Characters / Edgar Allan Poe's Murder Mystery Dinner Party

This is the character sheet for the murder mystery series Edgar Allan Poe's Murder Mystery Dinner Party containing tropes that relate to the party guests both specifically and in general. Be careful of spoilers below.

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The Hosts

Edgar Allan Poe

Portrayed by: Sean Persaud

• Berserk Button: After Annabel's death, he finally loses it when Eddie casually gloats about killing her.
• Captain Obvious: When Agatha Christie literally drops in with a knife and nine other stab wounds in her back, Edgar takes a few seconds and comes to the following conclusion:
  Poe: She was stabbed.
• Cold Ham: Stoic, constantly frowning, and usually talking in a very low voice. Yet he does have an affinity for melancholic dramatics.
• The Comically Serious: Along with Mary Shelley, he's always the most funny when he's completely serious. The times he does try to be funny, it doesn't really work.
• Crazy-Prepared: Edgar's house is equipped with a vault for storing dead bodies, just in case anyone wants to commit a murder there. This turns into a problem when he's trying to argue his innocence. He even always carries a vest full of candles just in case of a seance.
• Creepy Crows: Has a whole room in his house for these. Although they're actually ravens.
• Dark Is Evil: Subverted and played with; the murderer plans on using this trope to blame Edgar for the murders. Edgar himself thinks that no one would believe that. Everyone disagrees with him.
  Oscar Wilde: "Yes, this house is Murdersville, population: you."
• Dogged Nice Guy: He's been pursuing Annabel Lee for some time, as chronicled in the Tell-Tale Vlogs/Socially Awkward Poe series.
• "Eureka!" Moment: After Oscar jokingly states that Emily Dickinson was "crushed by the feather of loneliness", he realizes that the authors are killed off in a manner which befits their writing.
• Foil: To Ernest Hemingway. Poe is stoic and dislikes smoking, while Hemingway is loud, boisterous, The Alcoholic and a heavy smoker. Both have an interest in Annabel: Poe is deeply in love but unsure about Annabel's feelings towards him; Hemingway, on the other hand, is very confident about himself and misses every subtle sign that Annabel is not interested in him.
• Implausible Deniability: Several times, including denying writing down what Eddie said about being mad, despite having just done that five minutes earlier.
• Instant Messenger Pigeon: Uses ravens to communicate this way. Both a Mythology Gag about the poem "The Raven" and a literal mythology gag (the Norse god Odin used ravens this way).
• Like Brother and Sister: The original Vlog Series had Edgar trying and failing to court Lenore. This version makes it clear they're purely platonic roommates — or, indeed, employer and employee — and Edgar always only had eyes for Annabel. This is partly because Sean and Sinead Persaud are siblings in real life.
• Loners Are Freaks: This party is the first attempt at social interaction Poe has had in ... a while.
  Edgar, being questioned by police: I live here. I've been here all day. In fact, if we're being honest, I don't recall having left the house in the past ye—month.
• Love Hurts: Oh boy, yes. Especially when your loved one dies in your arms.
• Murder the Hypotenuse: Poe finds himself accused of this more than once. In all fairness, he didn't look too unhappy when Annabel said Eddie wasn't breathing.
• Not Even Bothering with an Excuse: After explaining to the constables why his guests are fighting and then dancing with each other, he finally gives up when he finds them meditating upside-down.
• Not Helping Your Case: Poe claims that he can't be the murderer because he wouldn't have done it in room full of people he invited. Fair enough. Then he proceeds to explain in great detail how he would have done it, before realizing how incriminating that sounds. And then states that this was just one idea he had.
  Poe: Oh, that ... that's incriminating. I hear that now.
• Perpetual Frowner: His default expression.
• Second Love: The Tell-Tale Vlogs say that they take place after the death of Poe's real-life wife, Virginia, and that his interest in Lenore and Annabel Lee is him rebounding as a widower (since, in real life, both of them were fictional expies of Virginia). This series never actually mentions his "creepy child bride", but assuming she still exists in this continuity Annabel seems like a blatant Doppelgänger Replacement Love Interest for her.
• The Stoic: He rarely raises his voice or changes his stoic expression.
• A True Story in My Universe:
  • In this universe Poe apparently wrote both "Lenore" and "The Raven" based on the story of the real Lenore's death, because he thinks she reminds him of his own "creepy child bride" and her untimely death. (She does not appreciate this gesture.) The poem "Annabel Lee" is apparently also creepy Real-Person Fic about the real Annabel.
  • This show establishes that he really does have the cellar described in "The Cask of Amontillado" and is obsessed with ravens. And eventually Poe not only steals the first lines of "The Tell-Tale Heart" from Dantes' Motive Rant but bases the whole story on how he hid Dantes' body after killing him to avoid going to trial.
  • The J.M. Barrie Prologue demonstrates Poe Cannot Tell Fiction from Reality and wrote all his famous stories based on things that happened to him, despite his attempt later on to defend himself to Hemingway that his morbid writings have nothing to do with his personality.
  Edgar: I don't need to act things out in order to write them. I have what we like to call an imagination. Have you ever heard of that? Oh-no-no-no-no-no, please tell us more about The Old Man... and the Boat.

