to the village.
• Druid: The authors go with the usual "white-robed bearded forest sage" interpretation, and is considered the wisest of them all thanks to his having invented the magic potion.
• Druidic Sickle: He's never seen without his golden sickle by his side. This is especially important for the gathering of mistletoe, the only non-secret ingredient of the magic potion: mistletoe harvested without a golden sickle loses all of its magical powers. Getafix's sickle breaks in Asterix and the Golden Sickle, forcing Asterix and Obelix to go on a quest to find a new one in time for the upcoming gathering of druids, since Getafix couldn't bear the shame of being the only sickle-less druid present.
• Grumpy Old Man: At times, especially in the first live-action movie, or when the village is collectively holding the Idiot Ball of the week.
• Holding Back the Phlebotinum: A lot of the stories centered around the village wouldn't work if he wasn't either on a trip or incapacitated to explain the villagers that they are being morons.
• It May Help You on Your Quest: He always gives a canteen of magical potion to Asterix whenever the heroes set off on their next adventure.
• Kidnapped Scientist: Well, if Clarke's third rule is to be believed, Getafix is this as he's frequently abducted for his magical (scientific) knowledge.
• Made of Iron: He was able to survive a menhir being thrown at him, twice, without any magic potion. Though the first time the blow had serious consequences.
• Nerves of Steel: Not in the sense that he is good at fighting, but in the first book of the series, he gets captured and tortured by Romans for hours to get him to reveal the secret of Magic Potion. He remains completely impervious to it. In one story, he did drink his own potion and fought Romans alongside Asterix.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Almost invoked in Asterix and Caesar's Gift; he refuses to give magic potion to Gauls when they are infighting with each other, which causes a nearly successful Roman attack.
• Non-Action Guy: He may make the potion, but you’ll never see him join in on the action. Asterix and The Great Divide is the only time he’s ever taken his own potion and take part in a fight.
• Not So Stoic: While he's the wisest of the Gauls, he's still able to get easily vexed at their shenanigans.
• Omnidisciplinary Scientist: Aside from actual Druidic magic, he also has knowledge of more mundane medical treatments, architecture (he corrected all of Numerobis' plans in Asterix and Cleopatra), and showed high savvy for manipulating rival factions into conflict with each other (Asterix and the Goths).
• Omniglot: He speaks Latin, Proto-Germanic, Egyptian... Has led to a Bilingual Backfire on at least one occasion, when someone didn't know he spoke their language.
• Only Sane Man: Shares the role with Asterix. He is too knowledgeable to fall for deceptions and superstitions, while the rest of the village is often only too susceptible to being taken in.
• The Professor: The wise elder of the Gaullish village who comes up with ingenious scientific and magical solutions to problems.
• Punny Name:
  • Getafix ("get a fix"), Magigimix ("magic gimmicks"). Or the German/Scandinavian variant, Miraculix ("miracle").
  • His original name "Panoramix" comes from "panoramique" (=panoramic), which may refers to his ability to see the big picture.
• Serious Business: The formula for the magic potion - he refuses to share it with anyone, even his own allies, as this kind of knowledge may only be passed from druid to druid. This has become an issue several times as it means he's the only source of the potion, and taking him out of commition cripples the villages ability to defend themselves.
• The Smart Guy: Smarter and more educated than the other characters.
• Riddle for the Ages: How the magic potion is made. As of 2024, the readers have been given a few hints to it's makeup; it contains mistletoe (which must be cut with a golden sickle), lobster (for flavor), a small amount of fresh fish, and a single drop of rock oil aka unrefined petroleum. Due to a severe shortage, Getafix discovered that the rock oil could be replaced with beet root juice instead. Asterix And The Griffin also reveals that if the potion is frozen, it's magical effects are nullified, even if it's thawed out again, making it useless.
• Wizard Beard: Well, Druid Beard at least. He has a long beard and magical powers of his own.

