Characters / For Good

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Cadets

Dorm-team 76 a.k.a. Star Command's future Amazon Brigade

Erin Elisheba Frame Darkmatter

• The Ace: Beat an apparently Unwinnable Training Simulation, surprising her teammates with her tactics.
• Action Girl: Indy holds to the belief that Erin could "make a crater out of" Cody. She Took a Level in Badass to become this trope.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: Subverted in that she didn't know Warp was Warp when they first met. It's up for debate whether Erin would really have wanted a romantic relationship with Warp if their first couple of meetings had been in a firefight with the two on opposite sides.
• Ascended Fangirl: Erin, from fangirl to Ranger - pretty much the original reason for the whole thing: a fangirl who has to make a life for herself in the BLoSC-verse.
• Audience Surrogate: She's a formerly normal human Fangirl from our own time - her quest for knowledge in her new life helps explain things that we wonder about.
• Author Avatar: Played straight in the original story, Watermark; continued, albeit more subdued, in every For Good-verse fic since.
• Badass Bookworm/Brainy Brunette: Not only is she The Ace, but she's also a major bibliophile.
• Beware the Nice Ones/Hot-Blooded: Along with a taste of Violently Protective Girlfriend:
  "My name is Darkmatter. Erin Darkmatter. I suggest you remember that."
• Bilingual Bonus: Pardon her Spanish.
• The Captain/The Good Captain: Strongly implied that Erin will be the captain of her future Ranger team. Not to mention how she pretty much aced a training sim while in the captain's chair.
  • Confirmed now in the Ships 50.
• Darker and Edgier: Her Character Development is progressing this way, especially in the Ships 50.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Most illustrations of her now feature her dark grey cadet suit, and that's not even mentioning that her natural coloring is dark.
• Deadpan Snarker: Once she hits the Academy, absolutely.
• Disney Death: According to Word of God in one of the Ships 50 A/Ns.
• Expy: An in-universe example - Erin enjoys roleplaying Captain Kirk.

• Fangirl: Of BLoSC and Sherlock Holmes, especially Jeremy Brett.
• Fish out of Temporal Water
• Forgotten Family: As one reviewer pointed out, Erin seems to forget about her family. The author admitted to the reviewer that, in the long course of writing the fic (the rewrite has been going since early 2010), she actually forgot about the Frame family!
  • Fixed with "Answers", in which Erin is revealed to be depressive, and her permanent separation from her family does not help.
• Genre Savvy: She is not only a BLoSC fangirl who knows pretty much how events will unfold for the next two years, but she's also the only character who has purposefully lampshaded tropes in calling them by name. Since she has her terminology so accurate (the Sherlock Scan, for crying out loud!), one can infer that she herself is/was a TV Troper.

• Happily Adopted: By Buzz Lightyear, of all people (and by Mira, as an honorary sister).
• The Hero/The Leader: For her dorm-team.
• Hidden Depths
• Important Hair Cut: Played with. In the original series, Erin's hair was waist-length, in the Long Hair Is Feminine tradition. However, in Breakaway, her long hair is burnt in the first chapter and must be cut. She does not let it grow back, out of sheer pragmatism - long hair gets in the way.
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Despite the fact that Erin's getting a bit Darker and Edgier, she will always be pure in heart. It's just a long-established part of her character.
• Informed Messianic Judaism: The definitely Christian Erin is known to be part Spanish-Jewish - her middle name is Elisheba - but that part of her heritage receives painfully little elaboration.
• Interspecies Romance: With Warp(the shipping label is "Dare").
• Jumped at the Call: Buzz initially tries to discourage Erin from becoming a Ranger, but, having literally nowhere else to turn, she overrides his objections.
• Killed Off for Real: Her eventual fate as portrayed by the Ships 50.
• The Kirk: Tied in with the phenomenon of Memetic Badass. When Commander Nebula and Buzz Lightyear are reviewing cadet assessments, the Commander tells Buzz that Erin is getting to be legendary among the cadets as a sort of "Captain Kirk".
• Love Redeems: Another long-established part of Erin's character... her love helps Warp to make a Heel–Face Turn.
• Must Have Caffeine: In Watermark, she averted this trope - now she lives and breathes it.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: For the first few chapters of Breakaway.
• Plucky Comic Relief: Erin shoots for this at times.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: The best example of this is the use of Erin's scoliosis - a condition she shares with the author - as a plot point.
  • Another easily-visible example is the sudden usage of Sherlock Holmes and Star Trek references in ''Breakaway" when there were none in the first few chapters. Guess what fandoms the author was digging into in the interim?
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!
• Secret Relationship: Buzz doesn't know Erin is keeping in touch with Warp Darkmatter before the dinner party. To be fair, Erin doesn't know, herself.
  • Nor does Zurg.
• Shipper on Deck: Erin is so very much a Beer shipper that she's not afraid to let Mira know it!
• Take a Third Option
• Time Travel/Trapped in Another World: In an odd bit of story development, she went from Wangst to Angst? What Angst?. See Forgotten Family above.
  • Then a Fix Fic retconned the problem.
• Took a Level in Badass: Erin levels up between Breakaway chapters 9 and 10 (with months in-between the two) - shining as The Captain in chapter 11. Chapter 12 has a flashback showing her in the process of leveling up, courtesy of her brother.

