Characters / Lethal League

Clockwise from top left: Toxic, Dust and Ashes, Grid, Switch, Candyman, Jet, Doombox, Dice, Nitro, Latch, Raptor, Sonata.

A list of tropes for the roster of Lethal League.

Beware of spoilers!

Introduced in Lethal League

Raptor

Type: Human

Age: 15

Weapon: Baseball Bat

Birthday: January 19th

Voiced By: Curtis Arnott

Raptor is a rookie in the Lethal League scene, hailing from the South. Though young, he's very determined and fiercely competitive. His weapon of choice is a metal baseball bat and his special ability allows him to twist around and quickly hit the ball two times in a row.

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• Batter Up!: Uses a baseball bat as his signature weapon, and dresses like a baseball player too. Blaze even adds baseball-like stitches to his arms and legs which he got from surviving an explosion at his grandfather's lab.
• Best Friend: With Switch.
• Chainsaw Good: His Heavyduty R. Evolution costume has him swap his bat for a mounted chainsaw. According to the blurb for the DLC, it's to replace it after losing it while sneaking about inside a Rex Works facility.
• Shout-Out: Quite a few, actually:
  • His hat mostly hiding his eyes makes him resemble the Lil Slugger from Paranoia Agent.
  • His taunt appears to be a reference to Gurren Lagann.
  • One of his color palettes in both games gives him a deep red jacket and sickly gray skin. Blaze names this palette Thriller.
• Spin Attack: His ability allows him to spin around and hit his ball twice in a row.
• Wall Jump: Can pull this off.

Sonata

Type: Human

Age: 23

Weapon: Boombox Hammer

Birthday: August 10th

Voiced By: Havilah McGinnis

As a renowned b-girl, Sonata is all about pushing her body to its physical limits in the name of showmanship and impressing her audience. She joins the game to boost her recognition and fame. She wields a giant boombox hammer effortlessly, owing to her diligent training.

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• Badass in a Nice Suit: Wears a zoot suit per Grid's request when she teams up with him in story mode. You can actually unlock this suit as an in-game palette for her, too.
• Dance Battler: As a b-girl (someone who frequents bars and dance venues and specializes in break-dancing), this is her main style of fighting.
• Double Jump: Sonata can pull this off in the first outing. The sequel upgrades this to a triple jump, since everyone else^note except Doombox can now do the same.
• Scarf of Asskicking: Wears a red and purple one.

Switch

Type: Robot

Age: 5

Weapon: Skateboard

Voiced By: Robert Foster

Switch is a skateboarding ex-working-class robot. He uses his skateboard and skateboard tricks to hit the ball. He sports cargo pants to stop filth getting into his leg joints when speeding across the city. Very unlike his old robot peers, he's carefree, a daredevil and he likes a challenge.

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• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: A more benevolent example: The story reveals that he was just a regular Workbot until he bopped his head, scrambling up his circuits and giving him free will.
• The Baby of the Bunch: At 5 years old, Switch is the youngest of the roster.^note Although Doombox himself is debatable, since no-one knows how old he is...
• Best Friend: With Raptor.
• Cool Board: His main weapon and means of getting around. He can skate up the walls and even the top of the screen!
• Improbable Weapon User: Do you know anyone else who'd use a skateboard as a weapon?
• Ridiculously Human Robot: Extremely humanlike in behavior.
• Robot Buddy: Is this to Raptor.
• Younger Than They Look: Despite looking and acting like a teenager, Switch is only 5 years old.

Latch

Type: Cyborg Crocodile

Age: 20

Weapon: Mechanical Tail

Voiced By: Daniel Guadagnino

Latch is a crocodile outfitted with a mechanical tail. Enhancements to his spine and brain allow him to function in human society. He is in possession of tremendous physical as well as mental strength. His personality is calculated, his movement is raw.

