Characters / Child of the Storm: Carol Danvers

Main Character Index | Harry Thorson | Harry's Friends (Carol Danvers) | Avengers and Associates | Other Heroes and Allies | The Magical Worlds | Civilians | Gods and Cosmic Entities | X-Men | Villainous Groups | Non-Aligned Villains

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This page lists tropes associated with Carol Danvers, a main character of Child of the Storm.

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Carol Susan Jane Danvers a.k.a. Green Lantern II a.k.a. Spitfire III

I hope I give you the shits.

Harry's friend and, by the start of Ghosts of the Past, arguably his best friend, going from a moderately important member of the supporting cast to a fully fledged Deuteragonist. The niece of Jack O'Neill, cousin of Sharon Carter and great-niece of Peggy Carter herself, she is, unsurprisingly, a talented athlete with a sharp strategic mind, and exceptional good looks that make her look rather older than she is, leading to a lot of sexual harassment and a severe deficit of being taken seriously. As a result, she's a somewhat spiky and abrasive teenage girl with few close friends, until she meets Harry, with whom she has much in common. It's revealed in chapter 75 that Peggy was actually her great-grandmother, and Steve is her great-grandfather.

SPOILERS for Ghosts of the Past

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Tropes A to H

• Action Girl: One way in which she is both very much like her canon counterpart and her great-grandmother. It's In the Blood, and hinted to be one of the reasons Harry is deeply attracted to her.
• Action Girlfriend: To Harry, since she's his Love Interest, and she's one hell of a fighter.
• All Genes Are Codominant: Even though she's his great-granddaughter, Steve's blood runs very strongly in her (once he actually takes a really good look at her, he notes the resemblances) and once her genetics get a kick in the pants, she's no less powerful a super soldier than he is, allowing for differences in age and build.
• Aloof Big Sister: Despite playing Cool Big Sis to Diana, she's this to her younger brothers. She's kind enough and extremely protective, but has a difficult home life thanks to poor relationships with her parents (though she ends up getting on better with her mother) and in the previous year has undergone several PTSD-inspiring experiences. As a result, she's oblivious to/ignores their problems, which are made worse by them being Locked Out of the Loop, which she cops to once the older of the two calls her out on it.
• Anger Born of Worry: Prone to this where Harry's concerned. Also towards Peter Parker, for more sisterly reasons.
• Anywhere but Their Lips: In Ghosts, she kisses Harry gently on the cheek, as a way of acknowledging their feelings for each other. He promptly produces a prize-winning Crush Blush that she teases him mercilessly about.
• Back-to-Back Badasses: With Harry on several occasions, starting with the finale of the first book.
• Badass in Distress: Is nearly killed by the Slendermen, and is kidnapped twice in Ghosts, once by Sinister and Maddie (as a by-product of being around Harry when he's grabbed) and once by Dracula's henchmen.
• Battle Couple: Thor suggests that she and Harry might be this to Harry, mostly (but not entirely) to embarrass him. He's not exactly wrong, either.
• Best Friend:
  • Evolves into this by Ghosts, being Harry's key confidante and companion, effectively his right-hand woman, understanding his combat-related stuff and traumas better than even Hermione. As she notes, though, this is partly because she has the advantages of a deeply emotionally intimate Mind Meld, and of having seen him in combat situations in a way that Hermione hasn't, adding that on the day to day stuff, Hermione still probably knows him better.
  • It reaches the point where Ron's genuinely worried that she's taken his place. Carol herself tries to reassure him, but isn't sure whether she has or not - even with a psychic connection, Harry isn't always easy to read. It's implied that she has, though the fact that they get together shortly after theoretically shifts her into a different category... but she still has a lot of the classic role as confidant, companion, and back-up.
• Better as Friends: Has decided this about her and Harry, for the time being. She changes her mind in chapter 46 of Ghosts.
• The Big Gal: In attitude and build, if lacking superhuman physical power (at first). Her fighting style, for example, is largely based on speed and brute force.
• Big Sister Instinct: As Harry points out in Ghosts, she's prone to this, demonstrating it towards Diana, Mattie Franklin, and especially her little brothers, particularly towards Stevie in Bloody Hell, coldly threatening to behead a vampire on Dracula's strike team if he even breathes the wrong way towards Stevie. The leader of said strike team takes this threat seriously and when the leader in question does breathe the wrong way towards Stevie, she winds up beheading him and remarking, "Can't say I didn't warn you. Asshole."
  • However, Stevie also points out - and Carol admits - that while she's protective of her brothers, previously she'd tended to ignore them, citing her obliviousness to Joe Jr. (their youngest sibling) acting out/being miserable over his father being Kicked Upstairs to a job that means that he's rarely at home (which was done because he tried to get Harry to alter Carol's mind). Later chapters imply that she's trying to rectify this.
  • In Unfinished Business, she develops this towards Peter Parker despite her initial exasperation, doing her best to keep him out of trouble, frying the symbiote that tries to absorb him and reassuring him while they get it off, then pulling him into a tight hug.
• Birds of a Feather:
  • Snarky, anti-authoritarian, protective of team members, with textbook Chronic Hero Syndrome and a love of flying... you could just as easily be talking about her uncle, a certain Jack O'Neill.
  • It's also makes her and Harry quite a lot alike, with her grandmother and Fury both quoting the trope.
• Broken Ace: She's good at almost anything physical that she turns her hand to. Even before becoming a full-fledged Super-Soldier, she had a brilliant tactical brain, Nerves of Steel, was an expert soccer player, and is beautiful to boot. She's also spiky, abrasive and quite defensive with generational family dysfunction and, prior to meeting Harry, about two genuine friends. One is incredibly hard for even a telepath to read, and the other is a Knight Templar Big Brother who has to be reined in. Add in the PTSD-inducing events that she gets wrapped up in, and the emotionally exhausting roller-coaster of being Harry's friend, then best friend and psychically-linked confidant, then girlfriend, and several near-death experiences... things do get better for her, as she reconciles with her mother and opens up a great deal, but she's still a bit of a mess.