Vitalstatistix (Abraracourcix)

Voiced in French by: Pierre Tornade (1967-1976), Jean-Pierre Darras (1985), Henri Poirier (1986-1989), François Chaix (1994), Vincent Grass (2006), Serge Papagalli (since 2014)

Voiced in English by: Yves Brainville (Asterix the Gaul and Asterix and Cleopatra); Bertie Cortez (Asterix Versus Caesar and Asterix in Britain); Douglas Blackwell (Asterix and the Big Fight UK dub); Greg Burson (Asterix and the Big Fight US dub); Daran Norris (Asterix and the Vikings); Don Brown (Asterix: The Mansions of the Gods, Asterix: The Secret of the Magic Potion)

Played by: Michel Galabru (1999), Éric Thomas (2008), Michel Duchaussoy (2012), Jérôme Commandeur (2023)

The chief of the village, and a veteran warrior who fought the Romans under the leadership of Vercingetorix until his defeat at Caesar's hands.

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• Adipose Rex: He's the chief of the village and is noticeably heavyset. Doesn't stop him from kicking butt when the situation calls for it, though.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: With his ruling skills and access to magic potion, he could pose a credible threat to the Roman Empire, but all that really matters to him is keeping his land safe. Impedimenta calls him out on his lack of ambition frequently.
• Butt-Monkey: Let's see, he has an overbearing wife, his carriers keep dropping him, and his village constantly fights amongst themselves with the slightest provocation.
• Chekhov's Gun: The shield he is moved around on? It belonged to Vercingetorix, the Gaulish chieftain. This makes a major impact in "The Chieftain's Shield"
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Despite him being as eccentric as most of his fellow Gauls, he once one-punched a rival chief, and defeated some Roman gladiators.
• Embarrassing Nickname: "Piggywiggy", by his wife ("Cochonnet" in the original, meaning Piglet).
• Formerly Fit: He was a real beanpole in his prime, as shown when he briefly returns to his old physique after a crash diet in "The Chieftain's Shield".
• Henpecked Husband: He is frequently berated and ordered around by his wife, Impedimenta, and is a frequent object of her Hair-Trigger Temper.
• Honor Before Reason: He often ends up exploited by Gaulish village chiefs who are less noble than him, like Cassius Ceramix and Whosemoralsarelastix.
• Large and in Charge: He's one of the largest's village inhabitants, and the de facto ruler.
• My Greatest Failure: The disastrous Gaulish defeat at Alesia, even though he was just a participant and not personally responsible for the failure of the battle. It's still a sore point for him, years after the war.
• Obnoxious In-Laws: His wife's brother Homeopatix, a wealthy merchant who treats him like crap.
• One-Steve Limit: In the German translation, he is known as Majestix, though in the story 'the Great Divide', there are two rivaled village leaders called Cleverdix and Majestix. For the German translation, they became Griesgramix (Griesgram = Grouch) and Grobianix (Grobian = Ruffian).
• Proud Warrior Race Guy: It often gets lost in the silliness, but he actually is one, and it's also the major source of his personal pride. Like Geriatrix, he is very proud to have personally participated in the Battle of Gergovia, and he is also very proud to be independent from Rome (hence his being very touchy on the subject of Alesia, since the Gauls lost that one). It becomes most apparent in Asterix and the Belgians, where he, unlike virtually every other villager, is deeply offended that the Romans don't fear them as much as they used to, let alone less than somebody else and even sets out to correct this on his own when nobody else shows interest.
• Punny Name: Vitalstatistix, vital statistics, Macroeconomix, macro economics, Tunnabrix, Ton of Bricks.
  • "Vital statistics" refers to the kind of data the government gathers, like birth and death rates, marriage and divorce rates, etc. Fittingly, he's the ruler of the village. More informally, "vital statistics" can also refer to a person's measurements, thus it's also a pun on his girth and weight.
  • "Abraracourcix" comes from the expression "tomber à bras raccourcis" which means "to hit (someone) violently", a fitting name for a badass warrior.
  • Also the German/Scandinavian variant 'Majestix' (majesty), fitting for a leader.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: Played with. If there is an all-out threat that Asterix and Obelix can't manage alone, he takes the potion to fight like everybody else (if he doesn't end dropped to the floor by his shield-bearers). He's also shown to be the second strongest person of the village after Obelix (whose Super-Strength is active all the time), capable of delivering a Megaton Punch to a Top-Heavy Guy bigger than him without the magic potion. In The Twelve Tasks of Asterix, it turns out that he is also a superb fencer and swordsman (even though his shield-bearers do the footwork; but that again implies good teamwork), besting a gladiator in a bout without ever resorting to the potion-induced super strength.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: In his good days. He is proud, easy to anger, and can be fooled or misled easily. But he is neither corrupt, nor tyrannical. He is a honorable man who fights along with his men and tries to take care of their interests.
• Running Gag: His shield bearers will drop him at least once in every book.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: He fought at Alesia, and while he got away with his life and Vercingetorix's shield the experience heavily scarred him, apparently leading him to fatten up due to stress-eating.
• Too Important to Walk: He's held up on a shield by two Gaulish shield-bearers. Unfortunately for his image, he ends up falling off for one reason or another (the main one being that he picks carriers who are two different heights).