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• Barefoot Cartoon Animal: He's rather modestly dressed for an animal, wearing a hoodie, some sweatpants and a beanie, but leaves both his hands and feet bare. This one's justified though, since he needs his claws exposed to cling to walls.
• Breath Weapon: Sort of. His special has him swallow the ball before spitting out from a location of his choosing.
• Cyborg: Latch has had considerable cybernetic augmentations in order to enter human society, most notably in his tail.
• Genius Bruiser: Latch isn't just strong enough to go toe-to-toe against his opponents, he's also very smart too. He even manages to fix up Doombox back to his old, raging self in the end of story mode.
• Guest Fighter: Appears in Cook, Serve, Delicious! as a character in the Battle Kitchen mode.
• Hired Gun: The story mode shows that he offers his services to those willing to pay him, like the Safety League.
• Never Smile at a Crocodile: A cyborg croc with a mechanical tail as well as packing both impressive strength and intelligence.
• Sewer Gator: Makes his home in the sewers.
• Tail Slap: His go-to method for hitting the ball.
• Unwitting Pawn: For all his smarts, he ends up getting duped by the Safety League into delivering a brainwashing mixtape to Doombox, causing him to go on a rampage and allowing them to pin the blame on the Lethal League so that they could shut it down.
• Wall Crawl: As mentioned above, he can crawl up walls with his claws.
• Zipperiffic: Dude's got a rather large zipper on his jacket.

Candyman

Type: Mutated Human

Age: 28

Weapon: Cane

Birthday: December 9th

Voiced By: Carlos Ramirez

Candyman is a tap-dancing dandy with a big yellow head. He hits the ball with his cane and he has a special ability to change the chemical composition of certain objects to give them strange and odd properties due to his mutation. He's jazzy, expressive and crazy. Always enjoying himself too.

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• Beware the Silly Ones: Don't let his goofy looks fool you. He's just as skilled as the other characters.
• Breakout Character: Possibly the closest thing the series has to a mascot, especially since both he and Doombox where the central focus of the initial teaser trailer for Blaze.
• Cane Fu: Uses his cane to twack the ball around.
• Cloudcuckoolander: The story mode shows that his mind... isn't quite there, leading him to make some rather bone-headed decisions. Like boarding the wrong train, for instance.
• Confusion Fu: The main crux of his special, which allows the ball to wrap around the screen to throw the opponent off.
• The Dandy: The wiki outright calls him this.
• Fighting Clown: Dude fights like a goof, and is very skilled.
• Improbable Weapon User: Uses an otherwise ordinary cane as his weapon. The Straitjacket outfit swaps out the cane for a crowbar, and the Galileo the Funky Saxman DLC utilizes a saxaphone.
• In a Single Bound: He can jump pretty high.
• Mutant: According to his bio. His name’s origins imply it might be from drug use, but nothing’s confirmed.
• Teleport Spam: His special allows him to make the ball travel all around the stage in a single direction, wrapping around the screen when normally it would hit a wall. Sliding into a corner can also make him warp through the wall into the opposite side.
• Toon Physics: As if his running animation didn't tip you off. He also weaponizes it in his special strike.

Dice

Type: Human

Age: 19

Weapon: Ping-Pong Paddle

Voiced By: Cheng Xi Hu

Real name Hans Insel, Dice eschews the typical weapons of choice for a ping pong paddle that he wields with uncanny force. He appears distant at times, but can be intensly concentrated whenever he feels the need. As a Buddhist, Dice is known for his mental discipline and diligent physical training.

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• I Know Madden Kombat: Most of his attacks are based on ping-pong maneuvers.
• Improbable Weapon User: Canes, boombox hammers, and skateboards are already improbable... but ping-pong paddles? Really? Even his bio lampshades how strange a choice it is in-universe.
• In a Single Bound: Like Candyman, he too can perform high jumps, although unlike him he has to crouch first. He uses this maneuver to escape from a brainwashed Doombox in story mode.
• The Rival: To Doombox, apparently.

Doombox

Type: Experimental Weapon

Age: Unknown

Weapon: Bare Fists

Voiced By: Oscar van der Burgh

Doombox is an out of control experiment that escaped and took hold of the first machine it could find, a classic boombox. He has a tendency to go berserk for reasons unknown. His reasons for playing in the Lethal League are likewise unknown.