Rikaena "Ricki" Amata Sunflare

• The Ace
• Action Girl
• Badass Bookworm: She's an alien Sherlockian.
• Berserk Button: Her dorm-mates joke that it's Robert Downey Jr. as Sherlock Holmes.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Ricki warns Windy to stop pushing her buttons before Ricki decides to... make her stop...
• Child Prodigy: Graduated at age 14, entered college the next semester, got her M.S. in astrophysics before entering the Academy at age 19.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Like Erin, dark coloring in a dark cadet uniform.
• Death Glare
• Establishing Character Moment: Ricki's second-scene-ever has her performing a Sherlock Scan on Erin, after being established as a prodigy.
• Expy: As with Erin, an in-universe example, due to roleplaying Mr. Spock.
• Fangirl: Of Sherlock Holmes, especially Sherlockian actors Jeremy Brett and Benedict Cumberbatch. (Hint: do not bring up Robert Downey Jr. in a Sherlockian conversation.)
• Hyper-Competent Sidekick: Imagine for a moment that Sherlock Holmes was ''Dr. Watson's'' Sidekick, and you have Ricki's team dynamic with Erin. Either that, or Spock and Kirk.
• The Lancer/The Smart Girl: For the dorm-team.
• Sherlock Scan: Ricki isn't just a Sherlockian - she's a Sherlockian who can do the same kind of analysis Holmes did.
• The Spock: Though Ricki goes more for the idea of Spock's ''friendships'' with Kirk and McCoy than playing the trope straight.
• Tall, Dark, and Snarky: A female example! (Ricki's coloring is dark, and she's 6' in height.)
• Technicolor Eyes: Ricki is described as having prominent violet eyes, the color and size contrasting sharply in one scene with Erin's very normal, very human brown eyes.
• Tomboyish Nickname

Windy Bertha Terrik

• Deadpan Snarker: Seems to consider sarcasm to be an art form.
• Deep South: Her point of origin.
• Expy: A straighter version than the other girls in making up the ST:TOS trio - whereas Erin and Ricki roleplay, Windy is Dr. McCoy!
• The Medic: Specifically studying battle surgery to be one of the few Space Rangers actually certified to do so.
• Odd Friendship: With each of her dorm-mates: something like occasional partners-in-crime with Erin, one-sided antagonism with Ricki, and just plain friendship with the much more idealistic Ice.
• Pintsized Powerhouse: Invoked by the narrative's introduction for Windy (who is 5'5", at least 4 inches shorter than every other girl).
• Running Gag: Windy takes her role as Dr. McCoy so seriously that she actually calls Ricki a "green-blooded hobgoblin" and, in general, enjoys annoying poor Ricki. Lucky for Windy that the Child Prodigy of their team is so good-natured.
• Shout-Out: Windy's name, actually - to Star Wars. Windy, a Tatooine friend of Luke's, and Booster ''Terrik'', a blustery but loveable smuggler chief.
• The Smart Girl/The Medic: For the dorm-team.

