Characters / Love in Hate Nation

The NATION Inmates

Susannah Sonn

• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Miss Asp makes her beg to not cut up the strings of her beloved ukelele, which she does desperately...only to have them sliced up anyway.
• All-Loving Heroine: Deeply empathetic, Susannah cares about just about every single person she encounters; she even gives Miss Asp a chance to redeem herself at the end, which she of course refuses.
• All of the Other Reindeer: This at first due to her being the new girl.
• Amazon Chaser: Falls for the tall, physically powerful Sheila Nail, describing her beauty at length, and getting flustered when she boasts of the fights she's been in.

• Anguished Declaration of Love: Technically has three; the first is a mutual yet internal one in "Oh, Well," when she and Sheila realize their mutual feelings as they sneak into Miss Asp's office together, the second being a passionate outburst when the girls demand to know why she's fighting so hard to communicate with Sheila while she's in solitary confinement. The third isn't quite anguished per se, but certainly an emotional affirmation of her and Sheila's love in song form through "I Was A Teenage Delinquent!".
• The Atoner: After she betrays Sheila in a moment of panic by agreeing with Miss Asp's suggestion that their almost-kiss was an act of harassment, she spends almost the entire rest of the show "trying to make it up to her" (in her own words) by helping her escape and destroy Nation for good, at great personal risk to herself.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Although she remains kind, she will not hold back from fighting those that stand against her.
• Bungled Suicide: Prior to the show's beginning, her attempt on her life via overdose is what gets her sent to Juvie in the first place.
• Calling the Old Woman Out: A variant; Miss Asp is neither her biological nor her adoptive parent, but certainly postures herself as a twisted maternal figure to the girls in Nation, Susannah in particular. During the climax, Susannah delivers an absolutely epic verbal takedown refusing to comply with Miss Asp's requests, renouncing any attempts to conform in order to be Asp's version of 'rehabilitated', and confronting the wrongs she's done to all the girls in Nation — including what happened to Harriet.
• Character Development: Goes from a frightened, stammering girl struggling with suicidal thoughts and desperate to fit into a society that has little place for her due to both her race and sexuality to a bold and brave feminist who leads a prison break/uprising to save the girl she loves, and eventually ends up a confident singer/songwriter who uses her music to fight for civil rights and LGBT+ causes.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Her childhood wasn't easy at all; orphaned by war and suicide, she was adopted by a white family that is heavily implied to have isolated and ostracized her. Her boyfriend uses the fact that she's Black for social clout rather than valuing her as a person, repeatedly gaslights her, and angrily attempts to pressure her into sex. Her isolation, amongst other things, led to self-harm and eventually, a suicide attempt.
• Determinator: Becomes this after accepting that she's in love with Sheila.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: And how! She's had a pretty terrible childhood/adolescence (see Dark and Troubled Past above), and goes through even more hardship during the show, but manages to defeat her abusers and save the girl she loves; even then, however, they have to part to remain safe. Still, she builds a successful career as a musician and makes a difference fighting for the causes that are important to her, and is reunited with Sheila twenty-two years later.
• Endearingly Dorky: Shy, sweet, and a self-avowed "weirdo" who tries desperately to fit in. It immediately endears her to Sheila.
• Family of Choice: Declares the fellow inmates such when she leads the chant in "Revolution Song". Especially meaningful in that many of the girls of Nation are LGBT+ and/or women of colour, where a lot of Susannah's alienation originates from being raised by a conservative white family.
• Fish out of Water: At Nation.
• Friendless Background: Explains as much to Sheila, largely because of being a Black girl adopted by a white family, who had her homeschooled. It accounts for her awkwardness, as well as her relationship with Francis.
  Susannah: Whenever I approach,
  Most people just walk away.
  But the sad part is, I know they'd likely despise me
  If they decided to stay!
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Briefly, during "Solitary," she is declared a traitor by the other inmates.
• Hope Bringer: Becomes the leader of the revolution at Nation, her music and ownership of her identity as a Black lesbian inspiring the other girls to band together and rebel.
• Insult of Endearment: "She said that I was a weirdo in the good way..."
• I Will Find You: Promises Sheila this to get her to agree to the prison break. They promise each other this again during "I Was a Teenage Delinquent!".
• Lipstick Lesbian
• Loner-Turned-Friend: Becomes friends—lovers, in Sheila's case—with all of the inmates by the end of the musical.
• Love Hurts: No matter how bad things get in her life, or in Nation, she hurts the most over her feelings for Sheila, and her guilt over betraying her. Even lampshaded in "Solitary" —
  Susannah: Now anger is raging,
  hate is snarling -
  Still, all I think about is my darling
  And how she is, and how she is...
• Meaningful Name: Her family name sounds like 'sun', and her bright yellow clothes, and striving towards shedding light in dark places, reflects this.
• Nice Girl: Remains kind throughout her life.
• No Social Skills: Susannah continually gets flustered around and says odd things to the other inmates.
• Quirky Ukulele: Her comfort item, which helps accentuate her innocence. Once Miss Asp destroys it, it's a sign that that innocence won't last. It later becomes a tool with which she raises her voice through her music.
• Shrinking Violet: How she starts off the show, which makes the prospect of prison all the scarier for her.
• Speech Impediment: Has a bad stutter that comes out when she's nervous, a point over which Miss Asp bullies her constantly.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Both receives and gives herself one after she betrays Sheila at the end of Act One.