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• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Broke away from his creators and now fights anyone who even remotely bothers him.
• Ax-Crazy: Tends to go nuts for various reasons, be it from brainwashing or just someone looking at him funny.
• The Berserker: Brainwashed or not, you do NOT want to get in his way when he's on a rampage.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Thanks to Latch putting in a mixtape into Doombox, he comes under control of the Safety League and ends up becoming the Final Boss of the Story mode.
• Doomy Dooms of Doom: He's called Doombox, what did you expect?
• Dynamic Entry: Drops down from the sky and roars when fought in arcade and story mode.
• Evil Laugh: Occasionally does this when he defeats someone.
• Final Boss: Plays this role in the original game as well as the sequel's arcade and Story modes.
• Floating Limbs: His limbs aren't connected to his body.
• Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: There was little to no foreshadowing of him to speak of in the challenge mode; he just shows up, reveals himself as the boombox on the bottom of the screen and challenges you. Blaze however fleshes him out a bit more and gives him an actual backstory^note he's an escaped experimental weapon who took control of a boombox.
• Good Old Fisticuffs: Unlike the other characters, Doombox eschews weapons in favour of just punching the ball.
• He Was Right There All Along: In the original game, he was in fact the boombox displaying the current song and ball speed at the bottom of every stage. Said boombox is also his head.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: His special enables him to send the ball flying directly towards his opponent, regardless of how he hit it.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast
• Ninja Prop: See He Was Right There All Along.
• Not Quite Flight: Since Doombox can't double jump, he has rocket boosters in his legs that he can use to fly around for a brief period.
• Promoted to Playable: Is now a proper playable character in the sequel, though he has to be unlocked first.
• Punny Name: Doombox, boombox. Geddit?
• Reforged into a Minion: Ends up getting himself brainwashed into becoming the Safety League's Safety Weapon.
• The Rival: Apparently, he's this to Dice.
• Roar Before Beating: Doombox does this in-between bursts in his battle in the original game. It also serves as the basis of his special.
• Secret Character: In the original game, he can be selected through a cheat code^note Highlight the following characters in this order: Sonata, Raptor, Switch, Candyman, Raptor, Dice and lastly Latch.. He however was restricted to versus and challenge modes.
• Sleep-Mode Size: When he's taking a nap or otherwise just not doing anything, he takes on the form of a boombox. This leads to Latch making a quip about him "recharging his batteries." He also compacts back into his boombox form if he crouches, which is a good way to dodge the ball due to its small size.
• SNK Boss: In the original game, he was this for various reasons.^note bigger than the player, immune to One-Hit KOs until his health meter was completely emptied, gaining two special meter stocks instead of one...
  • Downplayed in the sequel; he's still a tough bastard, but he's not as cheap as he used to be. It helps that he was nerfed into a proper character.
• Spikes of Villainy: Gains a few as the Safety League's Safety Weapon.
• Super-Scream: Both of Doombox's specials are caused by him yelling at a high volume, though what effects it has depends on the special.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Many of his attacks don't have much in the way of skill, but they more than make up for it with sheer brute strength.
• Visual Innuendo: He has a knob on his crotch. When asked about its purpose, the devs explained that it's there to "turn him on".
• Your Size May Vary: In the original game, Doombox was twice as tall as the other characters. Blaze however scales him down a bit as part of his Promoted to Playable status, making him only slightly taller than Grid.

Introduced in Lethal League Blaze

Nitro

Type: Human

Age: 31

Weapon: Cuff-Gun

Voiced By: Devante Johnson

Nitro is an ex-cop vigilante. Unsatisfied with the police force, he deserted to fight crime on his own. He decided to enter the Lethal League to help him in his investigations. Nitro does not know the meaning of 'undercover' and likes to make his presence known before he deals out justice with his giant cuff-gun.

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• Calling Your Attacks: If the ball has reached very high speeds, Nitro will start calling out whatever move he's using. Downplayed, however, in that there's no pattern to what he calls what.
• Defector from Decadence: Used to work in the police force, before getting disillusioned with them and striking off on his own.
• For Great Justice: Says a variant of this.
• Grappling Hook Cuff: Serves as the basis of his special for hitting the ball again. He can also use it to strike his opponent from afar via extending it towards them.
• Hard Boiled Detective: Detective Nitro takes on this appearance, wearing a trenchcoat and fedora.
• Highly Visible Vigilante: Apparently he doesn't know the meaning of 'undercover', which often leads him to announce his presence to those involved in his investigations.
• Improbable Weapon User: Packs an oversized handcuff gun as his weapon of choice. It also doubles as a sort of grappling hook.
• Shout-Out: His uniform looks an awful lot like Judge Dredd's or Captain Falcon. The animation for his special even resembles that of the Falcon Punch.
• Vigilante Man: A former cop who uses his old equipment to become a vigilante.

Grid

Type: Electronian Human

Age: 35

Weapon: Electrode Claws

Voiced By: Tom Schalk

A made man from System, a crime syndicate from out of town. He is well respected in his family for his physique and ruthlessness. As an Electronian, he was born with several electrical components and he is outfitted with a bodysuit to enhance his abilities.