Lenore

Portrayed by: Sinead Persaud

• Adaptational Backstory Change: Applies to both Lenore and Annabel Lee, both from their original poems and from the earlier pre-Poe Party Shipwrecked videos. Lenore died relatively recently, not long ago in a medieval kingdom, and probably lived in the Baltimore house Edgar ended up moving into (which is how she knows Annabel, who lives next door). She's still best friends with Annabel Lee but unlike in the Tell Tale Vlogs, Annabel had nothing to do with "setting her up with someone to haunt", since Annabel isn't a ghost — indeed Edgar specifically says Krishanti is the one who "foisted Lenore on me".
• Adaptational Dye-Job: The only physical detail about Lenore we're given in Poe's poem "Lenore" besides her being young and beautiful is that she has "yellow hair"; this Lenore is a brunette. (And compared to the original she certainly averts Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold.) Guy de Vere notably skips this line when quoting the poem "Lenore" in her flashback.
• Adaptational Jerkass: This Lenore isn't a bad person at heart, but she's certainly much more immature, callous, and mean than the saintly Too Good for This Sinful Earth subject of the poem. A deliberate contrast with her best friend Annabel Lee, who is every bit the saint that the character in her namesake poem is.
• The Alcoholic: Is somehow constantly drinking despite being a ghost and incorporeal. She explains imbibing alcohol is the only thing she generally exerts her ability to interact with the physical for.
• Angst? What Angst?: Despite being the Trope Namer for the Lost Lenore, this version of Lenore hilariously skewers the melancholy around that trope, and seems to really enjoy the carefree irresponsibility that comes with having died young. (Ironically, this was the sentiment held by her lover, Guy de Vere, in the poem "Lenore".)
• Boy Meets Ghoul: She's the ghoul in the equation. Despite being dead, she seems to have a romantic interest in H.G. Wells.
• Deadpan Snarker: Nearly every word coming out of her mouth is laced with sarcasm.
• The Fashionista: According to her mother, Lenore was into fashion the moment she came out of her womb, and gets in several jabs at Louisa May Alcott's (admittedly ugly) dress. She also tries to give Emily Dickinson beauty tips.
• Ghost Butler: Lenore is one big joke about this trope, with her acting as Poe's snarky, insubordinate household staff as an apparent condition of Poe letting her stay in his house.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: It is very well hidden behind a ton of snark, eyerolls, and her constantly uncaring attitude, but she has a soft spot for Guy de Vere, H.G. Wells, Annabel, Poe, and maybe even Oscar.
• Loophole Abuse: Despite the effort the murderer went to to set up a Closed Circle, Lenore is able to summon Krishanti for help thanks to their Psychic Link (and the murderer can't punish her for violating the rule against calling for help since she's already dead). Turns out getting Krishanti involved was All According to Plan.
• Odd Friendship: Of sorts, with Oscar Wilde. They both are very into fashion and constantly high-fiving each other after a snarky remark, but have no qualms accusing each other of murder.
• Only Sane Woman: As she's the most levelheaded (read: unable to give a shit about anything), she develops into this role.
• Our Ghosts Are Different: This show clarifies the extent of Lenore's powers from the earlier Socially Awkward Poe sketches — she can interact with the world like a living person when she's concentrating, is otherwise a visible and audible but incorporeal presence, and can't do any ghost tricks like flying or teleporting because she hasn't been dead long enough to learn them; i.e., she's just powerful enough to be a suspect in the murders without being so powerful that she could trivially stop the murderer.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Her comments imply Guy was a ... Nice Guy (cough), and of all the guests, she develops a crush on H.G., who is a genuinely nice and upstanding fellow.
• Surrounded by Idiots: Claims to be that after an epically stupid moment from constables Jim and Jimmy. She has a point.
• Totally Radical: All of the characters engage in some anachronistic dialogue for laughs, but Lenore's defining character trait — going back to the Tell Tale Vlogs — is speaking like a stereotypical 21st-century teenager, interrupting Poe or Guy de Vere's poetic language with "totes" and "fab".
• Wight in a Wedding Dress: A lady ghost who died shortly before her wedding in her wedding dress.

The Guests

The Guests in General

• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: With the exception of Annabel Lee and her plus one, the guests are all rather quirky and eccentric. They are famous for a reason, though.
• Deadpan Snarker: This being a gathering of brilliant authors, almost everyone gets to snark at some point. Though Lenore, Charlotte Brontë, and Oscar Wilde reign supreme.
• Everyone Is a Suspect: Everyone who hasn't already died, that is.
• Fake Brit: The whole cast is American, but several of the characters are British (Brontë, Shelley, Wilde, Wells, Christie for the few seconds before she dies, and surprise characters Jane Austen and Anne Brontë). There's also Dostoevsky, the token non-Anglophone, and George Eliot, a hilarious example of an American pretending to be a Brit pretending to be an American. Also Dantes, a European of unknown origin who speaks English with an American accent. Which is a lie.
• Ironic Death: Everyone who dies is killed in a way that references their work. George Eliot breaking the pattern due to a mistake by the killer is an early clue to their identity.
• Large Hams: What else can you expect when you invite a bunch of eccentric authors?

Annabel Lee

Portrayed by: Mary Kate Wiles

• Adaptational Backstory Change: Applies to both Lenore and Annabel Lee, both from their original poems and from the earlier pre-Poe Party Shipwrecked videos. Annabel Lee is not from a "kingdom by the sea" but Edgar's longtime next-door neighbor. And unlike in the Tell Tale Vlogs or Lenore's Draw My Life, she's not a ghost yet, anyway.
• All-Loving Hero: Knows all of the authors at the party (and many others who weren't invited), and is (initially) friendly with even the most abrasive ones.
• Dying Declaration of Love: A very painful one for Edgar.
  Annabel Lee: It was always you.
• Foregone Conclusion: Considering she's the title character of a poem about mourning her death, although the show does play fast and loose enough with real history and literature to keep us guessing.
• Friendly Ghost: Becomes one of these after her death. Even after what she's been through she just doesn't have it in her to hurt anyone.
• Idiot Ball: Annabel, while being otherwise fairly level-headed, gets to hold it near the end, when she realizes who is responsible for the murders. Instead of telling the others about her theory, she runs off, alone and unarmed to the person she knows has killed several people this evening, with apparently no other plan than trying to talk him out of it. The result, while tragic, is not really surprising.
• The Ingenue: In sharp contrast to everyone else, to the point of being a Purity Sue (which the original poem basically was).
  Edgar: I think we can all agree that the most innocent person here is the beautiful and innocent Annabel Lee, and also she's the most beautiful.
• Nice Girl: The kindest and most compassionate, and the only one to remember Emily Dickinson.
• True Blue Femininity: She wears a bright blue dress and is the most caring and kindest of them all.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Lenore deferred to her on the guest list since the only reason Poe threw the party was for her benefit ... and she deferred to her boyfriend, Eddie Dantes, letting him use the party to gather together the instruments and targets of his revenge.

