The characters of John Allison's Bobbinsverse, sorted by which comic they were introduced in. Some trope titles may give away spoilers, so view at your own risk.
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Debuted in Bobbins:
Shelley Winters
Tropes associated with Shelley:
- All Women Are Lustful: The trope may not be active in its full form in the Bobbinsverse, but, well — Shelley's erotic novels were rejected for being too racy.
- Back from the Dead: Repeatedly. It infuriates Death no end.
- Breakout Character: Went from one of the main cast of Bobbins to the star of Scary Go Round, Destroy History, New Bobbins, Bobbins.Horse and several one-offs.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Almost literally. Shelley is a qualified lawyer, and proves very good at it on the odd occasions she goes to court, but she's mostly too flaky for the role. (She may have a fear of judges.) However, she seems to be destined to get over this; by the year 2032, she will claim to be “England & Wales’s most successful trial lawyer”.
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: She's not all there and even her closest friends admit she's a bit nuts.
- Creator Breakdown: As detailed on the main page, her affair with Tim causes her to go through this.
- Determinator: Once she sets out to do something, she rarely gives up.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Amy.
- Intrepid Reporter: During her time on the Tackleford Cormorant.
- Magnetic Hero: Most people she meets tend to like her, and even some who are irritated by her will still come to her aid.
- Motor Mouth: Has a tendency to go on and on about whatever she's talking about at the moment.
- Ms. Fanservice: Has a love of short skirts with either tight leggings or no leggings depending on the season.
- My Biological Clock Is Ticking: After she accidentally gets pregnant by Tim, she decides to keep the baby because time is passing.
- Nice Girl: Is fairly sweet, for all her kookiness.
- No Accounting for Taste: Her taste in men is often questionable to say the least.
- Parental Substitute: To Desmond Fishman. Not a very good one, but Desmond is beyond help.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Gives up on Desmond Fishman after reuniting with him but then discovering that he's squandered his late father's fortune and fails to see what dire financial straits he's in.
- Significant Green-Eyed Redhead: The weird and unforgettable heart of the Bobbinsverse's strangeness.
- Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Shelley goes through phases of seeking Mr. Right. When she makes a guest appearance in the Giant Days 2017 Holiday Special, Esther, Susan, and Daisy realise that she's lonely in London, and try to guide her into this plot. It doesn't work quite right.
- Time Police: Part of a very British version in Destroy History.
- Unwanted Assistance: Amy appreciated the sentiment during her stint as her maid of honor buuut...Shelley: Go take her maidenhead and set forth!
- Weirdness Magnet: Tends to find her way into weird supernatural shenanigans. It eventually turns out that part of this may be due to the time travelling Scout Jones trying to prevent her from getting together with Scout's father Tim. Though that was a massive Retcon, and the cause of the weirdness is quite weird in itself...
Tim Jones
Tropes associated with Tim:
- Agent Mulder: One of the least skeptical people in the Tackleverse — perhaps because he is, really, a Mad Scientist.
- Beard of Sorrow: Tim grows shaggy during his months in the woods.
- Chick Magnet: Over the three comics he's featured in, he manages to attract Illeanna, Unit Daisy, Amy, Fallon, Riley and Shelley — without really trying with any of them outside of the first case.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Tim's built everything, from time machines to robots. It eventually turns out that he’s been making a lot of use of his father’s notes, but even so...
- Happily Married: for a while, to Riley, following his exile to New Bobbins. She eventually exiles him back to Tackleford after he supposedly blows their house up and divorces him after he cheats on her with Shelley.
- Heroic BSoD: Absolutely loses his mind after cheating on Riley with Shelley and having the former serve him his divorce papers, retreating to a cabin in the woods for months and inadvertently tapping into a portal to another dimension that nearly destroys the world.
- Mad Scientist: For all his easygoing charm, Tim is more than a little nuts. He's brilliant at applying advanced and often deranged science in his inventions, but doesn't always think through the consequences — and he doesn't believe in testing, because that would imply lack of faith in his own genius.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Tim is wracked with horrible amounts of guilt after cheating on his wife with Shelley.
- Oblivious to Love: Tim never realises that Amy has a crush on him. This is possibly explained in Bobbins.Horse as him being uncomfortable with her young age.
- Official Couple: With Riley for a while, then with Shelley after his marriage crumbles and he finally comes to terms with it — except that Shelley (of all people) apparently decides that he's too much of a walking disaster area to actually live with.
- Put on a Bus: Exiled to Wales partway through Scary Go Round and only returns for a brief cameo towards the end. He returns to Main Character status in New Bobbins.
- Robosexual: Briefly dates his own creation, Unit Daisy, before she leaves him for another robot.
- Taking the Heat: For his daughter Scout when her mistake causes their house to blow up, so she won't have that hanging over her head with her mother for the rest of her life.
- Took a Level in Kindness: He was a sexist ass during most of Bobbins. After losing Illeanna, he softens up a bit and is a fairly nice guy from then on. His appearances in Bobbins.Horse and Expecting to Fly scale back his assholishness during that period considerably.
- Universally Beloved Leader: As Mayor, he was loved by all but his fellow inventors. Even years later, Mildred's dad still remembers his time in office fondly.
- Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: Initially.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: With Rich, though the relationship turns to outright hatred over time, with the two at each other's throats when they reunite years later.
Amy Beckwith-Chilton
Tropes associated with Amy:
- Big Sister Mentor: To Shauna.
- Cannot Spit It Out: Is unable to tell Tim how he she feels before he ends up with Riley.
- Character Tics: Her eyes tend to narrow when she's teasing someone.
- Character Development: Goes from an irresponsible brat to the proud owner of her own business.
- Daddy's Girl: Loves her dad Len dearly, though her teen years apparently involved her keeping her wild side secret from him.
- Deadpan Snarker: And always with a delighted grin on her face.
- Happily Married: To Ryan.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Shelley.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Refuses to break up Tim's relationship with Riley, despite the latter's suspicions she'd try. Later on she reveals she's in love with Ryan but refuses to interfere with his relationship with Sarah. Luckily for her, Sarah and Ryan amicably part ways soon after and Amy closes out the strip holding Ryan's hand.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She'll make jabs at pretty much everyone she cares about, but she's got a good heart.
- Lovable Sex Maniac
- Ms. Fanservice: During Scary Go Round, getting a bath scene and wearing revealing outfits during the spring and summer months.
- Really Gets Around: To the point Shelley stops living with her for a while over it. She gets better towards the end of Scary Go Round.
- Spoiled Brat: During Bobbins, Bobbins.Horse and early Scary Go Round.
- Unwanted Rescue: When Tessa and Rachel show up to save her from a dimension where she's a beloved poet.
Ryan Beckwith
Tropes associated with Ryan:
- Adults Are Useless: Averted. After finding out Jack is being bullied, he tracks down the bully, drags him in and gets the boy expelled.
- The Alcoholic: In the alternate timeline in "Case Of The Forked Road".
- Beard of Sorrow: Grows a massive one after a year with no relationships.
- Breakout Character: He was a minor character in Bobbins, but became one of the leads in Scary Go Round and is a major supporting character in Bad Machinery.
- Butt-Monkey: He's been brainwashed, thrown down a garbage chute, and punched in the face, had his unconscious body kidnapped by an order of satanic nuns, and had his pet die on him during said kidnapping. And that's not even getting into his love life. (See Love Hurts below.)
- Cerebus Retcon: His father being a Hobo was mostly played for laughs during Scary Go Round. Expecting To Fly casts it in a darker light, with his Dad taking him out to drink regularly and almost getting him into crime.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: He's not as daft as Shelley, but he has his moments.
- Cool Teacher: He tries to be a Stern Teacher, but his students fail to buy it. Even after they leave his class, the girls still look up to and admire him.
- Cry for the Devil: After the above expulsion. He doesn't regret what he did, but he still feels bad the kids education ended there.
- Friends Are Chosen, Family Aren't: Ryan tends to react negatively to his father. This doesn't make him look bad, though, as the mild-mannered Ryan is quite polite about this, and his father is, depending which of the strips you read, at best a feckless tramp, at worst a career criminal who almost dragged the young Ryan into crime.
- Hot Teacher: His students comment on his attractiveness early on.
- Insecure Love Interest: Refuses to go after Amy at first because he feels he isn't good enough. Shelley convinces him otherwise.
- Know-Nothing Know-It-All: His music knowledge at times is... questionable to say the least.Ryan: The thing you have to know about Dexy's Midnight Runners is there were dozens of em, all fighting like cats in a sack.
- Limited Wardrobe: Wore only a Captain America shirt for a while. Amy burns it to stop this and afterwords his outfits tend to change as much as everyone else's.
- Love Hurts: His relationship with Natalie, who died tragically. His other relationships before Amy weren't bad, but ended painfully.
- May–December Romance: With Sarah, who was in Secondary School at the time.
- Nerd Glasses: Wears these in an attempt to look more adult as a teacher. He wears them on and off outside of teaching.
- Nice Guy: Probably the nicest guy in the Tackleverse.
- Out of Focus: During Bobbins.Horse, due to not working at City Limit.
- Perma-Stubble: During Bobbins, Bobbins.Horse and Scary Go Round.