Isadore "Ice" Ellemore

• Action Girl
• Establishing Character Moment: The same scene that introduces Windy also introduces Ice... as a Genre Blind, Naïve Newcomer.
• Fangirl: Of Jeremy Brett's Sherlock Holmes... and Princess Mira.
• Genre Blind: Thanks to her "Tangean Isolationist" parents. The other girls are helping her overcome it... slowly.
• The Idealist
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: An even straighter example than Erin.
• Long Hair Is Feminine
• Meaningful Name: Averted. Ice is anything but icy and seems to have her nickname only as an alternative to the formal "Isadore".
• Naïve Newcomer/Fish out of Water
• Odd Friendship: With the much more cynical Windy.
• Overshadowed by Awesome
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Ice is a Tangean Royal and a longtime fan of her princess, none other than Space Ranger Mira Nova.
• Running Gag: Her cultural ignorance.

Dorm-team 95

Jim "Indy" St. James

• The Ace: Implied that he's just as good a cadet as Erin or Ricki.
• Badass Normal
• The Captain: Erin calls him a born leader.
• Chick Magnet
• Expy: Of Indiana Jones, obviously.
• Foil: Possibly to Erin, as both seem to be The Leader in their respective teams.
• The Hero/The Leader: For his dorm-team.
• Nice Guy
• Tall, Dark, and Snarky: "And I, mm, am laying odds on Erin or Windy making a crater outta [Cody]."
• Textual Celebrity Resemblance: To Harrison Ford.

Cody Ricardo

• Bilingual Bonus: Spanish, of course.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold
• Overshadowed by Awesome
• The Smart-mouthed Guy

Eda-Ji-Kep

• The Big Guy
• Expy: For Teal'c from Stargate SG-1, lampshaded by Erin.
• Full-Name Basis: It's a characteristic of his race. Plus, he splits full names into three parts, so that Erin Frame becomes Er-In-Frame.
• Genre Blind
• Overshadowed by Awesome
• The Stoic

Clutch Donnell

• The Lancer/The Smart Guy: Apparently smarter than Cody, and seems to be Indy's second-in-command.
• Overshadowed by Awesome

Rangers

Team Lightyear

Captain Buzz Lightyear

• The Ace
• Adaptational Attractiveness: The author argues that Buzz is an attractive man in the show, but it must be said that his good looks are played up a bit in the illustrations. He also has stylized navy-blue hair.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership
• Badass Adorable/Badass Normal
• Berserk Button/Big Brother Instinct: In overdrive, at times - do not, on any account, mess with the man's sister.
• Big Brother Mentor: To his adopted sis.
• Bilingual Bonus: He can speak Spanish with Erin (this was written before Toy Story 3's release).
• Cannot Tell a Lie: At least, has major problems doing so.
• Captain Space, Defender of Earth!
• Catchphrase: Averted - the infamous "To infinity and beyond!" is never used in the fics.
• Character Development: One of the long-established purposes of the series is to develop Buzz's characterization by giving him a sister. The original story, for all its faults, did well in this regard by showing enough scenes with Buzz and Erin that would bring them to a close sibling relationship. Breakaway still shows Buzz awkward with his new-found sibling status in the beginning, and it also shows Buzz giving Erin a brotherly hug before she enters the Academy. On the other hand, a lot of the development of the original version in-between the two points in time is lost, including driving lessons and pancakes.
  • It seems, however, that the author is also trying to be more subtle about the changes: "For Buzz, well… one would rarely ever be able to tell how life was affecting him or not affecting him. For all his many and varied emotional displays, he seemed never to change."
• Chick Magnet
• Deadpan Snarker
• Dogged Nice Guy
• Famed In-Story/Living Legend:
• Fandom Nod: Nana Lightyear's first name is "Natalie", a nod to One Hundred Days... and that's just one example of the nods to that particular fanfic.
• Fearless Fool/I Like Those Odds
• Genre Blind: For the most part. He admits that he has difficulty with metaphysical concepts.
• The Good Captain/The Hero/Team Dad
• Heroic Build
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness
• Interspecies Romance: With Mira, a Tangean Royal.
• It's Personal: Interconnects with his Berserk Button.
• The Kirk
• Lantern Jaw of Justice
• Large Ham
• Love Hurts
• Military Maverick
• Must Have Caffeine
• No One Gets Left Behind
• Not So Above It All
• One-Man Army
• Parental Abandonment/Raised by Grandparents: He vaguely remembers his mom, who died when he was little. He has no idea who his father is/was, and he was raised by his grandmother.
• Properly Paranoid.
• Reasonable Authority Figure
• Screw the Rules, I Make Them!/Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!
• Socially Awkward Hero
• Take a Third Option
• Talented Princess, Regular Guy
• You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry!