Eddie Dantes

Portrayed by: Ryan W. Garcia

• The Ace: Eddie, unlike Edgar, is a wealthy, square-jawed, athletic pillar of the community who has taken Annabel on multiple glamorous vacations to Europe. Too bad he's also a murderer.
  Eddie: Hi, Eddie Dantes, sorry we're delayed. My volunteer shift at the old folks' home ran late, and then on the way over we ran across a barbershop quartet and their bass was out with a sore throat, so I had to... (sings) fiiill iiin ... You understand.
  Annabel: He has perfect pitch!
  Edgar: And yet it's imperfection that makes people truly interesting.
• Been There, Shaped History: Despite being a fictional character, Dantes seems to show up again and again in real historical events involving famous writers, including being present at the writing of Frankenstein. (In Real Life the only people there besides Mary Shelley were her husband Percy and their host, Lord Byron.) It turns out this is because he's intentionally stalking the entire literary community as part of a deranged master plan to take bloody revenge on writers as a profession.
• Big Bad: He reveals himself to be the true mastermind behind the murders by the end of the series.
• Expy: To Edmond Dantès from The Count of Monte Cristo, obviously. (Lampshaded by Poe conspicuously leaving out "Edmund" from his list of names "Eddie" could be short for.) Foreshadowing for his Secret Identity for the purpose of a convoluted and long-delayed revenge scheme.
• Fake Nationality: Eddie uses the name "Eduardo Dantes" to mislead people — including his girlfriend Annabel — that he's a globetrotting European, when really he's a Baltimore local, just like Lenore, Krishanti, and his brother Guy. Just as Dantes in The Count of Monte Cristo was a Frenchman pretending to be English, this Dantes is pretending to be French to hide his English ancestry — specifically, that he's a descendant of the Earl of Oxford who wrote Shakespeare's plays.
• Faking the Dead: All he did the first time the lights went out was plop his face into the soup and hold still. Helps that all the other writers are Cloudcuckoolanders and the one person who checks his vitals is his confederate, Charlotte Brontë.
• Hypocrite: He hates famous writers for taking the credit and glory for other people's ideas, but isn't above leveraging societal sexism to try to steal credit for Frankenstein from Mary Shelley.
• Identical Grandson: Eddie is actually Edward de Vere VI, the descendant of the original Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford, from whom William Shakespeare allegedly stole his plays, and still bears his ancestor's chip on his shoulder against the entire English-speaking literary community centuries later.
• Long-Lost Relative: He'd been away from home a long time when he heard his brother Guy killed himself. Explains why Lenore, who predeceased Guy, never met him.
• Manipulative Bastard: By his own admission, he courted Annabel for the sole purpose of bringing the authors together so he could kill them off.
• Morally Bankrupt Banker: It's not the reason he's morally bankrupt, but he has no compunction about foreclosing on the historic Brontë Parsonage or using the foreclosure to extort the Brontë sisters into assisting with his schemes.
• Pet the Dog: One of the only positive relationships he has with another character besides Annabel Lee is with Dostoevsky, whom he took in out of charity and helped to get back on his feet after prison. In hindsight, since he invited Dostoevsky to the party to be killed, it seems to have just been another part of his plan to worm himself into the good graces of the writing community to enact a long-delayed revenge.
• Related in the Adaptation: The Plot Twist of Eddie's Secret Identity is based on the minor Real Life coincidence that Edgar Allan Poe gave Lenore's lover the name "Guy de Vere", the same surname as the famous Edward de Vere from the Shakespeare authorship debates.
• The Resenter: Has an insane grudge against Lenore, Krishanti, Shakespeare, and writers in general.
• The Sociopath: A textbook example. Charming and seemingly perfect at the first glance, he's actually a ruthless murderer, killing Annabel Lee, whom he had courted for quite some time, without an ounce of regret.
• Walking Spoiler: Naturally, being the real killer.
• Who Murdered the Asshole: It slowly transpires that Eddie wasn't as nice a guy as Annabel thought, and that most of the guests knew him and had some prior motive for killing him (and killing the other guests is probably a way of getting rid of the witnesses). Turns out they had it backwards — everyone who had a grudge against Dantes also had a reason for him to want to kill them.

Emily Dickinson

Portrayed by: Sarah Grace Hart

• Butt-Monkey: Poor, poor Emily never catches a break. It begins with Poe not remembering having invited her in the first place and gets only worse from there on.
• Couch Gag: Every episode has Emily's appearance in the Opening Credits messed up in some way — initially her portrait simply doesn't appear and Lenore's hand removes her place setting, but this escalates with each episode Emily is in (showing an obstructed view of her face, replacing her with a real portrait of the historical Emily Dickinson, the hand repeatedly trying to remove the place setting but having it stubbornly reappear).
• Extreme Doormat: Before she starts standing up for herself, she put up with everyone ignoring and dismissing her, despite being invited to the dinner party.
• Growing A Spine: After being ignored too long, Emily finally stands up for herself to help Krishanti find the sage for the seance. It's a small moment, and short-lived, but rather satisfying none the less.
• Mythology Gag: Back in the days of the original "Tell Tale Vlog" Vlog Series, there was a one-shot spinoff Christmas Episode starring Emily Dickinson, making her the only one of the party guests other than Annabel Lee who's appeared in a Shipwrecked video before Poe Party.
• Nice Girl: Despite her treatment, she is very nice and forgiving. She mentions that she once wrote Eddie Dantes a few strongly worded poems. That's about as mean as she got.
• Perception Filter: Played for Laughs. The camera refuses to center her in frame even when she's talking, none of the other characters save Annabel seem able to remember her existence, and even the Opening Credits seem to be confused by her continued presence in the cast list and keep trying to remove her name. Even trained medium Krishanti confuses her for a ghost.
• Shrinking Violet: She is very shy and stays in her room a lot, which is why everyone forgets about her presence.

Ernest Hemingway

Portrayed by: Joey Richter

• Abhorrent Admirer: To Annabel. (And then to Charlotte when Annabel rejects his advances.)
• The Alcoholic: He's constantly seen drinking and regularly produces alcoholic beverages out of Hammerspace.
• Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: Much of his Too Dumb to Live behavior here can be explained by the reveal that he was already drunk when he showed up to the party and has been drinking continuously the whole time.
• Berserk Button: It's not quite clear whether it was his drunken state, Oscar Wilde in particular, the dig at both his boxing and literary talent or a combination of all three, but the result is Ernest going for Oscar's throat, with Annabel and Charlotte barely able to hold him back.
• Blade Enthusiast: He really likes brandishing knives to make his point, and seems unaware how this attracts suspicion during a murder mystery.
• Boisterous Bruiser: He is very much into sports, loud, outspoken, and usually one of the first to swing into action. Unfortunately, he's also The Alcoholic.
• Dumb Jock: Hemingway is obviously educated enough to be a famous writer, but is a bit slow on the uptake — he's the only one who seems to not know who George Eliot is and has a habit of guessing the murderer is a literary figure who isn't even at the party (like Rudyard Kipling). Possibly explained by the fact that he's currently in the middle of a days-long bender.
• Foil:
  • To Edgar Allan Poe. Poe is stoic and dislikes smoking, while Hemingway is loud and boisterous, The Alcoholic, and a heavy smoker. Both have an interest in Annabel: Poe is deeply in love but unsure about Annabel's feelings towards him; Hemingway, on the other hand, is very confident about himself and misses every subtle sign that Annabel is not interested in him.
  • To Oscar Wilde. Ernest is a rough Boisterous Bruiser who never misses a chance for action, while Oscar is more of a foppish Non-Action Guy who Screams Like a Little Girl. Ironically enough, during the climax Ernest, being drunk out of his mind, gets easily defeated by Eddie, while Oscar, after taking a beating, does manage to take out the Brontë sisters. Oscar is also a Gentleman Snarker prone to long-winded speeches, while Hemingway's catchphrase is "Get to the point!".
  • To H.G. Wells, who is also a nerd in a different way than the above two and is much more of a non-confrontational Shrinking Violet, opening him up for bullying from Hemingway. A bonus feature was filmed with the two of them to rectify their relative lack of interaction in the show.
• Informed Ability: He's said to be a master boxer with an undefeated record (with one shameful exception) but in the climactic fight with Dantes he gets knocked out effortlessly without landing a single punch. But then, he has been drinking continuously for the duration of the show.
• Large Ham: His actor being Joey Richter, this is a given. He accidentally knocks out Wells with his arm while pointing accusingly at Poe.
• Sinister Switchblade: His most prized possession that he's prone to whipping out at the slightest provocation.
• Snark-to-Snark Combat: Most prominently with Wilde. It ends badly when Oscar makes a dig at both his atheltic abilities and the brevity of his stories, which drives Hemingway to forego the talking as he lunges himself at Oscar's throat.
• Throwing the Fight: The cause of his only ever boxing loss, in order to try to pay off his debt to Dantes, and an Old Shame he might have been willing to commit murder to keep from ever coming out.
• Trapped by Gambling Debts: Turns out to be the reason he fell under the sway of Dantes, and his motive for killing him.