- The Pig-Pen: Early in Scary Go Round. Shelley and Amy fix this, but there's still traces afterwards, and he eventually relapses badly; Amy pulling him fully out of this is the basis of their shared offstage Character Development into maturity.
- Remember the New Guy?: Suddenly pops up as Tim's friend during Bobbins.
- Turn Out Like His Father: Subverted. His mother feared this in his youth, and he probably would have if not for Shelley's intervention, but by Bad Machinery he's a loving husband and father with zero intention of taking his father's place as King of the Tramps.
- Weirdness Magnet: Might surpass Shelley in this regard.
- What the Hell, Hero?:
- Lays into Riley after figuring out she's the one who set Tim up to fail the invent-off and get exiled.
- Lays into Rich in Bobbins.Horse for getting Amy drunk.
Rich Tweedy
Tropes associated with Rich:
- Animal Wrongs Group: Is part of one when he returns in New Bobbins.
- Betty and Veronica: The Veronica to Eustace's Betty and Erin's Archie.
- Butt-Monkey: Nothing ever really goes right for him.
- Casanova Wannabe: To Tim's annoyance.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Touches an extradimenisonal spire that mangles his body horribly.
- Dirty Coward: Tries to abandon Eustace to die. Erin has none of it.
- May–December Romance: Briefly has one with Erin until she sees how much of an idiot he is.
- Official Couple: With Amy, Shelley and Illeanna at different points in time.
- Put on a Bus: Twice. First when he leaves with Illeanna when she goes back home, and then when Holly fires him from City Limit. The Bus Came Back for the "In The Woods" arc of New Bobbins.
Holly West
Tropes associated with Holly:
- Jerkass Has a Point: When she returns in New Bobbins, she's quick to blame Tim for the devil bears and tries to get away from him. While she's quite rude about it, she's absolutely right.
- Official Couple: With Van Dyke.
- Only Sane Man: During the early parts of Bobbins and Bobbins.Horse.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: When she returns towards the end of Bobbins, thanks to her split personality she alienates all of her friends and acts like a bitter tyrant, to the point they put together a plan to take her out.
- Tyrant Takes the Helm: Upon taking over City Limit.
Len Pickering
Tropes associated with Len:
- Dirty Old Man: During Bobbins, he had a habit of hitting on and leering at Holly and Shelley. This is quietly retconned out during New Bobbins.
- Good Parents: Truly loves and supports his daughter. The worst he does is cut her off financially, and that's strictly because she quit school.
- Heroic BSoD: Doesn't take Amy getting tattoos well. And takes her writing Shelley's sex Collumn even worse.
- Mean Boss: He ridicules his employees in a meeting and uses his pull to get Shelley to look after Amy.
Fallon Young
Tropes associated with Fallon:
- The Cameo: After disappearing for nearly a decade, she shows up for a cameo still working for Hugo in "The Case of the Missing Piece."
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: During Bobbins. She may seem more crazy than she is at other times, because she's genuinely involved in international espionage.
- Demoted to Extra: The only Bobbins regular not to pop up during Bobbins Now.
- Official Couple: With Tim's brother Van Dyke during Bobbins and with Ryan for part of Scary Go Round.
- Overt Operative: Zig-Zagged. She can pull off a decent disguise, but when she's not undercover she wears a Spy Catsuit most of the time.
- Resignations Not Accepted: Gets sent to an island that's a parody of The Village after attempting to retire.
- Spy Catsuit: She’s a secret agent. It seems to be mandatory.
Rachel Dukakis-Monteforte
Tropes associated with Rachel:
- Deadpan Snarker: A fairly standard attribute of major characters in the setting.
- Deal with the Devil: Makes one to stop herself from dying. It ends poorly for her, especially after she tries to welch on it.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Her rivalry with Shelley gets to the point that she sics a biker gang on her and gets her shot and killed for the second time.
- Face–Heel Turn: After getting Shelley killed for a brief while.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Twice!
- The same biker gang she sics on Shelley goes after her once Ryan reveals what she did.
- Her own satanic nuns burn her alive.
- Nerd Glasses: Part of her usual look.
- Sesquipedalian Smith: An inversion for no particular reason, but why not?
- Ship Tease: With Ryan and Tim. Neither went anywhere.
- Kill It with Fire: Burned to death inside a sacrificial effigy, Wicker Man style.
- Out of Focus: Started as the lead of Scary Go Round before being pushed out for Shelley.
Tessa Davies
Tropes Associated With Tessa:
- Deadpan Snarker: Towards Rachel.
- Only Sane Man: To Rachel's antics.
- Out of Focus: See Rachel's example above.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Is last seen in an order of satanic nuns, watching her best friend burn alive with a worried look on her face. She subsequently vanishes, but returns many years later in the especially weird 2017 Scary Go Round story that resurrects several forgotten characters.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Tells Rachel to fess up to what she did to Shelley after finding out about it.
Illeanna Godmundsdottir
Tropes associated with Illeanna:
- No Accounting for Taste: Tim wasn't exactly the best guy when they dated, Rich was only slightly better and both ended up cheating on her.
- Only Sane Man: For Tim.
- What the Hell, Hero?: She dosen't like Tim's scheme to literally build Rich a girlfriend and dumps Tim immediately after finding him sleeping with Unit Daisy.
Van Dyke Jones
Tropes associated with Van Dyke:
- The Ace: He's successful with women and a talented musician.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Doesn't show up at all after Bobbins. Especially noticeable in Expecting To Fly where both Erin and Riley show up with their siblings but Van Dyke goes unmentioned and unseen.
- Nice Guy: So far as has been seen.
- Official Couple: With Holly and then Fallon.
Elliot Schlesinger
Tropes associated with Elliot:
- Out of Focus: He's introduced with the rest of the main cast, but is never really that important. This extends to Bobbins.Horse where he's still around, but isn't even featured on the cast page, while both Ryan and Erin, who were introduced late into the original and after it respectively, are.
- Token Black Friend: To Shelley, Rich and Ryan. He's a black friend of the main cast but tends to be Out of Focus.
Bill Tweedy
Tropes associated with Bill:
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: He's a bit out of touch but not a bad manager.
- Cool Old Guy: The nicest of the three City Limit editors and beloved by his staff to boot.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: His moving on to a better job leads to Holly taking over the position; her reign of terror on top of his out-of-touchness leaves the magazine weak enough for her to sink it on the way out.
Vicki Earp
Tropes associated with Vicki:
- Ax-Crazy: She kidnaps Tim's first girlfriend to try and keep her away from him so she can have him, for starters.
- Stalker with a Crush: Towards Tim. She grows out of it eventually.
Scout Jones
Tropes associated with Scout:
- Butt-Monkey: The very young Scout sees her parents' marriage break up. Then, as she grows up, she apparently acquires a series of half-sisters who she can't stand. Then, probably because she's trying to change the past and actually creating a Stable Time Loop, the time travelling adult Scout sees all her plans defeated by a series of weird accidents and coincidences, and realises that she's caused at least two things she set out to prevent — her father leaving her mother, and then him proposing to Shelley. In a last throw of the dice, she tries to kill Shelley... And, well, anyone whose plan is foiled by Desmond Fishman, even accidentally, is really having a bad life.
- Loophole Abuse: A childish version; when told not to touch Tim's invention, Scout decides that she's not touching it if she pokes it with a screwdriver. That doesn't end well.
- Parental Abandonment: When her parents split up, Scout sees herself as having been abandoned by Tim, especially when he takes up with Shelley. Ironically, this happens because Tim was trying to protect Scout from blame for the family home having been blown up. Super-ironically, the explosion eventually turns out to have been caused by a time travelling older version of Scout trying to keep the family together.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Scout's goal in the "Hard Yards" storyline. That doesn't end well either.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: A weird version. We first see Scout as a very sweet pre-schooler, then threatening revenge on Shelley for taking Tim away from her mother — which is less sweet, but understandable and even realistic for a child in those circumstances. Then, Erin and Eustace discover that Tim's time travelling "father" is really his disguised daughter from the future, who has been trying to avert what she sees as a personal Bad Future by methods including repeated attempts to murder Shelley, blowing up her own family's home, and inducing Tim to build an invention that nearly destroys the world.
- You Can't Fight Fate: Scout wants to use Time Travel to keep her parents together and prevent the birth of her hated half-sisters. It doesn't work, and may simply create a Stable Time Loop (and a lot of death and suffering).
Debuted in Scary Go Round:
Riley Beckwith
Tropes associated with Riley:
- Annoying Younger Sibling: To Ryan as a kid.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: When Tim brings Amy back as his assitant, she drives her off, fearing she'll try to take Tim away.
- Easily Forgiven: Tim forgives her for exiling him to Wales, having already pieced things together and having grown tired of being mayor.
- Happily Married: To Tim, until New Bobbins.
- Not So Above It All: Believes in aliens it turns out. Though given the universe she's in, she's probably not that out of line.
- Remember the New Guy?: A worse case than her own brother. She shows up in Tim's bed and it's only afterwords we find out who she is. Especially bad given Amy's crush on Tim wasn't resolved in any fashion beforehand.
- Yandere: Manipulates events so that Tim gets exiled to Wales, just so she can have some peace, then destroys the evidence that could get him back to Tackleford.