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• Affably Evil: Though he's a criminal, he's quite polite towards the other characters.
• Badass Boast: "WITNESS!!"
• The Don: He may or may not be one for his syndicate, but he sure has the mafioso look and persona down.
• Large and in Charge: He's quite a big guy (though not as big as Doombox), and he's a made man of System.
• Pragmatic Villainy: The reason why he eventually goes up against the Safety League? Their methods might make things "bad for (his) business".
• Shock and Awe: His main powers as an Electronian.
• Teleport Spam: His special has him do a short teleport (up to three times) before sending the ball away to throw his opponents off.
• This Cannot Be!: Will sometimes cry out "Impossible!" when KO'd.
  • He also says this after being defeated by Candyman in Story Mode. This loss motivates him to get a partner and enter the Lethal League to spread his syndicate's influence.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: Probably. He doesn't wear a shirt, but his bio states that he also wears a bodysuit to enhance his abilities.
• Wolverine Claws: That inexplicably look like ground electrodes from electric plugs.

Jet

Type: Human

Age: 17

Weapon: Rollerblades

Voiced By: Michelle Marie

Jet is an inline skater with a shark jet pack and a bubbly personality and style. She rules the bay area streets where even the cops fall for her charms. She uses her quick kicks to play and her skates have a special mechanism that can encase the ball in a bubble.

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• Bubble Gun: Not quite a gun, but her special has her encase the ball within an armoured bubble to slow it down and catch her opponents off-guard.
• Floating in a Bubble: Not herself, but rather the ball when she hits it with her special. The bubble is treated as a perpetual "parry" state, so it can't be popped by her opponents.
• Goggles Do Nothing: Wears a pair of goggles on her head, and yet she doesn't seem to use them much...
• Jet Pack: Carries a jet pack on her, hence her name.
• Kick Chick: It's how she bats the ball around.
• Not Quite Flight: Like Doombox, she can use her jet pack to hover around for a brief period of time.
• Rollerblade Good: Gets around with a pair of roller blades.
• Shout-Out: From her name to her rollerblades, Jet's pretty much a walking tribute to Jet Set Radio.
• Spanner in the Works: Clearly, the Safety League spokesperson didn't take her sneaking up on them into account while everyone was distracted by them hijacking the Ignite tournament.

Toxic

Type: Human

Age: Unknown

Weapon: Graffiti-Arm
Voiced By: Tiana Camacho

Shine City’s infamous graffiti queen. She sports a huge mechanical arm, loaded with spray cans, which she uses to compete and paint wherever she pleases. Toxic has a network of graffiti writers spread out over the city that give her the lowdown on all the happenings in Shine City.

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• Art Attacker: Her main weapon is a large arm loaded with spray cans that she can use to spray large 3-D tags on walls that can send any ball that hit them straight towards the nearest opponent.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: She is suddenly playable toward the end of Story Mode without any indication that she'd come out of hiding.
• Homing Projectile: Toxic's special graffiti causes the ball to change direction and fly toward a random opponent. During this process, Toxic gains possession of the ball if it isn't already hers.
• Knowledge Broker: She plays this role in the story mode thanks to her graffiti writer network. One instance of this was when she directed Dice to the asylum where Candyman was being held. Another would be explaining the ins and outs of the Lethal League to the freshly-revived Dust.
• Promoted to Playable: She was originally an NPC in the game's story mode before becoming playable in a later update.
• Trap Master: The graffiti Toxic lays will sit at some spot on the stage's walls, floor, or ceiling. If an opponent sends the ball there, Toxic instantly gets the advantage in the fight by automatically getting control of it and launching the ball towards the nearest opponent.
• Vague Age: Just how old is she exactly? The game itself certainly doesn't know, that's for sure. Considering her experience, she's probably in her late twenties or early thirties.
• Weak, but Skilled: She can't quite put as much force in her moves the way Grid or Doombox can, but she makes up for it in experience. All of her victory quotes are about her knowing Shine City so well or having been a veteran at Lethal League.

Dust and Ashes

Type: Undead

Age: Unknown

Weapon: Living Shadow

Voiced By: Alexander Katnik

A convict who was sentenced to death and hanged, during his final moments he was hit by a freak lightning strike that threw him into a state of limbo between life and death as the word "Dust" echoed in his mind. His shadow was split from his body and became its own being called Ashes. Dust also carries with him a watch that stopped on the exact time of his execution.