• Bruiser with a Soft Centre: Starts off more reserved, spiky and less enthusiastic about physical contact (except for Harry), but equally willing to hand out hugs to those who need them or be a Cool Big Sis to younger girls (e.g. Mattie Franklin and Diana) and, indeed, later Peter Parker, and provide emotional support to her friends. She's also very fond of her little brothers, though as she acknowledges, she's not always good at showing it.
• Brutal Honesty: Usually to Harry.
  • Bluntly informs Harry that, having spent a couple of days moping in his room, he smells.
  • Also comes up with this immortal line when he's getting particularly histrionic as the Dark Phoenix.
  Oh my god, you total fucking drama queen.
  • In general, this trope is one of the things that makes her so valuable to Harry, which he lampshades, as she will always puncture his ego whenever he's indulging in his Drama Queen tendencies.
• Buffy Speak: Tends towards this in general, particularly post waking up and prior to her first coffee.
• Came Back Strong:
  • In the first book, when she's right in the borderlands of death and comes back with the full power of a Green Lantern.
  • In Unfinished Business, Nimue turns her into a tree. She comes back, and this time, and uses the help of the Parliament of Trees and her shield-suit to replace the broken Lantern and tap into the true potential of the Green Lantern Ring, without its many Restraining Bolts.
• Charged Attack: Via her shield, if she's absorbed energy into it. Unfinished Business gives this a whole new significance when it reveals that her shield is not 'just' a shield. Sometimes, it resembles a suit of armour - much like a very particular super suit....
• Charles Atlas Superpower: Implied, then averted. She's mentioned as beating the entire American Football team at her school in arm wrestling contests, in succession, then breaking a number of records in an athletics fixture. However, her enhancement in chapter 60 (and the fact that it stuck) reveals her semi-dormant Super-Soldier heritage thanks to her descent from Steve via Peggy Carter.
• Chrome Champion: In Unfinished Business, it's revealed that her shield can be repurposed to make this, in a skin-tight suit of near impenetrable battle armour that can grant her canonical power-set.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Grumpy though she can be, she's a hero through and through, and willing to make the sacrifice play in a heartbeat. As Bucky remarks somewhat regretfully, she's got too much of her great-grandparents in her to be anything else. Harry, no stranger to this himself, teases her for 'infringing' on his shtick when she indulges in being stupidly noble.
• Clothes Make the Superman: While she's already a Super-Soldier by this point, in Unfinished Business, her shield can turn her into a Chrome Champion that grants her her canon power-set (albeit one almost entirely dependent on the shield-suit's energy absorbing properties).
• Cold-Blooded Torture: Threatens Syrus, a powerful Grey Court vampire with Chinese Water Torture. With holy water. For starters. He's actually kind of impressed.
• Combat Pragmatist: As best demonstrated when fighting Nimue in Unfinished Business - even with a massive power-up via the Green Lantern Ring, she's no match for an experienced witch with all that power and then some. So she divides her focus, distracts her, ambushes her, and not only makes it a physical fight but makes it as ridiculously and brutally dirty as possible, not giving her enemy any chance to gather her wits. It starts with a Groin Attack, progresses to an Eye Scream, and only gets more vicious from there.
• The Confidant: Develops into this for Harry, because she usually has the inside track on what's happened and they have an increasingly close friendship that eventually evolves into an Anchored Ship then a full blown relationship. Crucially, after the first chapter of the sequel, as a side-effect of some well-intentioned but inexpert psychic therapy, they wind up with a Psychic Link, meaning that he doesn't actually have to say things, as such.
• Covert Pervert:
  • Has, shall we say, noticed Clint's arms and the prospect of topless pics of Rhodey is sufficient to induce Instant Waking Skills when she's half asleep. And she's a bit Distracted by the Sexy when Gambit's around - though this is Gambit, so it happens a lot. It's also mentioned that she's been checking out Harry from time to time.
  • By the start of Ghosts, she's checking out a post growth spurt Harry with increasing frequency. She also, after waking up in Harry's bed after an entirely non-sexual (raging UST aside) Sleep Cute, she's briefly left wondering Did They or Didn't They? - and after that, rapidly imagines what would have happened if they'd gone further than a very chaste kiss Anywhere but Their Lips. The scenario is not elaborated upon, but is apparently thoroughly explicit, going by Harry's startled reaction when the image came down their Psychic Link.
• Crushing Hand Shake: Pulls this on Ludo Bagman, and wins.
• Cry into Chest: With her grandmother during Forever Red.
• Curves in All the Right Places: Mentioned and Deconstructed. She's in her mid-teens and looks like a hot coed. A peaceful life this does not make for.
• Daddy's Girl: Played With. While her biological father would very much like this to be the case, she severely dislikes him to start with (because he thinks she should Stay in the Kitchen), and violently loathes him from the second book onwards. However, she's very close to both her maternal uncle, Jack O'Neill, and her maternal great-grandfather, Steve Rogers - who she bears a strong resemblance to, in appearance and in character. The latter explicitly becomes her Parental Substitute later in Book II, and despite occasional squabbling, they adore each other.
• David Versus Goliath: Ends up on the David end of most of her fights, including twice against demonic, super-sized werewolves (first time, she wins. Second time, the Winter Soldier bails her out), and in Ghosts versus the Beast of the Red Room. She doesn't win that one, either, but she does hurt him badly. When she goes up against Nimue, she gets curbstomped the first time. The second time, she turns the tables through strategy and sheer brutal pragmatism.
• Day in the Limelight: While she's functionally the Deuteragonist by the sequel, she's still usually second fiddle to Harry. Unfinished Business demonstrates what she can do when he isn't around, and it is spectacular.