Princess Miracael "Mira" Nova-Lightyear

• The Ace
• Action Girl
• Beware the Nice Ones
• Character Development: She's coming to accept Warp as a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, thanks to Erin. Plus, Mira admits to self-same honorary sis that she has issues in her own love life - despite having an odd relationship with her old boyfriend, she's also falling for her own captain.
• Compressed Hair: Inside her thermal hood.
• Cool Big Sis: To Erin, in practice.
• Deadpan Snarker
• Fandom Nod: Mira actually does this when she lists some Zurg fangirls at the "dinner party".
• Fearless Fool
• Interspecies Romance/Love Triangle: With Romac and Buzz.
• It Runs in the Family: Mira's attitudes towards her race and towards the galaxy in general were those of her mom.
• Modest Royalty: From the way she usually acts, one would hardly guess that Mira is actually royalty.
• Must Have Caffeine: So concentrated that it can peel paint off of walls.
• Only Sane Person/Team Mom
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: But don't let those big blue eyes fool you — she can also pull a mean Death Glare.

XR

• Can't Get Away with Nuthin': Subverted when Booster calls XR and Erin "partners-in-crime", and Buzz and Mira just trade looks.
• Noble Male, Roguish Male: The latter to Booster's former.

• The Smart Guy

Booster Sinclair Munchapper

Other Space Rangers

Commander David Nebula

Captain Janet Astrelle

• Breakout Character: Previously an unnamed, blond Ranger in the series who only had a couple of lines, period.
• The Captain: One of Star Command's few female Captains.

Villains

EVIL Emperor Zuriel Zurg

• Ambiguously Jewish: Zurg's given name in the story, Zuriel.

• Cyborg: The way that the author chose to get around the problem of Zurg's half-mechanical, half-organic appearance in the show. Specifically, he is a full-bodied cyborg.

• The Empire: Played straight, though the Zeretanaen Empire is vastly diminished by the time the series opens.

• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: In Zurg's case, Zomega.

• A Father to His Men: The narration of semi-canonical "33. Too Much" calls Zurg a “twisted sort of father figure” in Planet Z's weird family chemistry.
• Wicked Cultured: Bing Crosby, The Sound of Music, comic books... well, it's not Wicked Cultured in the traditional sense of the word, but he's an alien emperor, for crying out loud! He's that interested in thousand-year-old human pop-culture!

Warp Darkmatter/Agent Z

• Adaptational Attractiveness: In the author's semi-canonical illustrations, Warp's good looks are often played up. Newer illustrations even portray him sans the goatee and with longer, styled hair.
• Affably Evil/Friendly Enemy
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership
• The Atoner
• Being Evil Sucks: In his more candid moments, Warp admits this to himself.
• Big Brother Instinct: Has this, at times, towards Zurg's other underlings.
• Character Development: Even if he's not dropping everything for The Girl, he's still bothered by a pair of big brown eyes. And that gets to him more and more as time goes on.
• Chick Magnet
• Chivalrous Pervert
• Cyborg: [he's got an Arm Cannon.
• The Cynic
• Dark and Troubled Past
• Death Glare
• The Dragon: Of the Anti-Hero, Jerk with a Heart of Gold variety.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: His cousin Sierra and her son Kit... as well as "Aunt Z".
• Even Evil Has Standards: Made a bit painfully clear in what's commonly known as the dinner party chapter.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Half-human, half-Tangean Royal.
• Heel–Face Turn/Love Redeems
• I Need a Freaking Drink:
  Mira: Can't take it sober[?]
  Warp: Nope.
• Interspecies Romance: With Erin.