Louisa May Alcott

Portrayed by: Tara Perry

• The Friend Nobody Likes: As opposed to Emily Dickinson, whom everyone ignores. Everyone seems to find her vaguely annoying, no one tries to stop her when she leaves, and no one is really upset when she dies.
  • Possibly lampshaded in one of the prologue videos where Poe angrily tells Ralph Waldo Emerson he hates Transcendentalists and suggests they hold their own party where they can blather about nature in each other's company, but ended up inviting Alcott, a stereotypical Transcendentalist, anyway.
• Granola Girl: Downplayed, but still there. She shows up with twigs and leaves in her hair for some reason, and her contribution to the potluck is some random weeds she picked off the side of the road. Her next birthday party is tree-themed; everybody has to come as their favorite tree.
• Incurable Cough of Death: Keeps on coughing during the scene after Dantes' death, before running out of the room and collapsing before she can make it out the front door, hinting that she was poisoned. Like all the other deaths, this is an Ironic Death referencing the famous Incurable Cough of Death when Beth died of scarlet fever in Little Women. A subversion: she was actually injected with cyanide by Anne Brontë as soon as she was out of sight.
• Old Maid: Shelley's eulogy calls her a "spinster through and through". She displays the stereotypical poor dress sense and social graces of one.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Louisa is the first to attempt one. It doesn't work.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: The first actual person to die.

Mary Shelley

Portrayed by: Whitney Avalon

• The Comically Serious: To a lesser degree than Edgar, but her stone-cold delivery of her joke makes it almost funny.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Dressed in black, author of Frankenstein, a master of the Kubrick Stare and also really good at eulogies. While she may not be the most pleasant person around, she's by no means evil.
• Emotionless Girl: She raises her voice exactly once and hardly ever changes her expression.
• Kubrick Stare: She greeted Edgar with one at the beginning.
• Only Sane Man: Various other characters get their chance at being this, but after the first murder, she stays intensely serious about the situation they're in without indulging the Cloud Cuckoolander fancies of the other guests and will not let go of the common sense plan to get out of the house and go to the police. This is why she is the second guest targeted for death.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: The second one to attempt this. Needless to say, it doesn't work out too well for her either.

Oscar Wilde

Portrayed by: Tom DeTrinis

• Brainy Brunette: Well this is Oscar Wilde, after all. He seems to concentrate more on making snide remarks about Hemingway, though he was one of the few people to suspect Charlotte of being the murderer, along with Lenore and Wells.
• Camp Gay: Oscar is decidedly flamboyant in his mannerisms.
• The Dandy: Because you can never be overdressed. Or over-educated.
• Eek, a Mouse!!: Neither he nor George Eliot are too fond of mice. He apparently considers them worse than two murders.
• Foil: To Ernest Hemingway. Ernest is a rough Boisterous Bruiser who never misses a chance for action, while Oscar is more of a foppish Non-Action Guy who Screams Like a Little Girl. Ironically enough, during the climax Ernest, being drunk out of his mind, gets easily defeated by Eddie, while Oscar, after taking a beating, does manage to take out the Brontë sisters. Oscar is also a Gentleman Snarker prone to long-winded speeches, while Hemingway's catchphrase is "Get to the point!".
• Fourth-Wall Observer: Oscar is the most likely of the guests to make an anachronistic joke to the camera, from quoting Frankenstein (1931)'s "IT'S ALIVE!" at the death of Mary Shelley to a Deleted Scene where he asks that someone add a quote he just came up with to his Wikipedia page. Many of these came out of Tom's great skill at Improv.
• Genius Bonus: Oscar screams "Emily!" when Emily Dickinson dies and then dismissively says "Oh, that's a different Emily". Oscar Wilde did in fact have a half-sister named Emily who died young in a house fire.
• Gentleman Snarker: As the situation grows more tense, Wilde becomes increasingly snarky, especially towards Hemingway.
• Large Ham: He is quite dramatic, and due to his wide range of facial expressions, it's hard to ignore him even when he's in the background.
• Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places: Implied. Oscar seems honestly distraught that Eddie was drunk when they spent the night together and didn't take kindly to being rebuffed without an explanation, and apparently Anton Chekhov cheated on him with Charlotte and Anne Brontë.
• Non-Action Guy: Oscar is not one to do the lifting of dead bodies (he has George Eliot carry Mary Shelley while he holds the lantern) and screams and whines when Hemingway lunges at him, while Charlotte and Annabel are trying their best to keep Ernest from strangling him.
• Odd Friendship: Of sorts with Lenore. They are both very into fashion and constantly high-fiving each other after a snarky remark, but have no qualms accusing each other of murder. Also with George Eliot, though it's YMMV as to how far that's friendship.
• Only Sane Man: Oscar is an odd case as he is quite dramatic and flamboyant, he is also among the people with the most common sense, especially when Edgar or Lenore are unavailable. However, as the murders go on, the night wears him down as well.
• Really Gets Around: Seems to have been a Closet Key for every male celebrity with even a hint of attraction to other men.
• Screams Like a Little Girl: When he gets confronted with a mouse or when Hemingway lunges at him.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The Sensitive Guy to Hemingway's Manly Man.
• Snark-to-Snark Combat: Most prominently with Hemingway. It ends badly when Oscar makes a dig at both his atheltic abilities and the brevity of his stories, which drives Hemingway to forego the talking as he lunges himself at Oscar's throat.
• Woman Scorned: A genderflipped version. He didn't take kindly to being rejecetd without an explanation by Eddie, and when Lenore implies that a scorned Oscar Wilde is very capable of killing someone, he more or less agrees.

George Eliot

Portrayed by: Lauren Lopez

• Actor Allusion: The basic joke of Eliot's character is, of course, a reflection of Lauren Lopez's long career in Cross Cast Roles for Team Starkid.
• Eek, a Mouse!!: Hilariously, both Eliot and Wilde react this way to a mouse in the cellar.
• Fake American: George Eliot was English in Real Life, and here seems to be putting on a stilted, clichéd American accent to seem manlier. (She only slips back into her English accent screaming "Oh, bloody hell!" upon seeing a mouse and when posthumously reciting a poem by the real George Eliot.)
• Dramatic Unmask: As well as a Deathbed Confession. Unfortunately, she's too focused on confessing her true gender to describe her killer to anyone.
• Freudian Slip: Eliot seems unable to speak a single sentence without referring to her real gender and having to Verbal Backspace (including being unable to restrain herself from commenting on how much she loves everyone else's dresses).
• Meet My Good Friends Lefty and Righty: Refers to her fists as the "Duke of Coventry" and "Humphrey Cadwallader". Nobody else is impressed.
• "Not So Different" Remark: To Charlotte Brontë, which Brontë points out when she says she also went by a male pseudonym once. If you listen to her dialogue you can tell her natural way of speaking under the cowboy accent is just as posh and refined as Charlotte's.
  George: (trapped in the ravenry while Oscar Wilde makes bird puns) I am loving this gaiety, but I am covered in excrement, please —
• Open Secret: Everyone seems to already know who she is and call her by her real name of Mary Ann Evans, a fact she seems to be in willful denial of. (Hilariously, the one exception is Jerk Jock Ernest Hemingway.)
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Thinks that wearing men's clothes, a fake moustache, and a ponytail will have everyone believe she is a man.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Subverted. She's quick to volunteer for feats of manly strength or fisticuffs, but given that she's actually a tiny five-foot-tall woman, it doesn't last.
• Plucky Comic Relief: No one at any point seriously suspects her of being the murderer, what with her being the tiniest member of the cast. Nor does she seem to take much notice of the gravity of the situation, being focused only on proving her manhood with every word she says. (Even her possible motive for killing Dantes, the fact that he knew she was a woman and might out her to the others, is Played for Laughs.)
• Real After All: Offers to haul away Dostoevsky's body but immediately gives up, saying that it's a "rest day" for her strength training regimen. Later, Oscar Wilde reveals they do in fact share the same personal trainer.
• Real Men Eat Meat: Her "contribution" to the potluck is a single large beef rib she pretends to have been eating to demonstrate her manliness and then casually tosses away.
• Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: Tries to punctuate her manly boast about her fists with a manly belch but settles quickly for just saying "Buuurp".
• Screams Like a Little Girl: Wouldn't be so bad, had she not tried to keep up a macho facade.
• The Suffragette: Mary Ann's decision to fully embrace the male persona of her pen name seems less because she actually wants to be a man (hence her constant slip-ups about how much she likes dresses) and more a desire for political equality, like the real George Eliot.
  George: Show me to the billiard room ... or a voting booth!
• Sweet Polly Oliver: The entire gimmick of her character is that she is a female author pretending to be a stereotypical man in a way that reflects her Moustache de Plume. Hilarity Ensues.

Charlotte Brontë

Portrayed by: Ashley Clements

• Adaptational Villainy: Charlotte Brontë was not a cold-blooded murderer in real life.
• Alpha Bitch: Quite stuck up and condescending towards everyone.
• Chekhov's Gun: For all her cleverness, she seems to have a tough time understanding the concept that Lenore is dead and a ghost, repeatedly forgetting about it and treating her like a living human. This ends up biting her in the ass when she wastes her time trying to stab her in the finale and letting Oscar get the jump on her.
• Co-Dragons: With her sister Anne.
• Evil Redhead: A Foil for her heroic redhead counterpart Annabel Lee, Charlotte is one of the nastiest and most selfish people in the cast. And one of the murderers, to boot. Notably an Adaptational Dye-Job — the real Charlotte Brontë was a brunette who was always jealous of her sister Anne's auburn (their hair colors are reversed in this show).
• Foil: She and Annabel Lee are the two most Girly Girls of the cast, but Annabel is the idealized Purity Sue to Charlotte's Alpha Bitch. Charlotte is aware of this and is constantly coming up with insulting nicknames for Annabel ("Cinderella", "crying cupcake"), as well as being the one most consistent in accusing Annabel of being the real killer.
• Forced into Evil: It was Anne who killed Jane Austen, not her, and she could've gone to the police ... But instead she stayed loyal to her family and became Siblings in Crime with Anne. It helps that she was always the kind of person to whom Evil Feels Good.
• Hates Being Touched: She gets cranky when people's hands touch her face.
• Historical Villain Upgrade: Well, for starters, she never was a murderer.
• I Am Very British: Of all the characters with British accents, Charlotte is the one with the most stereotypically posh and snobby one by far.
• In Love with Your Carnage: Her relationship with Dantes is business, not personal, but she still seems a bit turned on when they're discussing the details of how they pulled off their murders together. Then again, he is played by Ryan Garcia...
• Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: Not above killing a man with an axe while wearing her classy evening-gown.
• The Nicknamer: Always the first to have a demeaning nickname for everyone.
  Brontë: I'm not staying here with the crying cupcake and Miss Havisham!
• Mad Artist: Reveals she murdered half the cast in order to create the "ultimate Gothic novel" in Real Life ... though this was a secondary motive to paying off her debt to Dantes.
• The Mole: She spends her whole time among the guests subtly manipulating them into traps set up for them by her accomplices. It becomes very obvious upon rewatching and knowing the ending. Even with the mistakes she makes, she's not a half-bad Manipulative Bastard.
• Really Gets Around: Brags constantly about her always-full dance card (in sharp contrast with the real Charlotte Brontë).
• Refuge in Audacity: She takes the opportunity to turn on Dostoevsky and brutally murder him the instant they're alone together precisely because she doubts anyone will believe she did it.
• Smug Snake: Even before she grabs the Villain Ball in the ending, she repeatedly gets herself in trouble talking more than she should, usually because she can't resist bragging about herself and her family or insulting the other guests.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Charlotte's reaction after being paired with Dostoevsky to search for clues.

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Portrayed by: Clayton Snyder

• The Alcoholic: Like several other characters, though his drinking is more of the Drowning My Sorrows variety.
• Ax-Crazy: Because he wrote one of the most famous such characters in literature, everyone assumes he might be one too. Tragically subverted — the Ax-Crazy one was Charlotte Brontë, of all people.
• Dark and Troubled Past: His time in Siberian exile certainly counts. He seems unable to make small talk without constantly referencing traumatic stories from his life in prison.
• Gentle Giant: Everyone seems to find him intimidating, especially the ones who've read the description of a brutal axe murder that made him famous. But he seems genuinely horrified by violence and indeed is one of the only members of the cast who reacts to the murders with appropriate seriousness and grief. And then he's the one who gets axe murdered rather than doing the murdering.
• Husky Russkie: Fyodor's depiction in this show is an unapologetically over-the-top version of this trope.
• I'm Cold... So Cold...: His character poster has him doing this pose, and indeed in the show he never takes off his overcoat and fur hat after coming indoors. It seems that the chill of that Siberian labor camp will never leave his soul.
• Reformed Criminal: His status as an ex-con makes him the obvious initial suspect to most of the other guests, despite his protests (and despite the fact that in Real Life Dostoevsky was a political prisoner with no violence on his record).
• Russian Guy Suffers Most: He has the most tragic backstory of any of the authors, the vodka only briefly takes the edge off his depression, and while his death may not be worse than anyone else's, it's certainly one of the most gruesome.
• Sentimental Drunk: Is very maudlin once the vodka starts flowing. The Tolstoy Prologue indicates Poe may regret confusing him for Tolstoy, who was much more of a Life of the Party type before getting sober.
• Vodka Drunkenski: He starts pouring out shots of vodka as soon as he sits down.

H. G. Wells

Portrayed by: Blake Silver

• Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Alleviating the Downer Ending of the show to some degree, the epilogue shows that Wells' intelligence allowed him to not just quickly come back as a ghost but to use his ghostly status to traverse the fourth dimension, making him a time-traveling ghost and giving him a whole new field of science to study.
• Boy Meets Ghoul: He gets on very well with Lenore, and is implied to have a crush on her.
• Brainy Brunette: He has an analytic mind and is always seen inventing something. Too bad it gets him killed in the end.
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Wells is socially awkward, always wears a pair of goggles (with a suit, no less), and is always seen inventing something that no one except him believes in.
• Comically Missing the Point: As Eddie is found dead with his face in the soup, H.G. asks if they were supposed to do that too, and promptly sticks his face in the soup.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: In Lenore's, to be precise.
• Embarrassing First Name: Believes this about his name, the initials standing for Herbert George. Lenore agrees that this is a terrible name.
• Expy: This version of Wells is pretty much the same one from Time After Time. (Hilarious in Hindsight with the TV adaptation that came out the year after Poe Party.)
• Gadgeteer Genius: Invents a portable microwave oven decades before such a thing existed in Real Life (although the principle of using microwaves to heat food was patented during Wells' lifetime in 1937). Rigs a modern surveillance camera system in Poe's house using 19th-century parts in one night.
• It Will Never Catch On: Everyone's reaction to Wells's microwave, and, to a lesser extent, his other inventions.
• Lethal Chef: The bread he made with his microwave is charred beyond recognition (it is, after all, the first microwave, and he hasn't calibrated cooking times yet).
• Mad Scientist: His obsession with the possibility of time travel has damaged his career, and his They Called Me Mad! reaction to Dantes denying a loan for his research is a possible motive for him being the killer.
• Morality Pet: He's the only person Lenore openly admits to liking.
• Nice Guy: H.G. is easily one of the nicer guests, and of the few who doesn't antagonize anyone.
• Only Known by Initials: He just goes by "H.G."
• Steampunk: This version of Wells is basically an homage to the whole steampunk genre and aesthetic, especially the constantly present goggles worn with a formal suit.

Agatha Christie

Portrayed by: Margie Mintz

• Advertised Extra: Christie is in the opening credits of every episode despite being absent from the party — until the episode where she shows up and immediately dies. It becomes a Running Gag that the disembodied hand putting down people's names never questioned her right to be there while repeatedly trying to remove Emily Dickinson, who really was there from the beginning.
• Red Herring: Being stuck in a real murder mystery themselves, everyone hopes she'll turn up soon, given her experience with the genre, with several episodes mentioning her and building up to her arrival ... and then she drops dead the second she does.
• The Voiceless: Never speaks a single line.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: She drops dead as soon as she turns up.

Other Characters

Constable Jim

Portrayed by: Jim O'Heir

• The Cameo: YMMV, of course, but Jim O'Heir is probably the most famous person to appear on this show, with much of the audience instantly recognizing him as Jerry from Parks and Recreation.
• The Danza: Along with his partner Jimmy.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Dropped on the audience unexpectedly and Played for Laughs (extremely Black Comedy laughs).
  Constable Jim: I have been in a situation much like this before. I was returning from my vacation in the South of France. I was returning aboard the maiden voyage of Ship Constance. A buffet to die for. Little napkins they made into birds and cute little animals!
  Constable Jimmy: So jealous!
  Constable Jim: I digress. Now. We find the first mate strung up to the mast one morning. Then, one by one the crew is disappearing, and that's when I realized we were dealing with a serial killer.
  Annabel Lee: And were you able to stop him?
  Constable Jim: No! No, he killed everybody. But I was able to to hide under a crate in the brig for a month. Now my wife wasn't too pleased with how I smelled when I got off that boat! It wasn't a treat, no, mmm mmm.
• The Dividual: As you can tell by their character sheet entries, Jim and Jimmy are a classic example of this trope.
• Fat and Skinny: The Fat to Constable Jimmy's Skinny.
• Police Are Useless: While he does at first give off the impression that he knows what he's doing, it quickly becomes clear that he does not.

Constable Jimmy

Portrayed by: Jimmy Wong

• Black Viking: An East Asian employed by the Baltimore Police Department during Edgar Allan Poe's lifetime would be, at best, unlikely.
• The Danza: Along with his partner Jim.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Dropped on the audience unexpectedly and Played for Laughs (extremely Black Comedy laughs).
  Edgar: I guess that Hemingway chap must have drunk it all at our last conference. He's a drunk.
  Constable Jim: That's a shame.
  Edgar: Not really, he's terrible.
  Constable Jimmy: ...Sounds like my dad. (awkward silence)
  Constable Jim: He's got a lot going on at home.
  Edgar: Oh, hey — (Jimmy flinches away)
  Constable Jim: No, no, he can't be touched.
• The Dividual: As you can tell by their character sheet entries, Jim and Jimmy are a classic example of this trope.
• Fat and Skinny: The Skinny to Constable Jim's Fat.
• Police Are Useless: Somewhat understandable in that this is his first day at his job, but he really takes it up a notch.