• Deadpan Snarker: Fairly snarky, though less than most. The tone varies from bitter to, usually where Harry's concerned, affectionate.
• Death Glare: She has a very good one, though as the narration notes, it doesn't affect Frigga (who Carol thought was going to disturb a sleeping and traumatised Harry, who she was snuggling), who's Seen It All and merely files it under 'Reasons My Grandson Is Probably Going To Marry a Midgardian.'
• Defiant to the End:
  • In Unfinished Business when at the mercy of Nimue, an easily bored sociopath with the powers of a god. That particular incident seems to kill her when she's transformed into a tree, though it's somewhat ambiguous - 'Alec' indicates that she's still technically alive, which is why it 'only' takes Monica's powers breaking the spell to set her free. Semantics aside, it is treated as deeply traumatising, and it puts Strange in one of his more homicidal moods.
  • When facing down a car sized werewolf, apparently helpless, she simply delivers the folder quote - itself a reference to the use of this trope in Dog Soldiers. It isn't the end, however, thanks to the hurting children being the Winter Soldier's personal Berserk Button.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: While she's not especially frosty to Harry to begin with, she does relax significantly and generally defrost over time. The sequel reveals that she's been this offscreen to other characters, such as Peter Parker, who did see the frostier side of her. At first, he barely merits her notice and is a bit scared of her because he ran into her on a bad day, which she feels guilty about. By partway through Unfinished Business, she has a serious Big Sister Instinct going on with Peter.
• Destroying a Punching Bag In Ghosts, she's already done this to one and nearly a second before she sprains her wrist with a misaimed punch. The reason being she's really, really upset about hearing Belova sexually assaulted Harry, and can't do anything to help him.
• Determinator: Oh, hell yes. She is quite literally too stubborn to die. There's a reason she's picked out as an emergency wielder by Alan Scott's Green Lantern Ring and is its first port of call in Unfinished Business.
• Deuteragonist: In Ghosts, she's been steadily creeping into this role, alongside Harry.
• Dissonant Serenity: While not so much as Harry, by Ghosts, she's astonishingly calm in some truly incredible situations. However, she does have her limits, as the aftermath of Bloody Hell and Unfinished Business demonstrate.
• Emerald Power: When wielding Alan Scott's Green Lantern Ring, she ends up in emerald green gear, glowing, and radiating Physical God levels of power.
• Empowered Badass Normal: After her Super-Soldier genes get a kick in the pants. In Unfinished Business, her shield-suit takes it up several notches, making her a full Flying Brick if it's got enough power.
• Enemy Scan: She pulls this off on both Gambit and the second Black Widow.
• Energy Absorption: Her shield can do this if she wants it to, and given the comparisons to Mjolnir, it can take a lot. Once absorbed, she can then release it at will, with interest. In Unfinished Business, Strange reveals that it's far more than just a shield - it can transform into battle-armour, which looks very much like a certain superhero costume... and, if necessary, it can function as a replacement Green Lantern.
• Everyone Can See It:
  • Her UST with Harry reaches the point where supervillains who have seen them interact for a few minutes already assume they're dating.
  • In a non-romantic example, Natasha informs Steve that, once he truly accepts Carol, about half the Avengers contingent can see that he is essentially her true dad.
• Everyone Loves Blondes: Much to her chagrin.
• Family Eye Resemblance: Only observed after the relationship is revealed, but she has her great-grandpa Steve's eyes, which are a very particular shade of cornflower blue, along with his hair and build. This probably wasn't noticed before because no one was really looking for it.
• Fantastic Angst: After Unfinished Business and the culmination of everything in the Touched by Vorlons entry below, she's a little uneasy about her identity and uncertainty over what she might be becoming/how it might be changing her. Steve reassures her that all that's really happened is that she's more her than she was before, seeming more assured and self-confident, and brings up Erskine's "Good becomes great... bad becomes worse."
• Feminine Mother, Tomboyish Daughter: Carol is a tomboy who is incredibly talented at sports and highly assertive. Her mother Marie on the other hand is - apparently - the stereotypical doormat housewife who puts up with her husband's emotionally abusive behaviour towards their children with little complaint, without ever explaining to her daughter why. Things get much better after they actually open up to each other, and Marie realises just how much of a douche her husband has turned out to be (and it's indicated that it's better for him that she found that out at second-hand...).
• Fire-Forged Friends: With Peter Parker. Before Bloody Hell, she barely paid him any attention; afterwards, she starts treating him with a bit more compassion, to the point that her friends even briefly wonder if they're dating, and in Unfinished Business, especially after the first time they actually fight together, this progresses to full on Big Sister Instinct, with Peter being one of the very few guys she is comfortable hugging.
• Flying Firepower: Temporarily, as the new Green Lantern. In Unfinished Business, she figures out how to use her charged up shield-suit for this.
• Following in Relative's Footsteps: She wants to follow in her uncle/cousin/grandmother's footsteps, most probably at SHIELD or other spooky stuff - later modified to superhero stuff. Her mother is initially rather against this, having had to deal with her own mother pressing Marie to do so and seen just what it can lead to - such as her brother's experience of Cold-Blooded Torture in Iraq (she comes round, eventually).
• Friendless Background: While she's got a small group of casual friends at school, the only people that she's properly close to in her life prior to meeting Harry are Jean-Paul Beaubier, Lex Luthor, the former of whom is almost always wearing a mask and the latter of whom she occasionally has to play Morality Chain to, and her Cool Uncle Jack O'Neill and cousin Agent 13, who it is suggested that she doesn't normally see often because of their jobs.
• The Gadfly: Towards Harry, something he reciprocates.