• Large Ham/Evil Is Hammy
• Love Hurts: Like crazy.
• Mr. Fanservice: Or as close as the author would ever get. See Adaptational Attractiveness above.

• The Nicknamer: Zomega becomes "Aunt Z", and Erin "Your Worship" thanks to her real name.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Warp, lampshaded by Zomega.
• Odd Friendship/Friendly Enemy: With Buzz, with Zurg, with Zomega, with Erin... and he knows his life is messed up because of it.
• An Offer You Can't Refuse/Evil Pays Better: How Zurg took in a 17-year-old Warp.
• Only Sane Man: As long as Zomega is away from Planet Z, he is so very much this.
• Parental Abandonment: Was orphaned in the middle of high school by a speeder crash.

• Smoking Is Cool: Warp apparently smokes a cigarette "once in a defense moon."
• Tall, Dark, and Snarky: Full stop.
• Wicked Cultured: Warp shows hints of this, referencing to the film White Christmas and Erin being the goddess of Ireland.

Empress Arazai Zurg/Nana Zurg

• The Chessmaster
• The Corrupter
• Cyborg: As per normal for the Zeretanaen race, actually.
• Dark Action Girl
• Diabolical Mastermind/Evil Genius
• The Empire: Ruler of the greatest empire in recent history.
• God Save Us from the Queen!: Just in case you didn't get that, yet.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning/Death Glare: Again, a trait of the race.
• Wicked Cultured

Other

Zomega/Zillah Zvezda

• Action Girl
• Affectionate Nickname: The victim of two, actually: Zomega (given her by a very young Zurg) and Aunt Z (from a 17-year-old Warp).
• Ambiguously Jewish: Her legal first name, Zillah.
• The Atoner: She believes the way Zurg turned out to be her fault, and is now trying to pick up the pieces.
• The Chessmaster: A (somewhat) heroic version.
• Composite Character: Along with being an Expy of Major Kusanagi (see below), she is also said to have a dash of Talon Kaarde and Mara Jade Skywalker thrown in.
• Cool Big Sis: Specifically, Zurg's adopted Cool Big Sis.
• Cyborg: It's not just her eye, either - she has a cyberized brain.
• The Cynic
• Dark and Troubled Past
• Darker and Edgier: Than all the other characters thus far, Zurg and Warp included.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Almost always featured in dark clothing.
• Expy: A somewhat lighter, half-alien version of Major Motoko Kusanagi.
• Eye Scream: When Zomega was first introduced, she was introduced with her cybernetic red eye. The Backstory for that has never been revealed, but considering her past, it can't pretty.

• Green-Skinned Space Babe: A lavender/purple example.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Half-human, half-Zeretanaen.
• Heroic Neutral: What she's been for most of her life.

• Older and Wiser: She's old enough to be Warp's mom, and she acts like it, at times.
• Older Than They Look: The 60s-something Zomega looks about half as old. She's part alien and looks it.
• Only Sane Person: On Planet Z, even when Warp's around. See Team Mom below.
• Parental Abandonment: Hence her adoption as a royal ward.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!
• Sherlock Scan: Can do this - whether because of her cyberbrain or not is unclear.
• The Smurfette Principle: One of the few women in the galaxy willing to be involved with Zurg.

• Tall, Dark, and Snarky: Another female example.
• Team Mom: Well, with Zurg being a weird Father to His Men, somebody's got to do it.
• Technicolor Eyes: Zomega's one natural eye is described as indigo, a flexible name that could describe a dark blue or a blue-purple. It is actually her one visible human trait.
• You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry!