Characters / Dark Seed

Chaaracters who show up in Dark Seed and Dark Seed II.

Mike Dawson

• Author Avatar: Mike has the same looks and name as the lead designer/producer.
  • Averted in the sequel; the real Mike Dawson had nothing to do with it.
• Chivalrous Pervert: In the sequel, Mike probably assumes he is this.
• Classical Antihero: In Dark Seed II, Mike Dawson becomes one; a whiny, cowardly manchild, whom nobody (in-universe) seems to like.
• Dull Surprise:
  • The CD version of the first game added voice acting, leading to Mike narrating everything in the same nonchalant voice, from washing up in the morning to wandering around a Dark World full of monsters.
  • Mike also has his moments in II, notably when talking to Paul, who is dying in his arms. He asks him a series of questions in the same vaguely curious tone he normally uses.
• Failure Hero: Mike takes a massive dive into this between games. While he's fairly intelligent in the first game and handles the situation without much trouble (he even has enough sense to get out of jail on his own recognizance if you play the game correctly), in the second game he seems incapable of accomplishing several basic things on his own:
  • He has to use Dark World gadgets to win carnival games. To be fair, the Wheel of Fortune might have been rigged, but there's no indication shooting gallery and the ring toss were.
  • His plan to get the sheriff out of his office comes to a dead halt when he can't afford a twenty cent pay phone.
  • He lets a man die because he can't figure out how to get an anvil off of an ice chest with important medication inside.
  • The big reveal at the end is that the closet in Mike's bedroom, which holds the last Dark World portal, was never locked - his mother just pretended to lock it when he was a kid. Which means at no point in his life had Mike ever tried to open that door before. Even his mom makes fun of him for that.
  • Even after all he does in the game, his "victory" can barely be called one, despite stopping the invasion. Several characters end up dead or hating him during the course of the plot, and no matter what your interpretation of the ending is, things don't look good for Mike's future.
• Loser Protagonist: In Dark Seed II, almost everyone hates Mike Dawson, and a large portion of his quest is figuring out how to cheat at carnival games. He never even had enough sense to attempt to open a closet that he believed to be locked in his room before he gets a flashback vision revealing that his mother had been lying to him about it the entire time.
• Took a Level in Dumbass: Mike in the first game was smart enough to figure out how to defeat the Ancients on his own. In II, he has to cheat at carnival games meant for children.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: In the first game, Mike's voiced narration gave the impression of a guy who was pleasent and happy-go-lucky about his situation. In II, he's a whiny, selfish, incompetent jerk even to the people who are trying to help him. It is somewhat justified from his being traumatized by the events of the first game.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Jack calls Mike an idiot when he learns that Mike punched out an FBI agent.
• You Wouldn't Believe Me If I Told You: Mike keeps what happened to him at the mansion a secret in the second game because of how bizarre it would be to explain it all. Of course he's pretty forward about the truth to his therapist Dr. Sims, who naturally doesn't believe him.

Crowley, Texas

Rita Scanlon

• Dull Surprise: Rita's "scream of terror" as she falls to her death comes more across as someone going “Ahhhhhh” in a very bored tone.
• Posthumous Character: She dies before the start of the game.
• Really Gets Around: Does she ever, although it's implied she might actually be a prostitute.
• Sleeps with Everyone but You: By the end of Dark Seed II, Mike discovers almost everyone in town had been getting some from Rita... except for Mike himself.
• Who Shot JFK?: One of Slim's theories for why Rita was killed: to cover up the truth of this event.

Jack

• Ambiguous Situation: It's never made clear what exactly he really is, whether he's Mike's Dark World counterpart, one of the Ancients, or a figment of a Mike's imagination.
• False Friend: He presents himself as Mike's only friend who's trying to help him solve Rita's murder. He's anything but, having been the one to actually murder Rita and frame Mike. Maybe.
• Hero Killer: Kills Mike by knifing him from the back.
• Invisible to Normals: No one besides Mike seems to notice him. Slim attributes him punching out Jimmy Gardner to Mike and at the end neither the Sheriff or Deputy notice him standing right in front of them next to Mike and Dr. Sims dead bodies.
• Leitmotif: A jazzy theme plays whenever Jack shows up in Dark Seed II.
• Waxing Lyrical: As if the ending wasn't already balmy enough, at the end of Dark Seed II Jack/the Shapeshifter suddenly paraphrases The Beatles when he explains his true nature: "I am you, and you are me, and we are all together!"
• Walking Spoiler: There's no way to discuss him without learning he's the murderer and behind the events of whole game.