Eustace "The Boy" Boyce
Tropes Associated with "The Boy":
- Betty and Veronica: The Archie to Erin's Betty and Esther's Veronica and later the Betty to Rich's Veronica and Erin's Archie.
- Big Beautiful Man: For a while in New Bobbins.
- Butt-Monkey: No one treats him with any real respect. Even as an adult Mildred and Tim both ride roughshod over him.
- Deadpan Snarker: At times.Eustace: Here I got you an old fashioned sympathy drink.
Tim: Thanks Eustace... wait this is just water.
Eustace: Yeah this shows all the sympathy I have for a guy who has a steamy affair one week after being separated from his wife.
Tim: I probably shouldn't drink this. - Formerly Fit: As an adult, he's put on quite a bit of weight. However, he becomes Formerly Fat after shedding the weight. After his eventual return from Hell, he settles down to looking solid but not flabby.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Post Time Skip, he's quite the laser technician and later makes an eldritch computer to communicate with Erin.
- He's All Grown Up: Before and after losing his excess weight.
- Hey, You!: Everyone just calls him The Boy during Scary Go Round and Giant Days. Averted as an adult.
- Hopeless Suitor: Had a crush on Amy when first introduced. Naturally, it went nowhere.
- Hormone-Addled Teenager: As The Boy.
- Love Hurts: His relationship with Esther ends badly and leaves him pining for her for the next five years. He later reconnects with Erin only to lose her after she gives up her soul to save his. He then dies trying to contact her, and goes to Hell, albeit romantically and only temporarily.
- Love Triangle: See Betty and Veronica above.
- Official Couple: With Esther until Giant Days. Later issues reveal that he ended up with Sarah shortly afterwards, but that only lasted a couple of months. Post-timeskip, he hits it off with Erin again. They finally become a solid couple in "Whatever Happened To Erin Winters".
- Together in Death: After he dies, his soul is reformed as Science, Erin's steed in Hell. This being the Bobbinsverse, death turns out not to be permanent.
- The Voiceless: As Erin's steed Science.
- Weight Woe: He absolutely hates the pounds he's put on and is surprised Erin likes him despite it.
Esther de Groot
Tropes Associated with Esther:
- Alone Among the Couples: At least amongst the main cast in Giant Days, Esther is the only one single, not in a relationship: as of Giant Days: As Times Goes By, Susan and McGraw are in a relationship living together, Daisy is also pursuing a relationship with her new girlfriend Saffy; Ed's current status with Nina is somewhat unknown, but most likely they are still together.
- Brainwashed: Esther is brainwashed into loving the evil Bob Crowley by the man himself. The spell later breaks and she reunites with The Boy soon after.
- Badass Decay: In Scary Go Round, Esther is a snarky, courageous goth capable of taking down almost anyone who crosses her, handling problems on her own and not taking shit from anyone. However, in Giant Days, she seems less capable of fighting or solving serious issues on her own, and takes a backseat to Susan and Daisy, who do most of the leadership and problem solving. Esther is often relegated to being the trio's cheerleader, often requiring guidance to help her function in college, at least at first. This seems to be a case of a confident, energetic adolescent encountering the responsibilities and challenges of the adult world, and finding it hard to grow up. She grows more responsible and sensible over the course of the series, but her fighting skills and zanier traits have vanished or are dialled down. (Admittedly, the world of Giant Days generally seems less zany and receptive to violent solutions than that of Scary Go Round, so the classic Esther may just be less effective there. Again, this reflects the difference between adolescence and adulthood.) In the finale, Giant Days: As Time Goes By, she has lost all semblance of confidence and dignity and is entirely incapable of speaking up or standing up for herself. During the climatic showdown between her and swarming armies of Cressidas, it is Susan and Daisy who mostly do the heavy lifting.
- Brainless Beauty: She looks this way in Giant Days,. She's actually very intelligent, and her "idiocy" is more a matter of a lack of study and motivation than real unintelligence. She even calls herself a "Sexy Idiot".Susan Ptolemy: (internal monologue) Esther could be smart if she tried. But this wasn't one of her trying months.
- Breakout Character: Esther goes from a one shot hoodlum siccing Big Lindsey on Amy to one of the main characters of Scary Go Round and Giant Days.
- Character Development: She's quite closed off when first introduced, but she gradually becomes more outgoing. By Giant Days, she's a regular party animal. In fact, Giant Days also has her going through a slow realization that her carefree ways are hurting those around her.
- Chekhov's Skill: Her "drama field" from the first Boom! issue of Giant Days comes back into play into issue 6. See We Need a Distraction below.
- Cool Big Sis: Acts as a second one to Lottie and a surrogate one to Daisy.
- Cloudcuckoolander: More so in Giant Days than Scary Go Round, where she's just a bit flaky sometimes; in the later comic, she's capable of being quite weird, though that may be a bit of a defence mechanism when things get difficult, and she can also be surprisingly effective when she's being eccentric. (Also, the world of university is less weird than Tackleford, so she looks more weird by comparison to her surroundings.) When she apparently turns into a sparkly manga-style character while playing cricket, it drives the opposition to distraction.
- Crazy-Prepared: While baking some cupcakes for her boyfriend, she made a backup tray, figuring that Susan, who didn't approve of the relationship or how Esther was changing to suit it, would toss the first one. She was entirely right, though Susan saved one for herself.
- Deadpan Snarker: Especially towards Milford, and towards anyone who annoys her in her university days.
- Decoy Protagonist: Initially, in Giant Days. While Esther is the poster character on the original cover in issue #1 and was the central protagonist of the initial 3-issue webcomic that preceded the main series, it is actually Susan who the main lead, at least in the first few issues, even acting as the narrator of the series. However, this only lasts for a few issues, as the series has an assemble cast with the trio all getting equal attention.
- Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Especially when drawn by someone other than John Allison.
- Freudian Trio: Esther plays the Id to Daisy's Ego and Susan's Superego.
- Genki Girl: Usually takes a sunnier demeaner overall,but she is this In Giant Days.
- Goth Girls Know Magic: Averted and somewhat deconstructed by Esther. She's not notably any more effective than anyone else at dealing with the Tackleford Weirdness, and when she and The Boy have a brief run-in with fairies on a trip to Wales, and he comments on her (lack of) response, she responds with embarrassment and irritation.The Boy: I thought you were dark, Esther. Of the night and hip to spells.
Esther: Um... Fairies...
The Boy: Yes?
Esther:...are like wasps in camisoles. - Heroic BSoD: Esther is sometimes a bit too good at the "dark" thing...
- She goes into a deep depression after The Boy breaks up with her.
- She goes through this again after her teaching assistant ex-boyfriend marks her down on a paper out of spite, leading to her contemplating whether she belongs at university and telling her father she's dropping out.
- It only gets worse afterwords as her friends are busy, Eustace refuses to speak to her and her new job to make up for not going to university is horrible... And then she finds out Sarah and Eustace are going out behind her back. It takes Susan stepping in to help things get better, leading to her patching things up with the both of them and returning to education.
- She goes through this in issue 33, in which Esther sees herself in panic mode when she can't a place to live because no one at university wants to live with her. Halfway through the issue, she breaks down in tears, contemplating how everyone in college (outside the main cast) dislikes her if not outright hate her, though that could be her 'drama queen' talk so to speak Things turn around by the end of the issue though as Ed offers her a spot at the house he's staying at for the year, though much to Dean's dismay.
- She undergoes it once again in the final issue, Giant Days: As Times Goes By, where she is working as a publishing assistant in London. Basically her life falls apart. She is under the supervision of two slippery women both named Cressida, who manipulate Esther into overworking, keeping her from visiting her friends. Esther returns to Sheffield to visit after months away and while Daisy is overjoyed to see her, Susan has grown bitter, even at times hateful of Esther, thinking she forgot about them entirely. After Susan leaves Esther due to her inability to say no to the Cressidas, who followed her from London, Esther finally breaks down in tears in front of Daisy admitting how she ghosted her friends, not wanting to spread her misery onto them. She comes clean to Susan, and following the trio's showdown against the Cressidas, Esther finally gains some confidence back, and decide to regain control of her life.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She can be selfish and impulsive at times, but she is quite friendly most of the time and she truly cares about her friends.
- Large Ham: In her brief stint as an actress, though it's mostly the material. She can also get quite hammy when suffering from self-pity.
- May–December Romance: She briefly dates her TA, but it falls apart due to his Control Freak nature and their age difference.
- Ms. Fanservice: Has had a handful of discreet nude scenes in Scary Go Round and wears a handful of sexy outfits during Giant Days; her movie outfit in issue 15 is particularly notable. Though she grows a bit more modest as she ages.
- Oblivious to Love: She has no idea Ed is into her. When he tells her he loves her (then quickly tells her something else to make her think she misheard him) she looks absolutely shocked. She only develops feelings for him when it is too late.
- Perky Goth: A textbook example. Her and Daisy's present to Susan for her birthday is a horrifying clown puppet.
- Pimped-Out Dress:
- She dons a particularly eccentric costume, complete with top hat, while delirious with fever.
- The outfit she selects when roped into playing cricket might merely be considered a bit colourful in a manga/goth sort of way. On a cricket field, though...
- Put on a Bus: She leaves Tackleford at the end of Scary Go Round to go to University and her own Spin-Off.