• Generation Xerox: Personality-wise, she's basically Peggy if she traded in the Lady of War attitude for Dissonant Serenity and a fiery temper. She even has a peculiarly American variant on the Stiff Upper Lip. And her looks, Chronic Hero Syndrome, talents as The Strategist, and inclination towards shields come straight from her great-grandfather, Steve.
• Girliness Upgrade: A slight one in Ghosts, after her father is benched - she never really objected to dresses and quite enjoys getting all dressed up from time to time. She's just incredibly stubborn and refused to give what might be seen as even the tiniest bit of ground to her father's strict views on gender-appropriate behaviour/clothing.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: Her eyes glow emerald green following her proving worthy of the Green Lantern Ring.
• Good Is Not Soft: She is capable of being very, very pragmatically ruthless when she feels the need, verging on The Spock territory. She doesn't necessarily like this very much, but accepts it as part of her.
• Groin Attack: Part and parcel of being a Combat Pragmatist - not even other women are immune, as Nimue finds out when Carol kicks her hard enough to lift her about six feet off the ground.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Verging on Jerk with a Heart of Gold territory at times (less so as time goes by), but the heart's definitely golden.
• Hand Blast: Via the Green Lantern Ring. Also in Unfinished Business after her shield transforms into a suit and is charged up by Gambit.
• Hates Being Touched: She's not explicitly touch-phobic, but she is touch-suspicious. Harry is eventually the main exception, especially when either one of them feels in need of a hug. By Ghosts, they're actively and regularly snuggling, and she's loosened up a bit with others, to the point where she glomps Peter in Unfinished Business after he nearly got eaten by a Venom symbiote, and gladly returns it when he glomps her a few chapters later.
• Hates Wearing Dresses: Subverted. She actually quite likes fancy dresses, she just refused to admit it anywhere that her misogynistic father might hear about it.
• He Is Not My Boyfriend: Repeatedly, where Harry is concerned, something he echoes. No one, not even supervillains who have only seen them interact for a couple of minutes, believes them. Then, eventually, they get together.
• Head-Turning Beauty: Qualifies as such, much to her displeasure.
• Heroic BSoD: Drops into one in chapter 60 of Ghosts, after Harry had nightmares regarding what Belova used the Red Son for during Forever Red, complete with sensations, and scrubbed himself bloody before going catatonic. Worse, she couldn't help him because her passing resemblance to Belova meant he could barely tolerate her presence.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Attempted in the first book. It's ultimately subverted, but the intent is there, and it was both noticed and appreciated by the likes of Frigga.
• Holding Hands: Frequently as part of her ship tease with Harry.
• Hollywood Kiss: Gets one with Harry in Book III, which is lampshaded. A little Justified by the fact that telepathic links make it much easier to coordinate that sort of thing.
• Hot-Blooded: She has a spectacular temper, though she's usually pretty good at controlling it.
• Holy Halo: When wielding the Green Lantern Ring.
• Huge School Girl: She's close to 6' tall in her mid-teens.
• Hypocritical Humor: Harry points out more than once that for all that she mocks his Chronic Hero Syndrome, when it comes down to it, she's got it nearly as bad as he does. She also mocks his dramatic streak and, again, the difference between the two of them can sometimes be a matter of fine judgement - especially in Unfinished Business.

Tropes I to Y

• Indy Ploy: She's not as prone to these as Harry is, being a better planner, but she has her moments. The one she pulls early in Bloody Hell has to be seen to be believed. She's trapped in a subway carriage with a five vampire strike team, all powerful, almost all reasonably experienced, covering every exit. She's got her non-powered and Locked Out of the Loop little brother to worry about, and she's only got her football (soccer) gear and her shield. She still manages to get out of the station and very nearly away entirely, with her little brother clutched under one arm. The strike team's leader, and Dracula, are both moderately impressed.
• Inelegant Blubbering: She doesn't cry often, not wanting to show weakness (especially around her father), and her little brother Stevie notes that he actually can't remember the last time she cried. When she does, however, it's not pretty. As the narration observes, 'it was not elegant, graceful, or dignified. Pain rarely is.'
• Informed Attribute:
  • She is said to be very spiky and aloof towards guys (seeing as All Men Are Perverts) in high school, especially before meeting Harry. However, since the only guys her own age she interacts with outside Harry and her own family are Lex, Jean-Paul, and later Uhtred, this is never shown. In fact, she's very polite to Draco Malfoy when she meets him early in Ghosts, and enjoys playing The Prankster along with Fred and George. This might be because none of them show any romantic interest in her, and because Harry has softened her personality somewhat.
  • This is confirmed to be Harry's influence and implied to be partly situational in Unfinished Business: Monica Rambeau remarks that when they first became friends, Carol had "more prickles than a cactus", and Carol and Peter elaborate a little on why he was rather scared of her even before Bloody Hell. Ned even says that until recently, he didn't think she liked anyone, and she's still more withdrawn and prickly around her classmates than Harry - she notably softens around Peter, though only after they become friends.
• Innocent Blue Eyes: Despite her cynicism, she's one of the more noble characters with the eyes to match, just like her great-grandfather Steve.
• Instant Waking Skills: If she thinks that pics of a shirtless Rhodey are in the offing, or when sufficiently startled.
• Insult of Endearment: Affectionately calls Harry a "dumbass" for not asking for help after unblocking his Red Son memories.
• In the Blood: She takes very much after her great-aunt (actually great-grandmother) Peggy Carter (she's got a certain ruthless pragmatism and excellent strategic skills) and her uncle Jack. Her mother remarks on this when she notes that her attempts to keep Carol safe and away from the super-spy world of the weird represented by SHIELD and others like them were ultimately in vain. Additionally, though it's not quite as obvious, she has Chronic Hero Syndrome, a certain charisma, strategic ability, and (of course) the Super-Soldier genes from Steve.