Paul Cooper

• Affably Evil: Maybe 'affable' is questionable, but for a possibly mind-controlled cultist, he's very friendly.
• Almost Dead Guy: He gives a lot of exposition as he dies.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Paul sure seems like a nice fella, doesn't he? Sure, he likes watering his lawn a lot, but who doesn't enjoy gardening? Too bad he's part of a demon-worshipping cult.
• Creepy Monotone: He has a very monotonous voice when he's talked to outside his house.
• Large Ham: In a stark contrast to his usual voice, he chews the scenery as a game show host.
• Room Full of Crazy: Why does he have dozens of chests of drawers piled up in his house, anyway?

Jimmy Gardner

• Big, Stupid Doodoo-Head: He's supposed to be a tough guy, but in his first conversation, the insult he goes for is "doofus". He never comes up with anything better.
• Convenient Coma: When Jack punches him, he ends up in a coma.
• Psycho for Hire: He's the hired killer Slim goes on about; he conspired with Mrs. Ramirez to kill her husband, and was working with Melissa to do the same to Mayor Fleming.
• Weapon for Intimidation: He pulls a gun on Slim, but it's later revealed to be empty.

Mrs. Dawson

• Abusive Parents: Abusive might be a stretch, but she's certainly quite nasty to her son. Granted, this is Mike Dawson we're talking about.
• Lies to Children: She lied to young Mike about locking his closet to keep monsters out.
• Your Head A-Splode: Her head explodes before she could tell Mike what's going on.

Sheriff Butler

• Dirty Cop: He was fired from the Dallas Police for taking bribes.
• Police Are Useless: He's so utterly incompetent that he not only fails to notice a demon-worshipping cult right under his nose, but also fails to prevent the murders of most of the cast.
• Properly Paranoid: Depending on how you interpret the ending, Butler was right to suspect that Mike was Rita's murderer.

Doc Larson

• Asshole Victim: He gets decapitated by the Shapeshifter and his head put into the Ancients' machine. Mike barely seems to care.
• Dirty Old Man: We first meet Larson when Mike interrupts him making out with one his patients. And he was having an affair with Rita.
• Jerkass: He's rude and condescending to Mike, up to outright telling Mike he hopes "they fry his ass". This is especially galling considering Larson likely knew Mike was innocent due to his own involvement in the Dark World cult.

Dr. Sims

• Nice Guy: Probably the only human character who is consistently respectful to Mike without humoring his delusions.
• The Shrink: A psychologist specializing in hypnotherapy, and a good one at that. He genuinely wants to help Mike, and grows increasingly concerned as Mike seems to grow more and more detached from reality.

Slim

• Beneath Suspicion: He mentions that people let things slip around him, since they think he's an insane fool.
• Crazy Homeless People: He babbles nonsense about stock conspiracy theories, but Mike realizes he knows about the Ancients and the Dark World. Except Mike is the one who brought up the Ancients first, and Slim is possibly just a lunatic.
  • Cassandra Truth: Some of his theories, specifically the hired killer and satanic cult, later turn out to be true.
• Hearing Voices: He says as much in his first conversation with Mike.

Mayor Fleming

• Dirty Old Man: He's not only married to a woman young enough to be his daughter (given Mike's statement about Fleming being his father's former business partner and the fact Melissa Fleming was in Mike's class in high school), he was also having a very kinky affair with Rita.
• Sleazy Politician: Aside from trying to cover up his affair, he's also shown to be fairly incompetent.

Mrs. Ramirez

• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She pretends to be a good Christian woman, but she paid Jimmy Gardner to off her husband just so she could get his money.
• Hypocrite: She decries the moral degeneracy in Crowley, all while being one of the worst people in the town.
• Red Herring: Her murdering her husband seems like it has something to do with Rita's murder. It doesn't.
• What the Hell Is That Accent?: Her accent sounds vaguely European, but narrowing it down further is virtually impossible.

Dark World

Keeper of the Scrolls

• Big Good: In both games.
• Mr. Exposition: This Darkworlders explains what the Dark World and the Ancients are to Mike in the first game.

Shapeshifter

• The Heavy: While the Ancients are the major villains, the Shapeshifter is the main driver of the plot.
• Walking Spoiler: See Jack's entry above.

Behemoth

• Cutscene Boss: In Dark Seed II, the Behemoth is killed by Mike in an extremely flashy cutscene.
• Eldritch Abomination: Not so much in the Dark World, but if Mike fails to stop it, then in our world it grows into a gigantic, unstoppable abomination that consumes the life force of the entire planet to sustain the Ancients.