- Ship Tease: With Ryan, though nothing comes of it.
- Shipper on Deck: For Sarah and Ryan, Susan and McGraw, and once she comes around to it, Sarah and Eustace.
- The Slacker: In Giant Days. Deconstructed as she finds herself in real trouble as a result, and only escapes failing all her classes due to the fact the exams she took didn't count.
- True Companions: With Erin and Sarah in Scary Go Round and with Susan, Daisy, Ed and McGraw in Giant Days.
- The Tease:Towards the Boy, Ryan and Ed.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: She and Susan will trade insults and teasing on occasion, but they'd go through hell and back for each other.
- We Need a Distraction: Uses her "drama field" to distract club-goers while McGraw and Daisy go to rescue Susan
- What the Hell, Hero?:
- Esther lays into the girl Daisy asks out after she shoots Daisy down. This gets thrown back at her, with the girl pointing out that she does like Daisy, just not in a romantic sense, and had every right to turn her down.
- She explodes after finding out Eustace and Sarah have ended up together behind her back. The two lay into her in turn.
Erin Winters
Tropes associated with Erin:
- '80s Hair: She starts out with quite a normal hairstyle, but her supernatural growth spurt includes hair that is quite clearly inspired by ’80s Marvel superheroines, and she never loses the tendency to that style. Shelley has been known to comment on it.Shelley: Great hair though. Outrageous hair.
- The Alleged Car: Her car Phyllis. It eventually blows up.
- Anguished Declaration of Love: She tells Eustace she loves him as he lies dying.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: As a kid, as shown in Bobbins.Horse.
- Birds of a Feather: She becomes fast friends with Susan.Erin: Who could imagine having the same taste in music would mean having nothing else in common?
Susan: Are you a mirage? - Breakout Character: She's shown up in most of John Allison's work outside of one-shots. To wit she's shown up in Scary Go Round, Giant Days, Bad Machinery, New Bobbins, Expecting To Fly, Bobbins.Horse and Mordawwa, Queen of Hell as the star.
- Calling Your Orgasms: Her reaction to Susan's Badass Cape.
- Chubby Chaser: Likes a man with a little heft, as seen with Eustace.
- Cool Horse: Her horse Science who is actually Eustace's soul reincarnated in Hell in the form of a horse.
- Deadpan Snarker: She learned from the best.
- Fake Ultimate Hero: Takes all the credit for the stuff the Mystery Kids help her dig up, to their endless frustration.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Gives up her soul and abliity to stay on Earth to save Eustace.
- Intrepid Reporter: As an adult.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Everyone forgets she existed after she's sent to Hell.
- Love Hurts: Eustace chooses Esther over her but fails to make a big move on her, and then she gives up her soul and place on earth to save him, only for him to die. Finally averted as of “Whatever Happened To Erin Winters”. The two escape hell and Eustace admits he loves her, leading to a Big Damn Kiss.
- She's All Grown Up: Aside from the brief temporary supernatural growth spurt, Erin develops from a rather gawky schoolgirl into quite the attractive woman. At one stage, she even grows up into Mordawwa, Queen of Hell.
- To Hell and Back: Punches her way into the throne of hell and then out of hell. She escapes it again in "Whatever Happened To Erin Winters".
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Hasn't shown up in the Boom! version of Giant Days despite befriending the main trio and living nearby.
Desmond Fishman
Tropes Associated With Desmond:
- Fat Idiot: He’s really not all that bright.
- Identity Amnesia: Has no idea where he came from until after the Time Skip.
- Impoverished Patrician: Desmond turns out to come from wealth — wealth he squanders through sheer idiocy.
- Odd Friendship: With Shauna when she was younger. She reunites him with his dad off-screen.
- Jerkass: A bit of a jerk before the Time Skip, a massive arsehole after the Time Skip. Everybody who tries to help him eventually gives up in disgust.
- Species Surname: For lack of having one at all.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Thanks to Claire, he's quite polite and courtious after some conditioning. It probably doesn’t stick, though.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Claire tries to take him in, but because she tries to get him to eat better and get a decent job rather than just sponge off of her, he tries to kill her. Before that, he tries to abandon Shelley for Shauna's family simply because he gets chips there.
- Would Hurt a Child: Well teenager, but he still tried to outright murder Claire.
Big Lindsay
Tropes Associated with Lindsay:
- Big Beautiful Woman: In Giant Days, she's gone from lumbering schoolgirl to substantial but attractive woman.
- The Bully: Had a nasty habit of thrashing anyone she happened to disagree with, Erin and Amy being on the wrong end of this.
- Character Development: Single parenthood actually brings out the best in Lindsay, albeit that the transformation mostly occurs off-stage.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Disappears entirely from Scary Go Round, but later subverted when she pops up in Giant Days for an issue.
- Good Parents: Loves her son dearly.
- Jerkass: Wasn't all that pleasant as a teenager, but she grew out of it.
- Knight Templar: Her attacks on Erin are to keep her away from The Boy for Esther's sake.
- Laser-Guided Karma: After giving Erin a swirlie years earlier, Erin returns the favor when she tries to beat her up again after Erin drinks the growth serum.
- Teenage Pregnancy: Though she's made it work.
- Took a Level in Kindness: In her Giant Days appearance. While she initially appears to be just as wild as ever, it was really just a facade to try and relive her glory days. When alone with Ed, she helps him get over any lingering embarrassment over his almost-first-time failure.
Sarah Grote
Tropes Associated with Sarah:
- Ascended Extra: Goes from Esther's other friend to her best friend and sidekick towards the end of Scary Go Round, and is the only one of the trio of her, Esther, and Lindsay to show up in Bad Machinery.
- Alone Together: With Eustace in Giant Days.
- Cool Big Sis: Loves Lottie and tends to take her out and do things with her when she's in town.
- Commuting on a Bus: Leaves for University at the end of Scary Go Round but returns for occasional appearances in Bad Machinery. She also makes an appearance in Giant Days #13.
- Hormone-Addled Teenager: Going without a boyfriend left her feeling extremely horny, and when she and Ryan do get together, they go at it like rabbits.
- May–December Romance: A relatively minor case with Ryan.
- Noodle Incident: It's unknown just what she's been getting up to since university outside of a doctor boyfriend who didn't last that brings her back to town, and a trip to America that Lottie mentions.
- Passing the Torch: Passes on her Zine-making equipment to Lottie.
- Single Woman Seeks Good Man: At one stage... Okay, she's really just looking to get laid, but she hits it off with Ryan quite successfully (for a while).
- What the Hell, Hero?: Lays into Esther for getting mad at her and Eustace for seeing each other when Esther had cheated on Eustace.
Hugo Hernandez
Tropes associated with Hugo:
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Disappears after the original run of Scary Go Round ends — although he gets a cameo in Bad Machinery, and is one of several long-forgotten characters who return, in somewhat enigmatic style, in a Scary Go Round story in 2017.
- Funny Afro: Sometimes has a small Afro which seems designed to make him look odd.
- Heroic BSoD: On finding himself in a fairy kingdom he promptly freaks out and bolts, later explaining that he sees himself as a realistic man and the existence of the supernatural freaks the hell out of him.
- Limited Wardrobe: During his early appearances, he's only seen in his tracksuit. He mixes it up later on.
- Nerd Glasses: He’s a bit nerdy, and looks it.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Ends up giving this to himself after sabotaging Carrot's future for his own benefit. He lets Carrot drive a truck to make up for it.
Paul Milford
Tropes associated with Milford:
- Butt-Monkey: He never has a girlfriend and once Eustace and Esther get together she spends most of her time around Milford taking the piss out of him.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Despite Eustace being a main cast member in New Bobbins, he fails to show up in present day. He has made a brief cameo in Giant Days, but that's about it.
- Jerkass: Through and through, if trivially.
- Last-Name Basis: Everyone calls him Milford and it's some time before we find out that's not his first name.
- With Friends Like These...: It's really unknown just why Eustace put up with his constant harassment. It’s probably just a teenage male thing. Paul is mostly harmless really.
Charlotte "Lottie" Grote
Tropes associated with Lottie:
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Subverted. She and Sarah get along quite well. The worst she gets from her is some mild friendly teasing and a shooing during a flashback.
- The Apprentice: To Shelley during "Murder She Writes".
- Badass Cape: Wears one during "The Case of The Modern Men"
- Birds of a Feather: The reason she works as Shelley's intern.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: She's a nut, but she's also an extremely capable detective and actor.
- Chaste Hero: Doesn't care at all for romance, claiming that a love of mystery takes up that part of her brain. Subverted later on with her brief relationship with Huan in "Space is the Place" and her catching the bouquet in "The Case of the Missing Piece." Lottie finally succumbs to her own libido with wannabe pseudo-K-Pop star Nero in Solver, but gets attraction tangled with her overconfident ambition, and the relationship doesn't end well.
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: She's quite strange and proud of it.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Lost her dad at a young age.
- Deadpan Snarker: Especially in later cases.
- Genius Ditz: She's quite smart and insightful... she just also happens to be nuts.
- Genki Girl: Usually bursting with energy.
- Heroic BSoD: Takes the Mystery Shed burning down incredibly hard, going so far as to swear off mysteries and burn her journals and puffer jackets. She eventually snaps out of it for the most part.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Shauna and later Mildred and Claire.