• I Shall Taunt You: Has a razor sharp tongue and sharpens it on Yelena Belova in Ghosts and Nimue in Unfinished Business. It's not entirely sensible in either case, but she's short on options and wants to goad them into a mistake. In the first case, it works, since Belova is Ax-Crazy. In the second, not so much, because Nimue is at this point the functional kind of crazy.
• Jerkass Realization: When Stevie calls her out for not being a better sister to her younger brothers, and another during and after the events of Unfinished Business when she realizes the effect she's unintentionally had on Peter Parker. In neither case did she intend to be harsh, but in both cases, it's justified.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Downplayed, as she warms up to Harry pretty quickly after the two bond. Also, he's a Magnetic Hero and (when not traumatised) a genuine Nice Guy, so people tend to like him on principle. She's also kind to a young Mattie Franklin and is very protective of Diana and, later, Peter. However, it's later confirmed in Unfinished Business that she's not so nice to her peers (not entirely without reason) and until later on in Ghosts, largely ignored her younger brothers.
• Lady and Knight: She and Harry develop into this, with Harry taking on more of the Knight's role - though the two can and do flip, and they're more of an Action Duo/Battle Couple than the traditional version.
• The Lancer: To Harry, being the cooler, more tactically minded one of the two. Though this is something of a relative term, since she's still pretty Hot-Blooded, and Harry can get cold and ruthlessly pragmatic/manipulative in a fashion disturbingly reminiscent of Doctor Strange.
• Laugh of Love: Though she'd probably dismember anyone who said it, she tends to laugh, even sometimes giggle, a great deal more when she's around Harry. Of course, this is just as often at him as with him, but it's still affectionate.
• The Leader: Is quite naturally this, being a mixture of Headstrong and The Mastermind, as best shown in Unfinished Business.
• Legacy Character: Takes up Steve's mantle, to an extent. Also more literally, as the first Green Lantern of the 21st century. Later, she becomes the third Spitfire with the blessing of her predecessor.
• Like Brother and Sister: Develops this dynamic with Peter Parker in Unfinished Business, taking the role of protective big sister.
• Living Emotional Crutch: Discussed in reference to why they stay Just Friends after she becomes this to Harry in Ghosts after Forever Red - though sometimes they swap roles, and it fades with time.
• Made of Iron: Super-Soldier or not, she can take a lot of punishment. Even being struck by lightning doesn't do anything permanent.
• Male Gaze: Subject to it, much to her displeasure.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy:
  • Platonically to Jean-Paul, though he retains the traditionally masculine cool reserve and resort to brutal violence when needs must.
  • Romantically to Harry, who is initially slighter, shorter, softer spoken, and more openly empathetic. However, as their dynamic deepens and they grow in confidence, they start to mix and match traits, with Carol being willing to open up and to acknowledge more classically feminine interests.
• Megaton Punch: In the finale of Unfinished Business, after being powered up beyond belief, she ends up punching Nimue all the way to Mars.
• Messy Hair: Carol has epic bedhead.
• Moment Killer: After Harry snaps and goes on a Then Let Me Be Evil rant as the Dark Phoenix warms up, Carol brings him back to earth with a well-timed Precision F-Strike.
  "Oh my God, you total fucking drama queen."
• Morality Chain:
  • She serves as this to Lex Luthor, as well as his Morality Pet. He's both nicer when she's around, or at least less overtly ruthless, and listens when she tells him to rein it in.
  • Ditto for Harry, characterising it as watching his blind-spots the same way he does for her, and warning Hermione about it in Ghosts (as Hermione's never really seen Harry snap). She helps talk him down after he goes Dark Phoenix and he implies that her death is the only scenario where he'd willingly become the Dark Phoenix again - though if he did, he'd at least avoid risking unleashing Surtur. It reaches the point where Deadpool remarks that if she really is dead in Unfinished Business, then they have a very short period of time before Harry snaps and kills everyone. Gambit, who knows Harry and is an exceptional judge of character, grimaces and informs a horrified Monica that Deadpool isn't exactly wrong.
• Morph Weapon: As Unfinished Business reveals, her shield is rather more than just a shield. In fact, it's a fully-fledged Swiss-Army Weapon.
• Most Common Superpower: She has this, albeit on a more realistic scale, and wishes that she didn't.
• Muggle Best Friend: To Harry, at first. Then, she gets sucked into his world. And in chapter 46 of Book II, officially becomes more than just a best friend.
• Must Have Caffeine: She's really Not a Morning Person. It becomes a Running Gag, with her grandmother complaining that no mug of coffee is safe when she's around, and that she's even worse than Tony in that regard (if only because she's much, much faster).
• My God, You Are Serious!: In Ghosts when "Joshua"/Jesus shows up in person and she's told who he is, her initial response is to laugh... until she realises that the others are serious.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Her swimsuit in the first chapter of Ghosts bears a strong resemblance to her comic book counterpart's most famous costume. On a meta level, it also fits the author's habit of referring to said costume as a swimsuit.
  • In Unfinished Business, her shield transforms into a close-fitting battle suit just like her costume, particularly the metallic MCU version. Furthermore, the idea that it gives her powers is a nod to the very start of her comics counterpart's career, when her costume did exactly that.
• Nay-Theist: She used to be an atheist, then the Battle of New York happened. This is suggested to be a reaction to her father, who at least acts the part of a devout Catholic.
• Neck Lift: Instinctively pulls the one-handed variant on an unfortunate Ron who makes the ill-advised choice to barge into what he thinks is Harry's bedroom (which he'd been led to believe by Doctor Strange, the highly mischievous master of Exact Words).