Guy de Vere

Portrayed by: Curt Mega

• Canon Welding: Guy de Vere in the Real Life Poe's poem "Lenore" famously rejected Wangst and chose to be cheerful about the possibility of seeing Lenore again in Heaven. This version of Guy seems to conflate him with the speaker in Poe's other poem about a Lost Lenore, "The Raven", where he was much less successful in getting over it.
• Cryptic Conversation: Seems to be a rule that ghosts in seances (as opposed to fully manifested ones like Lenore) lack the ability to speak plainly.
• Death by Adaptation: Neither the original Guy de Vere nor the narrator of "The Raven" actually killed himself (Poe, for all his gloomy morbidity, was not one to glorify suicide).
• Driven to Suicide: He kills himself out of grief over Lenore's death.
• Gone Horribly Right: Guy's brother Edward was furious with Lenore for driving his brother to suicide and Krishanti for failing to bring him back. His actions do finally bring Guy's ghost back ... in order to indict him for his crimes.
• Lost Lenore: Ironically, he's this to the character based on the Trope Namer as well as to his brother, Edward de Vere.
• Nice Guy: Not much is seen of him, but he seemed like a pretty kind and caring person.
• Posthumous Character: Only exists initially as part of Lenore's backstory. Him showing up as a ghost is a surprising firing of a Chekhov's Gun.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Guy only briefly appears in a flashback and as a ghost, but he delivers a valuable clue to the killer's identity and his death is what ticks off his older brother to go on revenge.

Krishanti

Portrayed by: Jessica Jade Andres

• Ambiguously Brown: Her name suggests she's from India, but given how often mediums of her ilk in this time period faked their background and credentials there's no way to know. (The actress is half-Filipina.)
• Canon Foreigner: Like the constables, she's not based on a real person or any specific literary character, she's just a broad stereotype from this time period.
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Being a psychic, that comes with the job.
• New-Age Retro Hippie: Hemingway even anachronistically calls her a "hippie".
• She Knows Too Much: Knowing both Guy and his brother, she quickly suspected the murderer.

Spoiler Character Anne Brontë

Portrayed by: Emma Chandler

• Adaptational Villainy: Anne Brontë was not a cold-blooded murderer in real life.
• Co-Dragons: With her sister, Charlotte.
• Cornered Rattlesnake: Facing both the loss of the Brontë Parsonage to Dantes' foreclosure and the ruin of their reputation by the hated Jane Austen, Anne violently snaps.
• Historical Villain Upgrade: Like her sister, she never killed anyone.
• Start of Darkness: They were never nice people in this universe, but Anne's impulsive decision to bludgeon Jane Austen to death is what sets the Brontës off to becoming full blown villains.
• Stuck in Their Shadow: No one really remembers she existed until Charlotte brought her up, or has apparently read her book The Tenant of Wildfell Hall when she introduces herself. Even Charlotte mentioning their sister Emily's death earlier seems like a bit of misdirection to make people forget there was a third, less famous Brontë sister.
• Walking Spoiler: Her presence at the party indicates that Charlotte is a murderer using her sister as a hidden accomplice.

Jane Austen

Portrayed by: Laura Spencer

• Casting Gag: Jane Austen is played by the same actress who played Jane Bennet in The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, making her appearance an LBD reunion with Ashley Clements (Charlotte Brontë) and Mary Kate Wiles (Annabel Lee) and a big payoff for all the commenters asking why Ashley's character wasn't Austen.
• Genius Bonus: Austen inviting the Brontës to the debut party for Northanger Abbey, a posthumously published novel, is a hint that she's about to be murdered by Anne.
  • Also notable that Northanger Abbey was a satire brutally mocking the Gothic romance genre, which the Brontës specialized in, meaning even her well-meaning invitation was an unwitting taunt.
  • Also note that Charlotte Brontë despised Austen because she believed she had no understanding of "hot-blooded passion", reflected in how Austen's blissful obliviousness to Anne's murderous rage leads to her death.
• Nice Girl: Quite lovely and well-intentioned, or, as Anne called her, a "goody two-shoes".
• Small Role, Big Impact: She only appears for a few seconds, but her death is what brings the Brontë sisters to get involved with Eddie.
• Unknown Rival: Seems cheerfully unaware of the degree to which the Brontë family considers her their Arch-Nemesis. (Both a Truth in Television joke about the real Charlotte Brontë's distaste for Austen's work and a Casting Gag, since Brontë is played by the star of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries.)

The Microwave

Portrayed by: Rachel DiPillo

• Anachronism Stew: H.G. Wells didn't just invent a microwave decades early, he also pioneered audio recording and playback technology just so that it could play custom messages depending on what you were trying to cook.
• Credits Gag: The closing credits of the show have "The Microwave" listed as a credited character, thanks to a single wildly anachronistic joke where Poe's microwave plays a recording saying "Your popcorn is ready" after Oscar Wilde uses it to electrocute the Brontës. This is the Brick Joke punchline to a bonus feature showing the entire cast and crew of the show putting enormous effort into auditioning for this role, only for all of them to be rejected, and for The Microwave to eventually be played by a totally separate name actress (Rachel DiPillo from Chicago Med).
• Talking Appliance Sidekick: A joke about this trope, since all of the auditioners treat the Microwave like it's a real character with complex motivations to try to get into, including Joey Richter comparing it to various Artificial Intelligence characters from science fiction franchises. Of course, all it actually does is say "Your popcorn is ready".

Prologue Characters

Mark Twain

Portrayed by: Esther Fallick

• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Twain meets Poe at the YouTube Space in LA and discusses backing the Kickstarter for Poe Party.
• Product Placement: This prologue is just an excuse to tell people how "post-crowdfunding" platform BackerKit works.
• Southern Gentleman: The archetypal one.
• Stalker with a Crush: Twain for Louisa May Alcott, which is why he's bummed he can't get a signed character poster of her to put over his bed now that the Kickstarter is closed.
• Walking the Earth: Twain can't make it to the party because he's planning to spend next month rafting down the Mississippi to recapture his lost youth.
• Wealthy Philanthropist: As he was for so many dubious causes in Real Life, Twain becomes one for Poe Party through BackerKit.