The Chief's Shieldbearers

Two Gauls whom Chief Vitalstatistix hires to carry him on his shield. It never occurs to him that having shieldbearers of different sizes might cause balance problems.

• Big, Thin, Short Trio: The chief is big, the shieldbearers are thin and short respectively (leading to the thin one carrying most of the weight).
• Depending on the Writer: The Chief has a different-looking pair of shield-bearers until Asterix and Caesar's Gift, when he starts using the same pair: a short stocky Gaul and a tall thin Gaul (although the difference isn't as marked as when he uses Asterix and Obelix for the job).
• No Name Given: They aren't given any names.
• Take This Job and Shove It: The chief doesn't really give them much respect and they regularly quit. But they just as regularly come back.
• Those Two Guys: They are rarely seen apart.

Cacofonix (Assurancetourix)

Voiced in French by: Edgar Givry (1989), Michel Tugot-Doris (1994), Bernard Alane (2006), Arnaud Leonard (since 2014)

Voiced in English by: Geoffrey Russell (The Twelve Tasks of Asterix); Tim Brooke-Taylor (Asterix and the Big Fight UK dub); Greg Burson (Asterix and the Big Fight US dub); Rik Mayall (Asterix in America); Jess Harnell (Asterix and the Vikings); Alan D. Marriott (Asterix: The Mansions of the Gods, Asterix: The Secret of the Magic Potion)

Played by: Pierre Palmade (1999), Franck Dubosc (2008), Philippe Katerine (2023)

The village bard and school teacher, who is infamous for his bad singing voice.