• Never a Self-Made Woman: Zig-Zagged. She inherited her Super-Soldier abilities from Steve (not that she was aware of their relationship for some time), and is gifted her energy absorbing shield, which later turns into a variation on her comics outfit (albeit after Monica's unwitting intervention), granting her some degree of her canon powers based on how much she has absorbed by Odin. However, she was also chosen by Alan Scott's Green Lantern Ring twice, based purely off her courage and strength of will. Likewise, as the Mountain and Unfinished Business arcs show, she was entirely willing to get involved in trouble long before she inherited/was given either, and demonstrates a natural head for tactics and strategy that is respected by the world's superhuman heavy hitters.
• Not a Morning Person: Her response to wake up calls is mumbling 'with a considerable 'fuck off' component' and on being tricked out of bed, monosyllables, death threats, Buffy Speak and a lust for coffee. Unless she thinks there are pictures of a shirtless Colonel Rhodes in the offing, that is.
• Not So Above It All: She often mocks Harry's more dramatic moments, but as the Lemony Narrator notes in Unfinished Business, she's got a dramatic streak of her own, when she decides to throw down the gauntlet by one-shotting the literally mountain-sized Man-Thing.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: She plays the snarky, rebellious teen so well that even the hyper-aware Jean-Paul sometimes forgets how sharp she is. How sharp is that? Sharp enough that even Strange is willing to step aside and let her be The Strategist at the climax of Unfinished Business (though admittedly, part of this is his usual "figure it out yourself" shtick), and Jean-Paul, who's known her for years, is sometimes caught off-guard by just how good she is. She's also much more cold-bloodedly pragmatic and methodical than she pretends to be.
• One of the Boys: Her school's top football (soccer) player, with a spiky, abrasive personality (though she softens over time). The latter largely comes from the fact that, unlike most examples, she's not indistinguishable from the guys and gets a lot of unwanted attention.
• Only Sane Woman: Subverted. While she usually looks sane and sensible compared to Harry's downright bizarre tactics, she's got a streak of wildness and crazy a mile wide. Fury lampshades this in Unfinished Business, noting inwardly that he'd hoped that she'd be this to Harry, but instead, "Birds of a Feather might flock together, but those two maniacs deserved each other". Given that she'd just distracted the godlike Arc Villain by cold-cocking her in the face, kicking her in the crotch so hard she went flying into the air, and screamed "Meep-meep!" before breaking the sound barrier with the MacGuffin, this was somewhat justified.
• Only the Chosen May Wield: Gets to briefly wield the Green Lantern Ring in the finale of Book I. She is less than pleased when it turns up again in Unfinished Business.
• Parental Issues: She really doesn't get on with either of her parents. In her mother's case, it's because Carol doesn't understand her - and once they understand each other, they get on much better. In her father's, it's because he doesn't understand her at all, but she understands him all too well.
• Parental Substitute:
  • Her maternal uncle, Jack O'Neill. Unfortunately, he's usually busy with work.
  • After The Reveal that she's the great-granddaughter of Steve Rogers and Peggy Carter, as opposed to the great-niece of the latter, she feels out Steve for this. Initially, he's in shock and rejects her - though not without an explanation. After Tony's pointed nagging and Carol having a near-death experience in Ghosts, he comes around, eventually becoming her de facto 'dad'.
• Passionate Sports Girl: A dedicated football (soccer) player and very good at it, captaining her school team.
• Pitbull Dates Puppy: Her friendship and UST with Harry comes off as this during the first book and the start of the second, though after a growth spurt and Forever Red, he couldn't be said to be a puppy any more. Likewise, she's got a much softer side that she opens up with over the course of the series.
• Pop-Cultured Badass: She makes a lot of Star Wars references, among other things. This culminates in the final battle of Unfinished Business when she uses the Green Lantern Ring to conjure fully functional and fully colour-palette accurate X-Wings and a copy of the Millennium Falcon which works perfectly, in the words of Jack O'Neill, "in blatant defiance of the laws of physics, god, and man."
• Positive Friend Influence: Despite not being the most open and congenial person by herself, her brand of caring Brutal Honesty breaks down the wall Harry tends to put up, cutting through his melodramatic tendencies, and persuading him to open up and take a good, long look at himself when necessary.
• Physical God: When wielding Alan Scott's Green Lantern Ring, to a potentially reality-warping degree. In Unfinished Business, she ends up taking it up several notches by reluctantly reclaiming the Ring and using her shield-suit as a replacement lantern, channelling half the magical power of the Earth, with the Arc Villain having the other half - explicitly stated to be the power of pantheons, plural. She handles it well, but all things told, she's rather relieved when she gets to give it up again and takes steps to ensure she doesn't have to take it up again.
• Powered Armour: In Unfinished Business, it's revealed that her shield is a Morph Weapon/Swiss-Army Weapon which]] gives her a clothing-like Chrome Champion version of this trope powered by any energy she absorbs.
• Pragmatic Hero: As demonstrated in Forever Red, she's capable of both worrying very much about Harry and planning for what might happen if he ends up Brainwashed and Crazy and testing if Jean is ready for the prospect of facing him (as she's one of the few who could). She doesn't like it, but it turns out that she was Properly Paranoid.
• Properly Paranoid: In the sequel, she's much quicker on the draw when startled. It's usually justified, as demonstrated in Unfinished Business, when she decides to take her enchanted shield on a school trip to New Orleans, just in case. Likewise, in Forever Red, she's planning for what happens if what emerges from the Red Room is not Harry, and while others are appalled that her mind went there and she admitted she hated thinking that way, she was proven right because that's exactly what happens.
• Psychic Link: Ends up developing one with Harry in Ghosts, after the telepathic therapy incident. The two of them frequently slip into telepathic conversations without realising it, and she's hinted to be able to sense his presence despite being by her own admittance "about as psychic as a turnip". Later, she manages to contact him, while he was asleep, from across the Atlantic after mentally shouting at it. Both of them are rather surprised that it actually worked.
• The Reliable One: While she's been through a lot, she's very stable, meaning that others who are close to her, Harry in particular, lean on her. This is part of why he's reluctant to pursue a Relationship Upgrade for a long time, because as she admits, Harry's issues are a lot to deal with even as his friend - and he is very well aware of it.