J.M. Barrie

Portrayed by: Christopher Higgins

• Actor/Role Confusion: A particularly bizarre example: Poe seems to confuse Barrie with his most famous character simply because he wrote Peter Pan.
• Artistic License – History: The concept of a minimum drinking age in the United States didn't even really exist until the 20th century and didn't universally become 21 until 1984. Although since Poe seems to think Barrie, like Peter Pan, is a 14-year-old boy, he'd probably object to him drinking regardless.
• Celebrity Paradox: Higgins has technically appeared in the franchise already As Himself, when he was the "example" modern-day Kickstarter backer demonstrating the backer reward of a custom character poster of yourself (and was clearly shown as such in the Mark Twain Prologue). He's also in the show proper as one of the constables at the end.
• Fake Scot: Chris Higgins plays Barrie with a very pronounced Scottish accent.
• The Ingenue: Preternaturally youthful and energetic, though he's quite insistent he's of age to attend a party with alcohol.
• Like a Son to Me: Poe's relationship with Barrie, including Barrie throwing a teenage temper tantrum upon being told he can't come to the party without an underage wristband.
• Real After All: After getting mad at Poe for how he Cannot Tell Fiction from Reality, Barrie ends the sketch by revealing he actually can fly (albeit not on camera).
• Vague Age: We never find out how old he actually is (in Real Life, Barrie was 44 when the play Peter Pan premiered).

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Portrayed by: Brian Rosenthal

• Berserk Button: For Poe. Poe despises Transcendentalism and Emerson is the Ur-Transcendentalist.
• Breakout Character: For the Prologues. Fans of Team Starkid and Tin Can Bros loved the appearance of Brian Rosenthal and viewers in general loved the idea of Emerson as Poe's Arch-Nemesis, so much so that he was a very popular guess for the killer's identity in the series proper.
• Foil: Is Edgar's foil almost to the point of being his Arch-Nemesis.
  • A Nature Lover who's always seen outdoors painting while Edgar hasn't left his house in over a ye-month.
  • A Soapbox Sadie with strong opinions about social reform and the American railway system the narcissistic Edgar couldn't care less about.
  • A white-wearing man in casual outdoor clothes while Edgar is a Man In Black who's always in a formal suit.
  • An optimistic Stepford Smiler while Edgar is a moody Perpetual Frowner.
  • A gregarious All-Loving Hero genuinely excited for the opportunity to meet other famous writers while Poe is a freakish loner who only held the party as an excuse to talk to Annabel.
  • A Nice Guy whose mask of gentle cordiality only pisses Edgar off more and drives him to extreme Brutal Honesty.
• Irony: Edgar angrily refusing to put Ralph on the invite list probably saved him from being murdered.
• Leitmotif: The Standard Snippet of Edvard Grieg's "Morning Mood" from the Peer Gynt suite, encapsulating Emerson's Sickeningly Sweet nature in all its cloying glory.
• Passive-Aggressive Kombat: The basis of Emerson and Poe's relationship, although Poe has difficulty with the "passive" part.
• Purple Prose: Edgar can't stand how much time Emerson spends describing autumn leaves.
• Spear Counterpart: To fellow preachy Massachusetts Transcendentalist Louisa May Alcott, who actually does end up invited to the party.
• Truth in Television: Unlike most of the Rule of Funny characterizations in this show this is completely taken from Real Life — Poe really did despise the Transcendentalists and his Romantic philosophy of poetry was seen as the "Anti-Transcendentalism" of his time. He even specifically hated the Transcendentalist headquarters of Concord, MA as part of his general hatred for the state of Massachusetts based on his crappy childhood there. Poe's dismissal of Emerson's writing as "mysticism for mysticism's sake" and Emerson's rejoinder that Poe was an immature "jingle writer" are both actual quotes.
• Voiceover Letter: Played with. Emerson and Poe use this to communicate through Poe's surprisingly fast messenger ravens, but the letters are filmed as a Split-Screen Phone Call with them reacting in real time, until they lose their patience and begin yelling at each other directly across the split screen.

Leo Tolstoy

Portrayed by: Alex Klein

• Binge Montage: Unlike the previous Prologues this episode uses copious Jump Cuts, in the style of the old Poe Vlog Series, to convey several hours of drunken carousing and let the viewer imagine what happened that Poe edited out.
• Clothing Switch: One of the aforementioned unexplained occurrences between jump cuts.
• Condescending Compassion: Tolstoy is moved to break his solemn vow to never poison himself with alcohol again ... because Poe just looks so pitiful, and sad, and lonely.
• Cooking Show: Poe does one episode in this genre in advance of his dinner party, although the only "cooking" he's interested in is mixology. (And he then reveals the only mixology he's interested in is mixing absinthe with absinthe.)
• Dude, Not Funny!: Said word-for-word by Tolstoy — who, having embraced Christian universal lovingkindness, will tolerate Poe kidnapping him, ruining years of sobriety and making fun of his accent, but won't stand for being accused of not paying for his drinks.
• Gentle Giant: Tolstoy isn't quite as big as his countryman Dostoevsky, but he's still a Husky Russkie compared to Poe, and yet never loses his temper with him even after being kidnapped (raising the question of how he was kidnapped in the first place).
• Heel–Faith Turn: Tolstoy has reformed from his days as a callous, dissolute aristocrat thanks to his reading of the Sermon on the Mount. Until they made this video.
• Irony: Tolstoy tries to make a toast to the virtues of sobriety and temperance when he takes his first drink. It goes about as well as you'd expect.
• Off the Wagon: Tolstoy agrees to take one drink with Poe, despite his status as a recovering alcoholic ... and, as they say, one is one too many.
• Small Reference Pools: The final Plot Twist that despite previously calling him the "greatest writer of all time" and knowing his books War and Peace and Anna Karenina, Poe — like many Americans with a shallow knowledge of Russian literature — wasn't aware Tolstoy was a different person from Dostoevsky, the guy whose name he actually put on the invite list.
• Spoiler Title: The title of this video is "The Right Russian", subtly hinting at the Reveal that despite Poe's admiration for Tolstoy's work and the alcohol-induced bonding they've just gone through, Tolstoy can't come to the dinner party proper because Edgar accidentally invited the wrong famous Russian writer (Dostoevsky) in his place.
• Stockholm Syndrome: Tolstoy is the victim of a very incompetent kidnapping attempt by Poe, whose sheer patheticness moves him to pity. Once they start drinking together Tolstoy even teaches him a rhyming mnemonic for how to properly bind a captive's wrists.
• Vodka Drunkenski: Leo was known for this, until he got religion and dedicated himself to Christ. Then Poe screws it up.