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• Always Camp: He's a singer, therefore has camp mannerisms and an imagined image of himself as a great, tortured artist.
• Art Evolution: Cacofonix was altered from an older man to look like he was in his late twenties or so, became much skinnier and more angular, and his hair went from a smooth bob to Barbarian Longhair with a sticky-up fringe and finally to an entertainingly anachronistic 1970s rock star hairstyle.
• The Bard: Cacofonix is the village bard but he is a terrible musician.
• Born in the Wrong Century: Aninvoked Alternate Character Interpretation — In Asterix and the Normans it's implied he'd be The Rock Star nowadays, but no-one (except Justforkix) understands his art because it's 50BC. Later books dispense with this idea.
• Brown Note: He's such a Giftedly Bad musician, his music becomes this. How bad is it? It's been known to send hardened soldiers and Horny Vikings into mental trauma, scares away wild beasts including a freaking dragon, and causing rain presumably by angering the gods. And when he's trying to prove that his singing doesn't cause rain, it rains inside the house.
• Butt-Monkey: He's frequently tied up at the end of the book when the villagers are celebrating. Not allowed to sing and bother the other Gauls. ^note Frequently, but not always; he is present at the banquet in about a third of the books. He is also prevented from singing and gets beaten up, or otherwise incapacitated by other Gauls, most frequently by Fulliautomatix.
• Couch Gag: Is the subject of the series' endings, where he is frequently tied up at the village banquet so that he can't sing.
• Drama Queen: Never makes a fuss about his physical mistreatment by the other characters unless he wasn't going to sing, but other than that there is no misfortune he can't overreact to.
• Dreadful Musician: He provides the trope image. On occasion he's been shown to be an acceptable musician — for example, in Asterix and the Normans — but a terrible, terrible singer. He's so bad that he can cause storms to generate indoors. The other characters think nothing of resorting to violence to shut him up. None of this penetrates his illusion that he is a poetic genius...
• Fired Teacher: In Asterix and the Secret Weapon he is fired from his role as the village school teacher.
• Flanderization: Dreadful Musician Cacofonix starts out as at least an average bard — Asterix blows off listening to his music once due to being busy (which annoyed him) and the people sitting near to his performance at the final banquet are cringing with their hands over their ears, but the villagers also perform a plot-important traditional dance to his music with every indication that they are enjoying it. As the series progresses other characters, especially Fulliautomatix the blacksmith, start beating him up to prevent him from singing, which develops into a running gag, and he's shown to live in a hut at the top of a tree, where no-one can hear him. By the time Uderzo took over writing, he was so bad that he causes rain whenever he plays, which develops to the point where he ends up being so bad that merely playing a few notes creates an apocalyptic rainstorm that lasts for days.
• Giftedly Bad: Despite his complete lack of music and singing talent, there are several characters over the course of the series who absolutely love his singing, and it has saved the day several times (such as by teaching the Normans the meaning of fear in Asterix and the Normans, or ending the Ganges valley drought in Asterix and the Magic Carpet). That said he seems to be a good teacher.
• High Hopes, Zero Talent: In Asterix and the Normans, Cacofonix, who is a good instrumentalist but a unspeakably awful singer, is told off-the-cuff that his music is really good and he might do better in the city. Cacofonix becomes obsessed with this idea, and convinced that he will be a huge pop star there. He steals a horse and tries to ride there, singing for food. When he becomes needed as a Human Weapon against Horny Vikings, Obelix manages to locate him again, solely by following the trail of destruction caused by the pain and outrage of people exposed to his music. In particular, in one inn his voice caused a brawl so terrible the building was torn to pieces.
• Hollywood Costuming: Cacofonix's slowly evolving design caused him to end up with something of a 1970s retro-50s hairstyle around the time that this was happening in Real Life, but this is definitely intentional and based on his personality.
• Instrument of Murder: Has been seen beating Romans and Normans over the head with a carnyx (a Gaul warhorn made of metal).
• Intergenerational Friendship: "Friendship" is a bit strong, but the two people who like his singing are Pericles (a pre-teen who says it reminds him of the goats in his country) and Justforkix (a teenager for whom it sounds like the kind of loud hideous music hip young people listen to in Lutetia).
• Logical Weakness: His singing can be blocked out by stuffing one's ears (with parsley being the vegetable of choice).
• Nice Guy: He's said to be a very pleasant person as long as you don't let him sing. This is explicitly stated multiple times to be the reason why the Gaulish villagers keep him around at all, despite Cacofonix being a pretentious, delusional nuisance otherwise. Once you get past how Giftedly Bad he is and his complete inability to recognize it, he's shown to be among the most caring, thoughtful and reasonable of the villagers.
• Non-Action Guy: Unlike the other men of the village, he rarely takes part in fighting the Romans, only fighting when it is personal or there is no other option. Though he does do so a few times, such as beating the crap out of the Normans with a horn. He's outright identified in one book as the villager the Romans fear the least (and thus the best candidate to be kidnapped as a "present" for Caesar), although they tend to fear him as well not long after... for a different reason than his fellows, of course.
• Punny Name: Cacofonix, cacophony; Malacoustix, Mal + acoustics... less so in the original French (Assurances tous risques = Comprehensive insurance). Then again, while that would be seldom necessary, his treehouse is the best lookout spot for, say, a Roman attack. His German/Scandinavian name is Troubadix/Trubadurix, a play on his position as the village's troubadour.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Despite being a terrible singer, he thinks he is a talented one. The almost universally negative reactions of everyone who hears him do nothing to dispel his illusion.
• Suckiness Is Painful: Cacofonix's singing voice is so bad, it is the only thing that can teach the meaning of fear to the Normans. In fact short exposure to it mentally scars them. It also summons thunderstorms and drives wildlife away.
• Weather Manipulation: The later books give him the ability to summon thunderstorms even inside houses when he opens his mouth to sing. It's a plot point when introduced, as his newfound rainmaking talent is needed to prevent a drought and save a princess' life in India.