- Hypercompetent Sidekick: To Shelley during "Murder She Writes", as she's the one who actually solves the mystery.
- I Knew It!: In-Universe. She writes "Calvin is Grumpaw" on a piece of paper, revealing it with dramatic flourish when she's proven right.
- Iconic Item: Her puffer jackets. She burns them in "The Case of the Modern Men"
- Kid Detective: Like her friends. Rivals Jack and Shauna for the most competent in the main cast.
- Large Ham: Does everything with copious amounts of ham.
- Literal-Minded: Thinks Baby Sitting involves literally sitting on babies.
- Mouthy Kid: For all her Cloud Cuckoolander tendencies, Charlotte has always possessed a pretty good eye for other people’s issues and a willingness to speak as she finds. Notably, when she makes a guest appearance in Giant Days, the ten-year-old Charlotte ends up giving Daisy some good advice about her relationship situation.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Spends most of "The Case of The Severed Alliance" trying to repair her friendship with Shauna, having realized that not helping her with Blossom and throwing out their friendship was a mistake.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Gets Colm arrested for the firebug's arson.
- Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: Though to a lesser extent than Esther, perhaps simply because she's too young to be piling on the white make-up yet.
- The Power of Acting: Parodied, as according to the teacher in the alternate timeline in "The Case of The Forked Road", the acting world loses one of its brightest stars when she quits playing the lead in the school play.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: During "The Case of the Missing Piece". She's unecessarily cruel to Blossom and constantly talks down Shauna's attempts to help the girl. But the Jerkass Has a Point; she correctly predicts that befriending Blossom will only blow up in Shauna's face. She does have an ego that can make her quite annoying, though.
- Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Shelley's unerved when she takes seeing someone murdered well enough to work on solving it.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Her attempts to find a lonely troll love get the poor guy blamed for a crime he didn't commit and chased by a mob.
Shauna Wickle
Tropes associated with Shauna:
- Dark and Troubled Past: Grew up in poverty with a delinquent brother who constantly worried her and her mother. She also sent said brother to prison.
- Dude Magnet: Has attracted the most male attention out of the girls.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Lottie and Mildred.
- Hidden Depths: Her intellectual interests aren’t hidden, but after she accidentally falls in with a Heavy Metal band due to a misunderstanding of the term “brutalist”, she turns out to be a competent heavy rock vocalist.
- I Have No Brother: Disowns her brother after he robs Bric A Brac.
- Intergenerational Friendship: With Amy. The Great British Bump-Off has her forming connections with Jill, a retired midwife, and Sunil.
- Kid Detective: The best of the six, closely tied with Jack and Lottie.
- Love Hurts: While she's had the most boyfriends out of the girls, all of her relationships have ended in some form of pain.
- Nerd Glasses: Wears these as a teenager starting with "The Case of the Lonely One"
- Odd Friendship:
- Forms one with Blossom in "The Case of the Missing Piece".
- Had an earlier one with Desmond Fishman, even helping him find his long lost father.
- The Exotic Detective: In Bump-Off—a whodunnit in a baking competition.
- Trauma Conga Line: "The Case of The Missing Piece" puts her through one.
- What the Hell, Hero?:
- As a kid, she calls Shelley out for taking Desmond away from her.
- She calls out Lottie for Throwing away their friendship. For Lottie's part, she apologizes.
Introduced in Bad Machinery:
Mildred Haversham
Tropes associated with Mildred:
- The Bully: At times toward Sonny, though it's mostly in jest.
- Bourgeois Bohemian: The child of two wealthy hippies who does follow some of their teachings.
- Calling Parents by Their Name: Something she does, as part of the family's general hippy style.
- Character Development: Changes the most out of the three main girls, going from a rather hot-blooded child to a still sharp-tongued but much more caring teenager.
- Deadpan Snarker: Especially towards poor Sonny at times.
- Free-Range Children: Is given pretty wide limits, though she knows how to get around the ones she has.
- Gossipy Hens: Falls in to this pattern at times, which is how she and Lottie became friends.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Lottie and Shauna.
- Hot-Blooded: The first to suggest violence as a solution to their problems early on. She mellows with time.
- Kid Detective: With Lottie and Shauna, though she's not as into it as they are. She is however quite good at it.
- Loving Bully: Towards Eustace, as it turns out.
- Love Hurts: Her first boyfriend turned out to have a girlfriend and dumped Mildred for putting said girlfriend behind bars for murder. Her crush on Eustace also ends painfully with her visiting his grave.
- Only Sane Man: Becomes this to the group with time.
- Playing Both Sides: During "The Case of the Severed Alliance" she helps Shauna investigate the chamber of commerce and get her clues to Lottie, while helping Lottie do the same.
- Spoiled Brat: At times.
- Straw Vegetarian: Averted. She doesn't push her veganism on others.
- Unresolved Sexual Tension: With Jack.
Jack Finch
Tropes associated with Jack:
- Butt-Monkey: The world isn't kind to Jack, to say the least.
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Early on. He grows out of it.
- Character Development: He becomes less of a Nervous Wreck with time.
- Deadpan Snarker: Towards Linton, mostly.
- Heroic BSoD: Slowly goes through this in "The Case of the Good Boy" over being bullied
- Kid Detective: And out of the six, one of the most dedicated to it and one of the best.
- Nervous Wreck: Grows out of it with time though.
- Nice Guy: A pleasant sort most of the time.
- Out of Focus: In "The Case of The Missing Piece" and "The Case of the Forked Road"
- Official Couple: With Shauna until the end of “The Case of the Simple Soul” and Mimi for half of “The Case of the Modern Men”.
- Pitbull Dates Puppy: With Mildred. While she's calmed down with age, he's still very much the puppy.
- Precocious Crush: On Erin until she leaves.
- Unresolved Sexual Tension: With Mildred.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: With Linton.
Linton Baxter
Tropes associated with Linton:
- Badass Bookworm: He's quite smart.
- Betty and Veronica: The Betty to Colm's Veronica and Claire's archie.
- Casanova Wannabe: Talks a big game, but is too nervous to make a move.
- Fan Boy: Of Football.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: The Responsible to his brothers’ foolish.
- Hormone-Addled Teenager: Puberty hits him hard.
- Hot-Blooded: When it comes to mysteries.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's an ass most of the time, but also a moral and loyal friend.
- Kid Detective: Fairly good at it, if not as good as the girls.
- Love Hurts: His attempts to woo Claire end with him and Colm getting into a scrap until Colm gets dragged off by security, with Claire chasing after him.
- Ship Tease: With Lottie in "The Case of the Severed Alliance".
- So Proud of You: His dad is quite proud of what an upstanding kid he is compared to his lazy and selfish older brothers.
- Pashing For Solace: Does this with Blossom after Claire chooses Milford over him.
Sonny Craven
Tropes associated with Sonny:
- Butt-Monkey: Gets pushed around quite a bit by Mildred and gets laughed at for his erotic dreams.
- Hormone-Addled Teenager: For the duration of "The Case of the Fire Inside".
- Laser-Guided Karma: A positive example. After Linton refuses to believe him about the girl he saw in the ocean and then he and Jack laugh at him for having an erotic dream about her, said girl shows up at their school and the mystery girls shower him with affection when he takes it upon himself to keep her from getting expelled due to having no one to rely on.
- My Cousin is Off Limits: Has this view with Mildred in regards to his friends. Subverted once Jack takes an interest in Mildred
- Nice Guy: A sweet boy and the least likely to razz someone.
- Out of Focus:Compared to the other boys. "The Case of the Fire Inside" is the only time he has a main role.
- What You Are in the Dark: When he finds out Ellen is a Selkie, he immediately sets about returning her pelt to her rather than have her possibly forced to love him.
Colm O'Shaunassy
Tropes associated with Colm:
- Delinquents: A junior bad boy type.
- Disproportionate Retribution: His response to Linton moving on on Claire after he broke up with her is to try and beat the shit out of him.
- Fighting Irish: Irish, burly and willing to throw down at a moment's notice.
- He's All Grown Up: As a teen he's absolutely massive.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: With Claire.
- Hot-Blooded: Prefers brute force to actual detective work.
- It's Personal: With the Firebug after the case gets him locked up in a mental ward.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's a brutish delinquent, yet he truly cares about Claire and rather than laugh at Sonny for talking about his erotic dream, he chastises Linton and Jack for laughing and then comforts Sonny about it.
- Love Hurts: His crush on Lottie, who's not all that interested in the first place ends with her accusing him of being an arsonist and him getting locked up in a mental ward for a while.
- Official Couple: With Claire from the end of "The Case of The Simple Soul" until he leaves for Ireland in "The Case of The Missing Piece"
- Out of Focus: After "The Case of the Fire Inside", he disappears until his major role in "The Case of the Missing Piece".
- Put on a Bus: Leaves for Ireland at the end of "The Case of the Missing Piece".
- Secret-Keeper: Keeps the fact Claire was the firebug to himself.
Claire Little
Tropes associated with Claire:
- Ascended Extra: She starts out as a minor part of "The Mystery of the Lonely One". She later becomes a recurring character after Lottie ends up in her class as well as a major focus of "The Case of The Missing Piece".