• Reality Warper: When tapping into half the full power of Earth's magic as the unfettered Green Lantern in Unfinished Business. She's entirely aware of her limitations in understanding it and mostly keeps it simple, just wanting to take the opportunity to punch Nimue very hard in the face. Which she does. Repeatedly.
• Relative Button: For the love of whichever god you believe in, do not threaten to even upset her little brothers
• Sarcastic Devotee: She develops into Harry's right-hand woman (and ultimately half of a Lady and Knight dynamic), supporting him no matter what and backing him up through thick and thin, providing the occasional You Are Better Than You Think You Are speech... while also gleefully deflating his ego/mocking his more melodramatic moods, and serving as his Morality Chain.
• Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: With Harry. While they flip the dynamic sometimes, he's (usually) quieter and more thoughtful - to the point of brooding - and she's an active sporty young woman who's instinctively more brash and in your face. Interestingly, however, she's The Strategist who carefully thinks her plans through, and he's inclined to the Indy Ploy before graduating to Xanatos Speed Chess with a dose of the Batman Gambit, relying on creativity and Flaw Exploitation. She's also usually the one to puncture his histrionics when he gets really worked up.
• Sexually Transmitted Superpowers: While there's no actual sex involved, and the two aren't even together at the time, in Ghosts she gets a massive blood transfusion from Harry via machine designed for blood-magic derived Super-Empowering. Word of God confirms that it was magically significant as an Act of True Love - especially since, a) it saved her life, and b) he transferred over at least four pints, he'd already donated at least half a pint to someone else, and he'd lost a lot of blood after a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown including being skewered with his own sword. It should have killed him. Its effects are initially unclear, though it's later shown to allow her to channel truly massive amounts of energy without burning up.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: She's usually an Unkempt Beauty, but when she goes all out as Harry's date to the Yule Ball, she's positively stunning, and compared very favourably with Diana and Fleur Delacour, who are both literally supernaturally beautiful. Harry is left gobsmacked and barely manages to use his words.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: She shows hints of this from the later parts of the first book onwards, and is a textbook example after Bloody Hell. Under the circumstances, it isn't exactly surprising.
• Shield Bash: She succeeds in beating a supersized werewolf into whimpering submission through this method.
• Ship Tease: Recurrently with Harry. Both, however, have epic scale issues and are more than content to be Just Friends at first. The Big Damn Kiss in Ghosts finally seals it.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: Is generally unimpressed by Monologuing and won't hesitate to make it very clear.
• Sleep Cute: By Ghosts, she and Harry tend to snuggle following emotional distress by one or the other, and then more generally whenever they're given the opportunity.
• Sliding Scale of Beauty: Hovers at around a Type II (Divine Beauty)/Type III (World Class Beauty) level - she's usually described as 'merely' an exceptional Unkempt Beauty/Amazonian Beauty, but when She Cleans Up Nicely, she can comfortably compete with textbook Type IIs, Fleur Delacour and Diana (though admittedly, the story is from Harry's point of view, so there may be a bit of bias).
• So Beautiful, It's a Curse: A realistic variant - she's attractive and considerably Younger than She Looks so she gets a lot of unwanted attention.
• The Spock: Sometimes, surprisingly, and hinted at with her gifts as The Strategist, despite the fact that she acts more like a fairly classic example of The Kirk - she's capable of being ruthlessly, relentlessly logical and pragmatic, even if she hates it. While most of her is worried sick as and when a friend is captured behind enemy lines, another part of her carefully plans for the scenario that what comes back is not their friend. Just in case. It might be Dirty Business, and she hates thinking that way, but someone has to.
• Statuesque Stunner: She's noted to be about 5'10'', to her discomfort and irritation she attracts her fair share of Male Gaze, and at the Yule Ball, She Cleans Up Nicely - enough to legitimately compete with Fleur and Diana, who are both literally supernaturally beautiful, for unofficial 'belle of the ball' status.
• Stay in the Kitchen: Her father's attitude towards her, at direct counterpoint to her uncle and grandmother, who encourage her to follow her dreams to be a pilot.
• The Strategist:
  • She has a natural born gift for this, to the point where the Winter Soldier remarks on it. The implication is that she gets it from Steve (and Peggy was no slouch in this department either).
  • These tendencies resurface in Ghosts, during her time in the Red Room and after Harry's recaptured - see Pragmatic Hero for the latter - and during Unfinished Business.
    • In the latter, without any real prompting she manages to concoct a plan that is accepted by the likes of Steve, Strange, Wizard Liberty of the Senior Council, and Wanda, without much question beyond clarification. For good reason, as it leaves Nimue, no slouch herself, completely flatfooted and grudgingly impressed.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: While she's fairly sweet to Harry from the start, the two connecting quickly, she's still a bit standoffish and reserved - and to almost everyone else, she's icy and withdrawn and untrusting. In large part thanks to Harry's influence, she becomes a warmer and more open person by Book II.
• Superhuman Transfusion: Gets one from Harry at the end of Bloody Hell, though it doesn't have any direct effects. In Unfinished Business, it's heavily implied to be part of what allows her to channel the power of the Earth's magic through her shield-armour as a temporary, wearable Green Lantern without burning up. She later wonders what effect this might be having on her.
• Supporting Leader: She has shades of this in respect to Harry.
• Super-Soldier: By inheritance, as it turns out, though it only fully manifested thanks to a temporary Plot-Relevant Age-Up/enhancement in Book I.
• There Was a Door:
  • In the finale of Book I, during the raid on the HYDRA base at the Battle of London, she disregards it entirely. Under the circumstances, this was not exactly wise.
  • And again in Ghosts, going through a window shield first. The window of a moving subway train, to be exact. With her little brother under her arm, while being pursued by vampires. This time, it actually works... for a little while.