Fulliautomatix Semiautomatigos (Cétautomatix)

Voiced in French by: Georges Atlas (1976), Michel Gatineau (1986), Jean-Claude De Goros (1989), Pascal Renwick (2006), Lionnel Astier (2014-2018)

Played by: Jean-Roger Milo (1999), Eduardo Gomez (2008)

The blacksmith of the village.

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• Art Evolution: Fulliautomatix completely changes in both face and body from a rather plain overweight late-40s man with blond hair, to a late-30s, muscular, proud-looking character with hairy arms and red hair (although it's inconsistent). He also stopped wearing a shirt and replaced it with a leather apron.
• The Blacksmith: This is his job.
• The Bully: The most boorish and bloodthirsty of the Gauls; at least Obelix never sets off fights.
• Characterization Marches On: Fulliautomatix in Asterix the Gaul and Asterix and the Banquet looks and acts nothing like the character does in later books.
• Establishing Character Moment: His very first appearance (before it evolved and he got a hammer) as him forging metal with his fists.
• Everyone Has Standards: In one book, Geriatrix hits him on the foot, resulting in him hitting Cacofonix. When Cacofonix understandably complains about it, Fulliautomatix admits he just couldn't hit a fragile old geezer. This results in another fight with Geriatrix demanding someone hit him.
• Family Theme Naming: His father is Semiautomatix.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: He's a big, burly guy. His wife, on the other hand, is a tiny, pointy-nosed shrew of a woman.
• Jerkass: He's always starting fights with Unhygienix, hammering Cacofonix into the ground and mocking the advanced age of Geriatrix; he's basically the village bully.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Unhygienix's fishes are never fresh. And Cacofonix's music is that bad.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: See Vitriolic Best Buds below. He even asked Cacophonix if he wants to sing before leaving the village to cheer him up.
• Punny Name: "Fully automatic". His original French name is a play on "c'est automatique", "it's automatic".
• Those Two Guys: With Unhygienix. They are almost always paired in scenes in which they appear.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Unhygienix. He mocks the stale fish of the fishmonger and regularly starts brawls with him. But he always hangs out with him and they frequently fight side by side. He has also let on on a couple of occasions that deep down he doesn't really hate Cacofonix either.
• Weapons of Their Trade: He's a blacksmith, so he's often seen with a hammer, which he seems to be all too willing to use on Cacofonix and against the Roman soldiers in battle.

Unhygienix (Ordralfabetix)

Voiced in French by: Yves Barsacq (1986), Jean Dautremay (1994), Bernard Métraux (2006), François Morel (since 2014)

Played by: Jean-Jacques Devaux (1999), Tony Gaultier (2008), Chicandier (2023)

The fisherman of the village, who also sells his fish (imported from Lutetia by ox cart, a two-week trip) in the market.

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• Berserk Button: Don't say his fish isn't fresh.
• Disability Immunity: One story has Getafix subject the entire village to a pestilential potion to expose a "Scooby-Doo" Hoax. Unhygienix is the only one unaffected due to spending so much time surrounded by rotting fish.
• Historical In-Joke: Is okay with being paid in menhirs, because he owns some land he wants to build up.
• Honor Before Reason: He is proud of his fish stock, and will attack anyone who criticizes it. The Great Crossing Story plays with this: He insists on ordering fish all the way from Lutetia, because that's where all the best fish comes from. With that said, he has been seen fishing for his stock in other stories, so that rule isn't really ironclad.
• Insane Troll Logic: Lutetia is the cultural and economic center of Gaul, so obviously, to get the best fish you have to import it from there. Nevermind that the trip takes two weeks and food preservation is in it's infancy, meaning that whatever winds up in Unhygenix market stalls stopped qualifying as "fresh" a long time ago.
• Meaningful Name:
  • In the British edition, he's Unhygienix. In the American, he's Epidemix. His wife's name, appropriately enough, is Bacteria.
  • In the original French, his name isn't related to his job, it's Ordralfabetix from "ordre alphabétique" (alphabetical order). His wife, however, is named Ielosubmarine.
• Only Sane Man: In "Asterix and the Roman Agent" he proves to be more level-headed and less vulnerable to paranoia and Convovulus' manipulations than most of the village, trying to break up the fish fights between the women, and refusing to believe that Asterix is a traitor who sold the magic potion to romans until he sees proofs of it. He only buys the claim after Convovulus stage a "demonstration" to make it look like romans have the potion.
• Punny Name: His German name is Verleihnix, which is short for "verleih nichts" = "lend nothing".
• Shamu Fu: His preferred method of fighting involves using his own wares as pestilential bludgeons.
• Those Two Guys: With Fulliautomatix. They are almost always paired in scenes in which they appear.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Again, with Fulliautomatix, who mocks the fishmonger's stale fish and regularly starts brawls with him. But he always hangs out with him and they frequently fight side by side when they show up in the big battle scenes.
• Way Past the Expiration Date: His wares at the start of Asterix And the Great Crossing; due to a "cart strike" in Lutetia, Unhygienix is at the end of his fish stock, which is on the wrong side of turning to mush at this point.