- Beware the Nice Ones: She's kind and sweet for the most part, but do not cross her. Camille finds this out the hard way.
- Beyond the Impossible: Manages to make DESMOND FISHMAN into a good person via having his butler switch out his underwear at night.
- Cute and Psycho: Adorable but also a pyromaniac.
- Good Is Not Soft: While she's perfectly sweet to Desmond, she refuses to let him sponge off of her family. She also later uses some psychological trickery on him to turn his life around.
- Important Hair Cut: Gets one in "The Case of The Missing Piece" after Colm dumps her.
- Karma Houdini: Gets away with being the firebug scot-free.
- Nerd Glasses: All part of her withdrawn, awkward style.
- Nice Girl: An absolute sweetie for the most part, if sometimes a little irritating.
- Odd Friendship: With Desmond Fishman. With the help of his butler she's able to make him a stable, upstanding individual, at least for a while.
- Only Sane Woman: It's not exactly her defining feature in her school days, what with her nerdy image and pyromaniac tendencies, but when she returns in Solver, Claire sometimes serve to ground Lottie's worst Cloudcuckoolander impulses.
- Pyromaniac: Type 3. She uses controlled fires and does it strictly so she wouldn't have to worry about her dad. She stops doing it after she nearly gets Colm killed, though it flares up a bit during "The Case of the Missing Piece"
- Speech Impediment: Has a lisp. It gets better as the series goes along.
- Walking Spoiler: She's the Big Bad of "The Mystery of the Lonely One".
- Will They or Won't They?: Solver hints at chemistry between Claire and Glenn, but neither of them seems to be in a hurry to act on it.
Introduced in Giant Days:
Susan Ptolemy
Tropes associated with Susan:
- Adaptational Badass: It's a low-key and mostly non-combat instance, but although the comics mention her past activities as a detective in early issues, these skills are largely downplayed in later stories. However, in the Giant Days spin-off novel, she demonstrates whatever impressive detective skills the plot demands, including computer hacking and lock-picking.
- All for Nothing: Her attempt at political campaign management. It was all the result of a massive scam to help another, far more smug candidate win.
- Amateur Sleuth: Think Nancy Drew meets Phillip Marlowe.
- Badass Cape: Makes a rather impressive (temporary) one to win presidency of the Indie Society.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: With McGraw.
- Birds of a Feather: Platonic example with Erin and Esther.
- Childhood Friend Romance: Subverted. She tried this with McGraw but he rejected her. The two later become an Official Couple anyway, but their romance is clearly doomed to be a bumpy ride.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Her last act before leaving for university was to expose the daughter of the town's most powerful family as a fraud, putting a target on her own back.
- Deadpan Snarker: It's how she communicates most of the time.
- Heroic BSoD: Gets hit with this hard in Issue 12 after McGraw breaks up with her over putting her management of a candidate for student union president over him and said campaign turns out to have been someone else's Batman Gambit to get her to split the vote so another candidate could win.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She puts up a bitter, practical front, but she does care about her friends and is a good person.
- Large Ham: Rivals Esther for this when she gets going.
- Love Hurts: Her past with McGraw as a well as her rough breakup with him.
- Monster Clown: Gets what she describes as a "horrifying clown puppet" for her birthday from Daisy and Esther.
- Mushroom Samba: Goes through a drugless one due to a lack of sleep.
- Official Couple: Dates McGraw after their fling after the ball and her run in with the past. He breaks up with her later after she neglects him for her campaign management, but their story isn't over...
- Only Sane Man: Sees herself as this. In reality she and Daisy trade the role frequently.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Susan knows when to drop her snarky pose.
- After she finds out about Ed's embarrassing Premature Ejaculation, she visits him to see how he's doing. He instantly figures out something is up just by how nice she's being to him.
- She also goes into a serious depression after McGraw leaves her.
- Pet the Dog: See O.O.C. Is Serious Business above.
- The Pig-Pen: Her laptop is apparently in such bad shape that the police have to use a controlled explosion on it.
- Private Eye Monologue: Has one in the first two issues of the first volume of Giant Days and the First issue of the Boom! series.
- Sherlock Scan: Uses this to figure out Ed has a crush on Esther.
- Skewed Priorities: She nearly tears McGraw apart for giving the girl's house a new door, accusing him of "white knighting" her, even though the previous door was just destroyed in a break in and they likely couldn't afford a new one, let alone one good enough to prevent another break-in.
- Smoking Is Cool: Zig-Zagged. Her smoking is used to both make her look really cool, but it's also not portrayed as a particularly healthy or pleasant habit.
- Unwitting Pawn: It turns out that the guy who got her into the election was just using her to split the vote and push another candidate.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: With Esther.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Her style...
- She calls Esther out for changing herself to impress her older boyfriend.
- She also gives Ed a small but brutal call-out for his crushing on Esther despite the fact that she has a boyfriend.
Daisy Wooton
Tropes associated with Daisy:
- Badass Pacifist: She's actually extremely powerful when using yoga. She just can't bring herself to fight with it thanks to the Ghost of George Harrison telling her not to.
- Beware the Nice Ones: She's sweet and will take a LOT of crap in her stride but it’s unwise to cross her, as the professor on her archaeology trip learns the hard way after mistreating her the whole time.
- Big Damn Kiss: Invoked and Subverted. She tries to do this to see if she likes boys at all with Ed, but neither of them feel anything.
- Character Development: She slowly grows into the Only Sane Man of the group. By her third year at the university, she’s capable of keeping a whole building full of new students in line.
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Apparently there's a rule that every John Allison story has to have one.Daisy: Election Night! It's just like when George Bush Jr. beat his dad for the presidency!
- The Cuckoo Lander Was Right: It turns out the advice she gave Ed while pretending to be Tami was actually incredibly sound, and gets him over Esther for a while.
- Coming-Out Story: Daisy becomes attracted to her classmate Nadia and asks her out, then spends the next two issues coming to terms with her sexuality.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Of all people, but it turns out she lost her parents at a young age and her Grandmother never recovered from it, breaking up with her husband and homeschooling Daisy as a result.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: Is shown in the As Time Goes By epilogue to have cut her hair into a bob two years after graduating university
- Fangirl: Of Friday Night Lights, to the point that she dresses up like the Coach and Tammi for a while. She also likes Enya, a lot.
- Funny Afro: Her giant mane of hair is a frequent joke target.
- Good Is Not Soft: She's a sweetie, but she's also fully aware of her friends’ faults and not afraid to set a fire if it means saving them.
- Hidden Depths: She actually has formidable natural talent as a pool player, and as it later turns out, a cricketer. McGraw suggests that this might go further.McGraw: Well done you, Daisy. You're exactly as good at cricket as you are at all other sports.
- The Ingenue: She's rather naive at first. She grows out of it, though she never entirely loses her air of innocence.
- Morality Pet: To Esther, Erin and especially Susan.
- Mushroom Samba: Goes through this a lot having been delirious with fever, getting high on off-brand Polish cough medicine, and taking a bunch of pills on her birthday. This turns out to be the basis of a Winter Special, with the entire plot having been a hallucination Daisy had.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Is deeply shamed about the above Mushroom Samba, to the point of confessing it to her visiting Grandma.
- Nice Girl: The nicest of the main cast of Giant Days. It really shows when, even after her character development, the worst thing she can say about someone is that they "aren't nice."
- Perverse Sexual Lust: For Ingrid at first, something she's painfully aware of.Daisy: I think I'm in lust.
- The Pollyanna: Daisy truly believes the best of people and situations.Susan: You can't help most people Daisy. Life is a prison we build for ourselves.
Daisy: That's so DARK Susan. I think life is like a garden, you have to look after it. - Quirky Curls: Her long, curly hair is a notable aspect of her design. She's described by Susan in issue 1 as being "fifty percent hair and one-hundred percent not ready for this mean old world".
- Raised by Grandparents: Was brought up by her Granny, who she loves dearly. It turns out her parents were lost over the Bermuda Triangle when she was little.
- Sherlock Scan: Is able to figure out what Susan's been up to for the past few days just by looking in her basket at the pharmacy:Daisy: Susan's sexing a boy!
- Team Mom: Evolves into this, taking care of Esther when she's broken up about The Boy leaving her, snapping Susan and Esther out of the Night World, and baking Ed a 7-Layer Cake with a different cake for each layer after learning about his Premature Ejaculation. This is Lampshaded when she dresses up like Tammi Taylor from Friday Night Lights.Daisy: Now honey, when I was your age...
Susan: I'm a year older than you! - Uptight Loves Wild: Daisy suffers from a lesbian version of the All Girls Want Bad Boys effect. She plays the uptight to Ingrid's wild, and later, during the cricket match in issue 50 of the comic, her savant-level talent for the game is effectively neutralised when the opposing team deploy a tough and intimidatingly capable (if also gorgeous) female player against her.Susan: You know what your problem is? Bad girls are your kryptonite. Come on!
Daisy: They just need showing how to be good!
Ed Gemmel
Tropes associated with Ed:
- Accidental Pervert: Accidentally grabs Daisy's boob while watching Esther fight the head girls:Daisy: You are cupping something that doesn't belong to you!
- Beware the Nice Ones: A nice doormat most of the time, but he will fight back if pushed too far, as Dan Parent found out the hard way.