• Throwing Your Shield Always Works: Deconstructed. When she tries it with a classic kite shield, while she manages to throw it effectively, it just bounces off her target and has to be retrieved. In Ghosts, not only does she have a shield like Steve's, after his tutelage, she can throw it and pull off the rebound just like him. It doesn't hurt that by this point, she has Super-Soldier abilities as well.
• Tomboy with a Girly Streak: She's a sporty young woman, usually an Unkempt Beauty in jeans and a t-shirt, enjoys athletics and learning how to fight, and is not exactly what you'd call ladylike. However, she actuall likes wearing a Pimped-Out Dress from time to time, though she doesn't explicitly admit it until chapter 47 of Ghosts - something presumed to be related to her father trying to make her more traditionally feminine and a Proper Lady, and her stubborn refusal to give an inch.
• Took a Level in Cheerfulness: Across Book I, but Book II in particular, as Harry pieces his mental health back together and they get together.
• Touched by Vorlons: This happens to her a lot, to the point where she wonders if she's still "me" or "Franken-me" after Unfinished Business. By this point, she's had her Super-Soldier genes activated by a temporary Plot-Relevant Age-Up courtesy of a Genius Loci, wielded the Green Lantern Ring twice (the second time she used her shield-suit as a stand-in battery meaning that she essentially was the Lantern), developed a Psychic Link with one of the most powerful telepaths ever to exist (who later used it with her consent to possess her), undergone a Superhuman Transfusion from Harry (who has some very odd things in his blood and is noted as the transition point from humanity to divinity), and now wields a weapon enchanted by Odin that absorbs energy and functions almost as a part of her. With all that in mind, it's a fair question.
• Town Girls: The Butch to Hermione's Femme and Diana's Neither.
• Trademark Favourite Food: Coffee aside, it's mentioned every now and then that she has a severe weakness for ice cream. As a child, she used her Puppy-Dog Eyes to get her uncle to get her more (despite his claims otherwise), and in the sequel, she's mentioned as having demolished a 'Thor-sized' box of Rocky Road as Comfort Food.
• Tranquil Fury: It tends to be a sign that she's far beyond normal anger. In one case, she blinds a supercharged werewolf, beats it to pulp, cripples it, and kills it.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behaviour: Not quite as dramatic an example as Harry, but definitely walks the line between this and Wise Beyond Their Years as a result of her experiences, with Hermione noting that she has a disturbingly old and cynical laugh. She softens a bit with time, leaning towards Wise, but can still be Troubling.
• Tsundere: Ironically, for Book and a fair bit of Book II, she's this to pretty much everyone but Harry, who reliably brings out her sweeter, softer side. However, she is described as spiky and as having 'more prickles than a cactus' for good reason, with a defensive and temperamental attitude being derived from an emotionally abusive father and a good deal of sexual harassment, leaving her with an attitude of 'I get up when I get knocked down, because fuck you, that's why'. In the latter half of Book II, she emphasises the Dere Dere side more as she softens, but still - spiky.
• Twice Shy: With Harry. Unusually, they do figure it out by Ghosts, but as both acknowledge when they admit their feelings apart and to each other, they're riddled with issues that would make a relationship problematic (his horrible self-esteem and her twitchy nature, along with PTSD) and the risks that any relationship would be a co-dependent mess. They eventually get over them enough to get together.
• Undying Loyalty: She won't hesitate to call him out if she thinks it's necessary, and is usually one of the first to do so, but her loyalty to Harry is deep and without question, and entirely reciprocated, and it runs far deeper than simple friendship or romance. This does not go unnoticed in the slightest.
• The Un-Favourite:
  • As per canon, she's this to her father, and thinks she's this to her mother too. She certainly has a low opinion of both of them, considering her mother an Extreme Doormat. While she's right about her father, she's wrong about her mother, who has significant Hidden Depths - they're much more alike than either realises, as Harry immediately notices when he sees them together - and whose attitude ties back to issues with her own mother.
  • Steve's initial semi-rejection of her once it's revealed that she's his great-granddaughter gives her this impression. As it is, once he gets over himself, and explains and adjusts to a few of his issues (being a Fish out of Temporal Water was hard enough), they bond nicely, and he becomes a father-figure to her, eventually accepting that he is effectively her dad.
• Unkempt Beauty: While tomboyish as a rule (though She Cleans Up Nicely when she actually wants to), she's usually very attractive, even with spectacular bed-head.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: Towards Harry, even if they aren't actually dating until over halfway through Ghosts, and though her role is usually more emotional protectiveness, she displays a willingness to pull off barehanded murder on his behalf if he's wronged.
• Villain Respect: Gets this from a couple of villains.
  • The Winter Soldier, who classifies her as the biggest threat during the Mountain arc once Harry and Diana leave the scene. Given that Uhtred (at this point a fully grown Asgardian) and Jean-Paul (an experienced speedster at the height of his potential) are present, this is no small thing.
  • Syrus, then Dracula, are impressed by her strategic thinking and her courage, with the latter being entirely willing to ratify a deal that would essentially spare her little brother if she cooperated.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Her standard mode with people she likes, particularly with Jean-Paul and to a lesser extent with Harry.
• When She Smiles: Being a somewhat cynical person, she usually restricts herself to a smirk or a sardonic grin, something Harry remarks on. When she really, truly and genuinely smiles (which usually happens around Harry), it's noted as dazzling. It also seems to run in the family, going by her little brothers.
• You Are Not Alone: Gives this to Harry in Book I, who returns it to her in Ghosts.
• You Did Everything You Could: Gives a speech along these lines to Harry in Book I after Luna's death.
• Younger Than They Look: In her mid-teens when first introduced, and built like a hot college student. This gets her a lot of unwanted attention, hence the spiky attitude.

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