Geriatrix (Agecanonix)

Played by: Sim (1999 and 2008)

The oldest villager.

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• Adaptational Wimp: His live-action counterpart in the first movie is much more played as a Butt-Monkey.
• Berserk Button: In contrast to his proud recollection of Gergovia (see Glory Days, below), if anyone mentions the Battle of Alesia (Caesar's final defeat of Vercingetorix and the Gauls) Geriatrix will fly into a rage, shouting that he doesn't know anything about Alesia and nobody even knows where Alesia is (the latter is also a joke, referring to the fact that the site of Alesia was, for a long time, much disputed among historians and archaeologists).
• Crazy Jealous Guy: He drops the whipped husband routine when his wife so much as comments on someone's else physique.
• Dirty Old Man: Though it's not as obvious as more well-known examples, he still goes around Eating the Eye Candy when the opportunity presents itself.
• Glory Days: He fought at the Battle of Gergovia and is quite eager to remind everyone of it. (We showed them in 52! 52 BC, that is.)
• Henpecked Husband: Geriatrix constantly follows his wife's orders and demands and does all of the household chores, as well as pamper her, in spite of his advanced age. Since Asterix is a cartoon for adults, it's also implied that his wife is freed from the usual "wifely obligations". So it's something of a trade-off. Still, Geriatrix is perfectly able to fight Romans, party, drink and chase skirts as soon he gets out of his wife's eyesight.
• Hypocritical Humor: Dislikes being called old, but is more than willing to bring up his elderly status when it benefits him.
• May–December Romance: His wife is still a very young woman while he looks like he could be her grandfather.
• Meal Ticket: Averted. His incredibly sexy and much younger wife really does love him.
• Miniature Senior Citizens: It's never shown what he looked like in his prime, but in his old age, he's by far one of the shortest adults in the village, not helped by the fact that he's usually hunched over on his cane.
• The Napoleon: Very short (as short as Asterix) and has a bad temper.
• Not Worth Killing: He's absolutely furious when Fulliautomatix won't hit him back because he's too old, demanding to be thumped during the ensuing brawl.
• Oh, Crap!: When he hears the Romans might have the magic potion and they don't.
  Geriatrix: It's Alesia, it's Alesia all over again!
• Politically Incorrect Hero: He doesn't like foreigners. Taken to Fantastic Racism levels in Asterix and Caesar's Gift.
• Power-Up Food: Whenever he drinks the Magic Potion, he makes quick work of the Romans standing in his way, just like the other villagers.
• Punny Name: From "geriatric", an elderly person. His French name is taken from Âge canonique, meaning "very old age" (Actually, it means the "minimal age mandated by canon" for female servants to join the Church! Part of the humor comes of course from his own advanced age, but also indirectly from the fact that clearly his spouse is much younger than the canonical age!). His German name Methusalix also comes from methusalem, as symbol for his old age.
• Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior!: Zigzagged. While he is a Grumpy Old Man, he demands that he be targeted in fights.
• The Tooth Hurts: At the start of one album, he's got a nasty tooth ache, making him a lot more subdued than usual (and he doesn't have a lot of teeth to spare either). Unfortunately, there are no dentists yet, so Asterix and Obelix escort him to a blacksmith in another village to have it removed, much to his terror. Having the bad tooth removed re-energizes him.
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Despite being an ugly old man, he has a very beautiful wife.

Impedimenta (Bonnemine)

Played by: Marianne Sägebrecht (1999), Dorothée Jemma (2008)

Vitalstatistix's wife, who proudly protects her status as the village's "first lady".

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• Apron Matron: Despite not having kids, she acts as a strict mother for the villagers and her husband. Her character in the theme park is even always depicted with an apron.
• Deadpan Snarker: Tend to snark at her husband whenever he declare himself the village's chief.
• Fatal Flaw: In a nutshell, pride. Impedimenta loves being thought of as someone important, and her desire to be seen as important is usually behind her moments of causing drama.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: She takes slights very badly.
• Hidden Heart of Gold: She seldom shows a softer side, but it does exist.
• Meaningful Name: In the English version, her name refers to both her dominance over her husband and her tendency to stir up trouble with her pride, politicking or gossip.
• Obnoxious In-Laws: Her brother is a very successful businessman in Lutetia, and she hopes her husband will end up going into business with him. Even though they both despise each other as a country bumpkin / Nouveau Riche respectively.
• Pink Means Feminine
• The Rival: She is constantly fighting a game of one-upsmanship with Mrs. Geriatrix.
• Rolling Pin of Doom: Her weapon every time she gets into a Cat Fight, or the rare times she fights the Romans for real along with the rest of the villagers.
• Supreme Chef: Not only Impedimenta describe herself as the village's best cook in Asterix and Obelix All at Sea , but Asterix and Obelix confirmed this before, by remembering fondly her onions sauce while starving on their boat in Asterix and the Great Crossing.
• What Does She See in Him?: Invoked, in that she sometimes asks herself why she married Vitalstatistix. The uncharitable implication is that she wed him for the status of being the Chieftain's Wife, only for reality to sink in when it turned out Vitalstatistix was only chief of a small, backwater village and not some place big and important. Still, to be fair to Impedimenta, she doesn't complain about it that often, and there are signs that she does love Vitalstatistix — she just wishes he was a bit more politically ambitious. At worst she still wants to be with Vitalstatistix but have him work for his brother as a successful businessman instead of being a chieftain.
• Women Are Wiser: On occasion, she'll puncture her husband's ego when he's getting too rapped up in his own rhethoric, but can be just as pig-headed and temperental as him.

Mrs. Geriatrix (Mme Agecanonix)

Played by: Arielle Dombasle (1999), Adriana Karembeu (2008)

Geriatrix's young, sexy and nameless wife. She has a marked resemblence to Brigitte Bardot as she would have looked in the early sixties - especially as BB would have styled her hair in that same red-blonde colour for the movies she was making.

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• Alpha Bitch: She occasionally gives off the vibe that she wants to be one — though since Impedimenta is the "First Lady" of the village, Mrs. Geriatrix just can't quite reach this status. Not that she won't make the occasional attempt.
• Cat Fight: Often gets into these with Impedimenta. A variation as well since both women have quite a violent streak.
• Fiery Redhead: She's got red hair, and she can get violent when she's riled up.
• Gold Digger: Subverted: despite marrying a man three times (at best) her age and treating him as a House Husband, there is no implication that she did so for money or status.
• Hidden Depths: At first she may seem like there's not much too her other than her looks — but she's actually quite crafty and intelligent.
• Impossible Hourglass Figure: The most obvious example in the comic.
• May–December Romance: She is still a very young woman. Her husband looks like he could be her grandfather.
• No Name Given: She's one of few characters who is never named, in any language (although sometimes given the name "Taillefine" ("narrow waist" in French, also a brand of diet yogurt). She has been referred to as "Geriatrix's Wife" (by Geriatrix no less) and "Mrs Geriatrix," but never gets a name of her own.
• Redhead In Green: Her default appearance.
• Statuesque Stunner: Sexy character and also the tallest woman in the village.
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: She is extremely attractive. Her husband is an unattractive old man.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Impedimenta. There's nothing stopping them from fighting like wildcats at one moment, and then have a pleasant chat over a cup of goat's milk the next.

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