- Butt-Monkey: Frequently, though it decreases as the series goes on.
- Character Development: He starts out as an Extreme Doormat fawning over Esther, but gradually grows a spine and gets over his crush on her, trading it in for a genuine friendship. In an ironic twist of fate, the somewhat profound sense of maturity he develops actually strikes a cord with Esther enough for the roles to reverse for a short while.
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: A tad.Ed: (While trying to figure out what to do about a sexist Website targeting Esther): Should we destroy the backbone of the internet and return society to the simple pleasures of the early 1990's?
- Crush Blush: Frequently when around Esther.
- Everyone Can See It: His crush on Esther. Esther's the only one who doesn't cotton immediately. Played for Laughs when Big Lindsay manages to find out after one day with the group.
- Extreme Doormat: He folds pretty consistently when it comes to Susan (out of fear) and Esther (out of love/lust). Exaggerated in the Winter Special where his alternate version dates Susan. It goes about as well as you'd expect.
- Funny Afro: When drawn by John Allison.
- Has a Type: It may not be conscious on his part, and it excludes his crucial unresolved attraction to Esther, but the skinny, nerdy Ed does have an uncanny ability to attract solidly built (but muscular rather than flabby) women.
- He Cleans Up Nicely: Gets a haircut and shaves his Perma-Stubble for graduation in issue #54. Esther’s convinced he’s not the same boy.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: With McGraw.
- Hidden Depths: Turns out to be a talented writer and editor — the film he works on with Susan and Daisy wins the Sheifield Film Festival.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: He tries to be happy for Esther when she finds a new boyfriend. The keyword is "tries".
- Intrepid Reporter: On the university newspaper, succeeding in getting the corrupt head of the student union to abdicate.
- Love Hurts: His crush on Esther doesn't really do him any good, but he seems to have a lot of trouble shaking his feelings for her.Ed: Please God either make her love me, or make it so I don't love her anymore.
- His brief relationship with Amanda also counts. He finally (mostly) gets over Esther thanks to her, but their failed attempt at sex only leads to his utter humiliation, and while she apologizes for telling people about it, she gently rebuffs him.
- Nerd Glasses: A big old square pair.
- Nice Guy: Probably the second nicest member of the cast. The worst he's done is have feelings for a girl with a boyfriend.
- Perma-Stubble: In the Boom! Series.
- Premature Ejaculation: His attempted first time with Amanda ended up with this. It only got worse after he told McGraw, who reluctantly told Susan, which naturally spreads to the other two girls, while Amanda tells the rest of the staff at the paper.
- Progressively Prettier: A slight example, as he looks much more attractive in the ongoing series, if still not exactly an out-and-out hunk.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: Ed's life has its moments of pleasure.
- He gets a no-strings-attached one-night-stand with Big Lindsay after his disastrous first time.
- After being forced into helping Susan with her film and into doing most of the work, he get a fourth of the prize money.
- He ends his first year in a new relationship though that rapidly crashes.
- Eventually, he takes up with Nina — a relationship that has its ups and downs, but which has a lot going for it.
- Will They or Won't They?: His relationship with Esther has progressed to this, with the two clearly having feelings for each other but not pursuing them for the time being.
McGraw
Tropes associated with McGraw:
- The Ace: When it comes to wood and metal. A pair of scissors he made were presented to Prince Charles.
- All Love Is Unrequited: Has a crush on Daisy in the Winter Special's Alternate Universe; she doesn't notice (and even if she did, they suffer from Incompatible Orientation).
- Berserk Button: He doesn't (quite) become physically violent, but McGraw can be sent off on extended verbal rants by the sight of poor craftsmanship. For a normally calm, controlled man, he also shows signs of potential violent anger when other men treat women like objects.
- Childhood Friend Romance: Subverted, as he rejected Susan's attempts at a Relationship Upgrade, leading to her animosity towards him. The two later get together for a while before he breaks up with her, then they get back together...
- Heroic RRoD: He works through his pain over breaking up with Susan by cutting plank after plank until he breaks his arm.
- Manly Tears: it takes the stoical McGraw most of issue 51 to crack over the death of his father. The sight of him shedding any tears is all the more powerful for that.
- Manly Facial Hair: Has a rather impressive lip cosy. Funnily enough, he grew it as a way of escaping from an obsessive former girlfriend with a phobia of facial hair.
- My God, What Have I Done?: A subtle version, but he regrets telling Susan about Ed's "Incident", and only did so because she wouldn't let up.
- The Pig-Pen: His response to getting his mashed potatoes on him is to scoop them out of his hair and go back to eating them. Usually, though, he seems fairly fastidious.
- Shirtless Scene: Has a tendency to lose his shirt, having had three of these in the span of 12 issues.
- Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: To Susan in the first few issues, though he mostly responds passively to her attacks on him. This evaporates after they get together.
- Verbal Tic: Occasionally calls people “Son”, adding to his air of being old before his time.
- What the Hell, Hero?: McGraw calls Susan out for putting his face on her feminist zine as a symbol of male obnoxiousness, despite his showing nothing but support for women.
- Younger Than They Look: He looks like he's in his mid-20s at the least. He's actually 19 when he first appears.
Amanda
Tropes associated with Amanda:
- Big Beautiful Woman: Amanda is noticeably curvier than the main cast, but attracts Ed and others.
- Intrepid Reporter: Deconstructed. Her efforts to take down Parent only cause the school to clamp down hard on the paper and result in its shutting down.
- Innocently Insensitive: She spreads the news of Ed's premature ejaculation throughout the newsroom, not realizing just how much it'd bother him.
- May–December Romance: With Ed, on a minor scale.
- Small Role, Big Impact: She shows up in two issues and graduates at the end of the first year offsceen but her relationship Ed helps his Character Development along.
Dean Thompson
Tropes associated with Dean:
- Geek: Spends his free time painting miniatures and playing online games, is a bit of an authority on computers and comics, wears a fanny pack...
- Jerkass: Is a pretty huge dick, treating Esther like garbage for leaking his algorithm for finding a house (even though Ed gave it out to a LOT of people) and trashing Ed's coffee maker twice. Solver shows that he hasn't improved much in the intervening few years, though he may be marginally more self-aware by then.
- Karma Houdini: Escapes from his essay scam with no consequences and dodges the angry mob after him by having a car ready.
- Properly Paranoid: Has a car ready after he's cleared of all charges in his exam-papers-for-pay scheme to escape an angry mob after him for money.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Only shows up in the last third of the first year and in three issues, but he helps Ed and McGraw get a house, while his selling exam papers and getting Ed and Esther involved is the main plot of issues 17 and 18. He shows up again later as a recurrent annoyance.
- Smug Snake: Thinks he's far more clever than he actually is. He also gladly admits to selling essays for money and is confident he won't get caught. Subverted in that case though as while he does get caught, he escapes with no punishment and has a car ready to avoid the angry mob after him.
- What Does She See in Him?: A platonic example. Esther wonders why the boys are friends with him. As it turns out, each of them assumed he was a friend of the other, and by the time they realised it wasn't the case, he'd already wormed his way into their lives.
- Younger Than They Look: Dean frequently looks and dresses like a fifty-year old man, down to having a visibly wrinkled face and jowls on his neck. Yet he's never mentioned as being a mature student, and is presumably of a similar age to the rest of the main cast.
Jenny
Tropes associated with Jenny:
- Ascended Extra: Makes her first big appearance in issue 18 after minor roles in issues 9 and 11, and makes out with Ed.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Well, she seems okay for a while...
- Intrepid Reporter: Is a vital member of the staff during the Absent Parent fiasco, and later manages to bust open Dean Thomas's illegal paper ring, despite working with less editorial independence.
- Love Interest: For Ed, for a while.
- Nerd Glasses: Part of her style.
- Recurring Extra: Drops in and out of the plot as required.
Ingrid Oesterle
Tropes associated with Ingrid:
- Cool Shades: Wears these frequently.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Esther and Susan hate Ingrid, due to her lack of consideration for the people around her and how it affects her relationship with Daisy. When she's around any of the other cast members, they usually don’t have anything nice to say about her. Even Charlotte can’t stand Ingrid, coming to this conclusion barely a few minutes after meeting her.
- Manic Pixie Dream Girl: A rare occasion where the recipient is another girl, in this case Daisy. Also highly deconstructed, as her high-on-life, spur-of-the-moment attitude ends up revealing a very self-centered and manipulative side that refuses to compromise with anybody who doesn't like her, or people she finds "boring." As time goes on, the relationship between Ingrid and Daisy slowly turns unhealthy due to the latter becoming an Extreme Doormat out of fear of losing the one love that makes her feel alive after struggling to come to grips with her sexuality, and the former's unwavering All Take and No Give mindset.
- Opposites Attract: A reckless, party-happy, adaptable woman attracted to Team Mom Daisy.
- Uptight Loves Wild: The wild to Daisy's uptight.
Nina Archer
Tropes associated with Nina:
- The Alcoholic: Nina is fully socially and academically functional, and mostly manages to stay sober after she's sworn off the booze (the physical injury taught her a lesson), but when she falls off the wagon, she just can't stop drinking — and she becomes a bit of a jerkass when she's drunk, without losing any of her energy. (Some of her friends call her drunk side "Hurricane Nina".)