Sheila Nail

• Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: The most popular of the inmates, one of the tallest, and with hair "black as a feather", with a composed, cool aura of mystique to match.
• Badass Boast: Her "I Am" Song, "The Three Failed Escape Attempts of Sheila Nail", almost entirely constitutes one.
  Sheila: If there's a battle or fight
  I'm my own shining white knight
  I may be fucked in the head
  but hey, at least I ain't dead!
  And babe, I'm gonna-na-na-na-na prevail!
• Badass in Distress: Spends the majority of Act 2 as one, needing to be rescued by Susannah from solitary confinement and snuck out by the other inmates before she can be subjected to punitive ECT for being caught about to kiss Susannah.
• Berserk Button: Betrayal, as well as crossing or hurting Susannah.
• Broken Bird: Like most of the girls in Nation.
• Bungled Suicide: Her fourth failed escape attempt, as it were, shortly after she realized she couldn't function outside of prison. She covers it up to everyone but Susannah with another lie about how she tore down a drain pipe to cause a flood as an act of rebellion, rather than it breaking under her weight in a botched attempt to hang herself.
• Butch Lesbian
• Closet Key: For Susannah.
• Dark and Troubled Past: A ward of the state, she briefly mentions growing up in a Catholic Orphanage of Fear and being an outcast for as long as she can remember, only leaning into the mysterious juvenile delinquent image to protect herself by intimidating others. Doing the math from the lyrics to "The Three Failed Escape Attempts of Sheila Nail", her "I Am" Song, she's been in Nation and subjected to the abuse of Miss Asp and Buzz since she was nine; it's made clear that she's repeatedly been punished with solitary confinement. She tells Susannah she's been betrayed by "everyone in her life". Prior to canon, she aborted her own nearly-successful attempt to escape prison via hitchhiking upon realizing she had nobody in the world and had been incarcerated so long she didn't know how to function outside of prison. This isn't even touching on her grief and trauma from witnessing Harriet's fate, especially as a lesbian herself.
• Deadpan Snarker: Makes a lot of snarky (but still playful) comments, particularly about Susannah's quirks, but also making fun of Francis.
• Death Glare: Gives plenty.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: The toughest, coolest girl in juvvie, but you wouldn't know by how dorky she gets around the shy newcomer.
• Deuteragonist: Right behind Susannah, of course.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: After a lifetime of having to fend for herself, she meets Susannah, with whom she immediately connects and falls in love, only to be betrayed by her in a moment of fear of Miss Asp, their abuser. She spends much of Act 2 anticipating being tortured either to death or into a vegetative state for being a lesbian, but is rescued by Susannah; the two affirm their love and share a kiss, but Sheila then has to immediately flee for Mexico to avoid arrest. It takes 22 years, but she and Susannah reunite - and, it's implied, will get to finally be together.
• Establishing Character Moment: Susannah says she wishes 'something good would happen'. Judith cynically responds 'Nothing good ever happens here'. Not two seconds after the words leave Judith's mouth, the door of their room opens and Sheila is shoved inside by Buzz, accompanied by an epic guitar riff. And this is before she even utters one line.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: In the epilogue; it is the '80s, after all.
• Friendless Background: Downplayed; during "The Other One", she appears to relate to Susannah on this point, recalling that since childhood, she "never had a crowd" due to her nonconformity and rejection of femininity. However, she's easily the most popular of the equally-misfit inmates, regarded both in-universe and by the creators as the "coolest girl in Juvie."
• Hell-Bent for Leather: She's very attached to her black leather jacket. It makes her time back in solitary more miserable because Miss Asp confiscates it, making it all the more sweet that Susannah returns it later. In the Distant Finale, she's evidently very fond of the style twenty-two years later, wearing another black leather jacket, this one sporting a Pride patch.
• Rebellious Spirit: Her defining characteristic. It rubs off on Susannah and everyone else.
• Sour Outside, Sad Inside: Very evident in her "I Am" Song: she sells herself as a badass who repeatedly broke out of prison and doesn't take shit from anybody. The last part of the song reveals her insecurity about how removed she is from society to the point that she feels that she needs prison to an extent, a fact that led to her botched attempt to hang herself.
• Statuesque Stunner: Originally portrayed by the 5'7 Kelly McIntyre.
• Stepford Smiler: Not a smiler, per se, but her tough girl exterior is just a tool for hiding her inner torment.
• The Scapegoat
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome / Tall, Dark, and Snarky: One of the tallest girls in Nation, and she has jet-black hair. She's mentioned in-universe to be very attractive, and cast as such as well. Also extremely sarcastic.
• Unkempt Beauty: Downplayed, but she does get a little messier after her stint in solitary confinement in Act 2.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: If you hurt Susannah, it's not going to end well for you.
• When She Smiles: Usually for Susannah.