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• All There in the Manual: To commemorate Dust's release, Dion Koster released a six-part comic that sheds some more light on the circumstances surrounding Dust's death and resurrection, such as him being a Private Detective before his arrest, how he came into possession of Ashes and the implication that he may have been framed for his crime.
• Badass Armfold: Both his falling and striking animations have him do this (in the case of the latter, his shadow Ashes does the striking).
• Evil Sounds Raspy: Dude sounds like he's been smoking some really strong cigarettes lately... Then again, being hanged and struck by lightning can't have helped much.
• Jacob Marley Apparel: He's still wearing the prison uniform and bag he had on when he was originally executed.
• Jerkass: Clearly not the most pleasant person to be around.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: According to the Master of the Mountain DLC pack, Dust suffers from this, leading him to go to Toxic for answers.
• Lightning Can Do Anything: Getting struck by lightning gave Dust a bunch of different supernatural traits.
• Living Shadow: Like Zato-1 & Eddie, Dust uses his own shadow called "Ashes" as his signature weapon.
• Malevolent Masked Man: He wears a large sack over his head, and while not an outright villain per se (though considering he was sentenced to death, he more than likely did something heinous), he's definitely no saint either.
• Meaningful Name: His name is a play on the phrase "ashes to ashes, dust to dust", which is often said at funerals, and he was originally sentenced to death before getting caught in limbo between life and death.
• Morph Weapon: Their intro trailer shows Ashes transforming into a chair and a gliding cape in addition to the form seen above.
• Mundane Utility: Do you know anyone else who uses their own shadow as a chair to sit down on?
• Oh, No... Not Again!: Occasionally says "Not this again!" when he gets KO'ed by the ball.
• Puppet Fighter: Dust and Ashes can move independently of each other.
• Revenant Zombie: Probably, considering that he's stuck in limbo between life and death and isn't a mindless brain-muncher like your typical zombie, not to mention being referred to as undead in his bio, although he does suffer from amnesia...
• Swiss-Army Weapon: Because Ashes can move autonomously, Dust can use Ashes as a blunt weapon, to consume the ball, as a separate entity to hit the ball with, or to glide.
• Wingding Eyes: Ashes has a pair of "dead eye x's" as eyes. Some of his alternate colours also change them into other symbols.

NPCs and Groups

MC Inferno

The announcer for the Ignite tournament in Story Mode.

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• Large-Ham Announcer: We don't really get to hear his voice in story mode, but his lines show that he's quite the Large Ham.

The Tri-Government

The resident State Sec governing over Shine City.

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• Big Brother Is Watching: They often utilize surveillance drones to watch over the populace. Said drones often get stolen by leaguers to be made into balls for their games.
• Red Herring: Given the story, one might assume them to be the main bad guys and expect them to be overthrown by the heroes, right? Nope! Turns out, it's the Safety League who are the true villains, pressuring the government into cracking down on the sport.
• State Sec: Stated as being the independent authority running the city-state of Shine City.

The Safety League (UNMARKED SPOILERS)

A group of Moral Guardians who are protesting about the "dangers" of the Lethal League. As the story progresses, however, they're eventually shown to have more sinister motives...

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• Big Bad: The primary antagonists of the story mode.
• The Evils of Free Will: This is how they ultimately see free will itself. They want to seal off each person into his/her own personal space so that they can feel "safe". The playable characters clearly don't agree with this.
• Hypocrite: They want the Lethal League sport shut down due to its "dangers". Of course, they clearly don't see anything wrong with having a brainwashed Doombox go around causing mayhem (which is obviously dangerous itself) and blaming the sport on him...
• Knight Templar: They want the sport banned for the safety of everyone. Too bad they're also willing to go to ludicrous extremes in order to do so...
• The Man Behind the Man: They're behind the Tri-Government's outlawing of the sport.
• Manipulative Bastard: They dupe Latch into brainwashing Doombox with a mixtape with the intention of blaming his rampage on the sport, as well as reforge him into a minion.
• Moral Guardians: They want the Lethal League sport shut down due to its dangers and are pressuring the Tri-Government into cracking down on it, as well as everything mentioned under The Evils of Free Will.
• Take That!: If their role in the story is any indication, these guys are basically one giant middle finger to Moral Guardians.
• The Voice: The most players see of the Safety League's membership are a few silhouettes in the Latch chapter. During the entire final confrontation their spokesperson remains unseen, even after Jet ousts them.
• Villainous Breakdown: The Safety League spokesperson goes berserk at the mere notion of people cheering on the Ignite tournament, and later undergoes one after Safety Weapon Doombox is defeated and Jet ousts them from the control booth.
• Walking Spoiler: If the heavy amount of spoiler tags in this entry didn't tip you off, the Safety League does not fuck around in the story mode.