- Amazonian Beauty: She's clearly in excellent physical condition, and pretty well everyone rates her as good-looking.
- Foreign Fanservice: In-Universe: Nina is solidly and athletically built, and something of a "sporty Australian" stereotype, but most people agree that she's very attractive (and also interesting when you get to know her).
- Opposites Attract: An extrovert, sporty woman attracted to the nerdy Ed — though he seems to have that effect on a number of somewhat similar women.
- Tomboy: A hard-drinking sportswoman who tends to dress practically (though attractively enough).
Introduced in Steeple:
Billie Baker
Tropes associated with Billie:
- Nerd Glasses: Billie’s glasses, with their large round lenses, don’t do much for her satanic credibility.
- Marked Change/Mark of the Beast: When she disrobes to pray to Baphomet, it is revealed that Billie has acquired quite a set of body markings — possibly just makeup, possibly tattoos, possibly something else. As they then start glowing as her invocation actually has physical effects, it is possible that these even qualify as Power Tattoos.
- Nice Girl: Despite her claims to a Dark and Troubled Past, Billie is unrelentingly nice. It quite irritates Magus Tom. Her version of Satanism is all about "Non-judgmental humanist community outreach."
- Reassigned to Antarctica: Billie said she specifically requested a "difficult parish", and she got more than she bargained for.
- Sexy Backless Outfit: As a Satanist, Billie wears a brazen black backless number which nonetheless incorporates a clerical collar.
Clotilde and Ludmilla
Tropes associated with Clotilde and Ludmilla:
- Flying Broomstick: The pair’s favoured mode of transport is the witch-standard broomstick.
- Form-Fitting Wardrobe: Clotilde’s favoured colourful body suits are clearly chosen to fit well.
- Hot Witch: While they may not be the hottest Ms. Fanservice types in the comic, both these two are young and generally easy on the eye, and Clotilde goes for Absolute Cleavage while Ludmilla favours skin-tight body suits. They skip the Beauty Equals Goodness part, though.
- It Amused Me: Seemingly these two’s primary motivation.
- Jerkass: Clotilde and Ludmilla find it amusing to cause as much trouble as possible, and don't worry about who gets hurt.
- Navel-Deep Neckline: Ludmilla often combines witchy black with a willingness to flaunt her assets.
- Wicked Witch: Well, more "annoying prankster witch", really. These two would probably do most of the bad things traditionally ascribed to witches, given half a chance, but for laughs rather than out of true deep-seated evil.
- Witch Classic: These modern witches don’t match the full set of stereotypes, but obey enough of the conventions to establish their classic witchiness. They ride flying broomsticks, dress in black (though Clotilde treats that as outerwear only, and Ludmilla favours a deep neckline), and cast “hexes”.
Mrs. Clovis
Tropes associated with Mrs Clovis:
- Female Misogynist: Mrs Clovis has strong shades of this trope, believing that All Women Are Lustful and out to distract the Reverend from his holy calling.
- Hidden Depths: Mrs Clovis apparently knows a little bit more about the ways of the world than she likes to let on. For example, she recognised the sesh gremlin on sight, but left him to the girls to deal with because she wanted to relax.
- Old Retainer: Mrs Clovis is practically an archetype of the cranky female version of the trope.
Warlock Brian Fitzpatrick
Tropes associated with Brian:
- All Love Is Unrequited: Brian has a tendency to take to attractive women on first seeing them, or even just their picture — though this may involve as much sentimentality and lust as love. Of course, they’re unlikely to return the feeling.
- I'll Be in My Bunk: Brian's reaction to a publicity poster of Shelley is not subtle.Bloody 'ell. Now there's inspiration for a nocturnal manipulation.
- Our Werewolves Are Different: Brian apparently used to be your classic werewolf (although a Raging Stiffie isn't among the standard symptoms) but got himself cured by Clotilde and Ludmilla. However, he still turns into a crazed, preternaturally strong "were-man" who thinks he's a werewolf whenever there's a super-moon.
- The Nose Knows: Brian should only have tracking abilities when in his were-form, but it turns out that looking at enough YouTube videos of the full moon can trigger him enough to activate this ability.
Gareth
Tropes associated with Gareth:
- Expy: Gareth is a rather obvious parody of the Transformers. Apart from the strong Welsh accent, of course.
- Giant Scrap Robot: While Gareth is essentially not a walking scrapheap, he has reconstructed his outer shell using parts from an old car, for improved disguise effect.
- Humongous Mecha: Not all that humongous, but Gareth does have the mass of a compact car, in humanoid form.
- Mecha: Gareth is a Transforming Mecha, and quite literally a refugee from the Super Robot Genre.
- Parody: Gareth's backstory is a quite faithful replication of the classic Transformers stories — but played for comedy, and with gratuitous Welshness.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: Two factions of robots on Gareth's homeworld of Port Talbotnote have been at war for millions of years, but when Gareth had the chance to desert, he did so enthusiastically. He seems relatively well-balanced, but he has spent years just sitting in a barn staring at a wall, he assumes (with no evidence) that some of his people's ancient enemies are still around on Earth, and he seems to be prone to outbursts of violence.
- Super-Hearing: Gareth was built for espionage work, and has superhuman hearing (and possibly other Super-Senses). He can hear a conversation in a busy pub garden while parked in the road outside.Gareth: I got ears like a bloody bat.
- Super Robot Genre: Gareth's backstory lies deep in the transforming super-robot genre.
- Transforming Mecha: Gareth can transform into an innocuous compact car.
Magus Tom Pendennis
Tropes associated with Magus Tom:
- Bald of Evil/Beard of Evil: Tom has the "satanic evil" look down pat. If the character who appears in the last panel of this flashback strip is a younger Tom, the baldness has developed from a Villainous Widow's Peak.
- For the Evulz: Tom's approach to Satanism, and indeed to life in general, at odds with Billie's more easygoing (and popular) hedonistic-but-nice approach.
- Slouch of Villainy: Tom's favourite posture appears to be slouching on a couch with a goblet of wine, smirking.
The Reverend David Penrose
Tropes associated with the Reverend Penrose:
- Badass Preacher: Reverend Penrose takes it as his sacred duty to fight monsters. Single-handed. With an axe.
- Bling of War: Charlotte initially takes Penrose's personal armory for a LARPing arsenal, and his favourite battleaxe is known as "Lady Sparkles".
- Blood Knight: On a couple of occasions it's noted that Reverend Penrose gets a bit too chop-happy when he's monster hunting; Maggie worries that he'll kill the still-obviously-human Brian while he's on his "werewolf" rampage, and Lottie complains that he's a blunt instrument who's going to ruin her investigation into Shelley's disappearance
- Hunter of Monsters: Penrose seems to feel that his primary duty in life is dealing with Tredregyn's persistent monster infestations. In truth, nobody else is dealing with it.
- I Call It "Vera": Penrose's bejewelled battleaxe is "Lady Sparkles".
- Manly Facial Hair: In contrast to Tom’s neatly trimmed, demonic little number, Penrose wears a downright macho facial embellishments, just groomed enough to also contrast with Brian’s simply unkempt approach.
- Silver Fox: Penrose is old enough that his red hair is greying at the temples, but is still very rugged. The effect on female observers of all ages, including Maggie, is quite positive.
- The Vicar: Reverend Penrose is a very atypical example, being a grumpy, muscled Badass Preacher Hunter of Monsters most of whose flock have defected to the Church of Satan. Billie is a much more classic example... until she converts to Satanism, though she then continues acting in much the same way.
Maggie Warren
Tropes associated with Maggie:
- Fangirl: Rather surprisingly, Maggie proves to be a dedicated fan of the Sunday evening Cozy Mystery show "Clotted Crime", and geeks out when she realises it is going to be filming in Tredregyn.
- Form-Fitting Wardrobe: When she chooses to dress up a bit and not simply show skin, Maggie turns out to own a very well-fitted dress or two.
- Ms. Fanservice: Maggie is forever being chided by Mrs Clovis for the amount of skin she shows off.
- Yaoi Fangirl: Or perhaps Bara Fangirl; When Rev. Penrose is away visiting a fellow vicar during the events of "Christmas With Clovis", Maggie chooses to believe the "double dadd[ies]" are making "fierce clerical love by the fire".
Debuted in Solver:
Glenn Durgan
Tropes associated with Glenn:
- Only Sane Man: Having come in on this enterprise in a desperate attempt to climb out of an unsuccessful rut, Glenn puts up with Lottie's severe flakiness and Claire's occasional bursts of excess energy. It's an uphill struggle for him.
- Will They or Won't They?: There are hints of chemistry between Glenn and Claire, but neither of them seems to be in a hurry to act on it.
The Waterman
Tropes associated with The Waterman:
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: The Waterman isn't actually stated to be pop impresario Pete Waterman.
- Ominous Opera Cape: The Waterman wears a flamboyant black cape that hints at this trope — especially when it appears to animate in a supernatural fashion, though that may just be artistic symbolism.
- The Svengali: The Waterman ruthlessly poaches D-Slide from Lottie, causing her to break up with her boyfriend Nero who's in the group. While only a little of his management style has been depicted, he is strongly hinted to be a classic Svengali, possibly even with supernatural powers.