Dorothy Donaldson

• Berserk Button: Don't deny that she's a Southerner. And especially don't insinuate she's from New Jersey.
• Fille Fatale: She has the ability use her looks to distract Buzz and slip castor oil into his drink.
• Southern Belle: Invokes this despite actually being from New Jersey.
• Team Mom: Alternates this role with Kitty, being the most nurturing and comforting of the girls.
• The Vamp: Part of the girls' plans for a secret party has Dorothy flirt with Buzz so she can slip him some castor oil and make him sick.

Brenda "Rat" Ratowski

• Berserk Button: Don't try to take her things. And don't narc on anyone.
• Brooklyn Rage
• Friend in the Black Market: The prison equivalent; she's a master thief who smuggles in all the contraband the girls want.
• The Lad-ette

Kitty Minx

• Beware the Nice Ones: Kitty is usually kind, sympathetic, and humorous. But when Judith pushes her too far, even hurling an offensive term her way, Kitty doesn't hesitate to retaliate in a calm but clearly angry voice.
  Kitty: You know something, Judith? I'm glad Sheila took that cigarette to your eye. I'm just sorry she stopped at one, because then you'd be as blind as you are ugly.
• Cool Big Sis: Encourages the other girls to perform and tries to bring everyone out of their shells. She even likes to do people's makeup for them. Additionally, she's very kind towards Susannah, teaching her how to smoke and helping her not only accept but embrace her lesbian identity, and even defends her from the others on occasion. She's the first to get on board with springing Sheila from prison.
• Deadpan Snarker: "You want fries with that, Judith?"
• Fille Fatale: See Dorothy's instance above.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Kitty is a blonde, and is easily the warmest and most empathetic and optimistic of the inmates. She forgives Susannah easily, and encourages her to live her truth as a lesbian based on her own experiences as a trans girl.
• Mentorin Queerness: In "Masochist," Kitty sings about loving herself in spite of the transphobia she faces and demanding to exist, leading Susannah to accept herself as a lesbian.
• Nice Girl: Probably the friendliest of the girls, encouraging and inclusive towards everyone.
• Rich Bitch: Downplayed. She comes from money, and isn't afraid to snark at her fellow inmates (even calling herself a bitch in her song), but she's one of the more sympathetic inmates towards Susannah, especially due to both of them being LGBT+.
• The Vamp: Insists that she can be one just as much as Dorothy.

Gloria "Ya-Ya" Meeks

• Berserk Button / Trauma Button: Don't confuse Harriet II for her predecessor. Additionally, Harriet as a whole and her fate counts as one.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Some of her odd behavior (specifically her interactions with Harriet II) presumably comes from legitimate trauma, but she's still very weird in her own right, with her fixation on science fiction and tendency to blurt things out.
• Companion Cube: Harriet II.
• Innocently Insensitive: Usually at Susannah's expense, making either unhelpful or unintentionally offensive comments towards her; being confined and sequestered in an unhealthy environment such as Nation while already neurodivergent lends itself a lot to this. Takes a particularly dark turn in the party scene, when her song, "Jezebel" melodramatically depicts abuse and shunning resulting in a suicide... performed right in front of Susannah and Sheila, both of whom have previously attempted suicide under similar circumstances.
• No Social Skills: Blurts out inappropriate comments a lot that scare people off.
• Pyromaniac: She's very knowledgable in chemistry and is especially excited about fire, eventually burning down NATION.
• Talking to Themself: Has conversations of this sort with Harriet II.

Judith Ramone

• Abusive Parents: Her father sexually abused her since she was seven, leading her to attack him.
• Berserk Button: Don't ask, or make cracks about her eye. Don't keep her away from cigarettes for too long. And don't mention her past actions, justified or not. Additionally, new girls in Juvie and men in positions of power both seem to be living incarnations of what pisses her off.
• The Bully: Is initially the cruelest towards Susannah.
• Bully Turned Buddy: Becomes friendly with everyone she previously heckled by her last appearance.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Starts off cold and cruel towards her inmates, especially Susannah, but once Susannah starts leading their revolution, Judith is one of the first to support her. She's even seen hugging Ya-Ya and getting outside arm in arm with her towards the end, after earlier snapping harshly that she isn't her friend.
• Expelled from Every Other School: Judith was kicked out of every other juvie hall in the state before being placed at Nation.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: She's always on the offensive, ready to snap at anybody who gets in her space.
• Heel–Face Turn: Eventually decides to help Susannah and the other girls revolt against NATION when Asp betrays her.
• Heel Realization: It's subtle, but after Asp makes it clear she was never going to help her, it makes her reflect on her actions, over which she's already shown some guilt.
• The Mole: For Miss Asp. She ratted on Harriet, leading to her murder, in hopes that Asp would transfer her. Asp goes back on her promise.
• Rape as Backstory: Her father, as evidenced by what part of his body she cut off in self-defense.
• Sour Outside, Sad Inside: She's vicious and cruel towards everybody, but has been mistreated by society, the prison system, and her own parents.
• We Used to Be Friends: Implied to be the case with her and Ya-Ya.

Harriet Asp

• Lipstick Lesbian: And got shocked to death because of it.
• The Lost Lenore: Harriet is shocked to death, causing her love interest to kill herself. These events set a precedent of Miss Asp's homophobia and further traumatize the already unstable inmates of NATION.
• Posthumous Character: Died before Susannah entered NATION, recently enough that her name is still on Susannah's bed.
• Strong Family Resemblance: As a result of having the same actress as her mother.
• Walking Spoiler: It's impossible to talk about her without giving away The Reveal, and her appearance makes it pretty clear to deduce who she's related to.

Antagonists

Miss Margaret Asp

• Aggressive Categorism: Imposes it on the girls as well as herself, even referring to discrepancies from what she believes of women, gay people, and people of colour as a threat to her "beautiful bubble".
• Big Bad: As the head of NATION, her strict rules and adherence to misogynistic ideals of perfection are the main conflict for the girls.
• Bigot with a Badge: Because she has so much power as the warden of Nation, Miss Asp has free will to unleash countless manifestations of her bigotry on the inmates.
• Berserk Button: Several, most involving breaking any kind of rule, non-conformity, or things not going according to plan, but she has a particular fury towards lesbians.
• Childhood Brain Damage: According to Word of God, Miss Asp was progressive before being sent to Nation, but at Nation, received extreme brain damage in the form of electroshock "therapy" that traumatized her into being a conservative tyrant.
• Etiquette Nazi: Miss Asp is determined to force the inmates to practice "feminine" manners such as curtsying, demureness, and unwavering politeness even in the face of violent misogyny.
• Evil Matriarch: Miss Asp puts her own daughter into solitary for being with another girl and inadvertently(?) kills her.
• Female Misogynist: In addition to perpetuating racism and homophobia, she makes the girls in her care frequently chant a vow to become the ideal woman — "elegant, behaved, and above all, subservient!"
• The Fundamentalist: Miss Asp has rigid conservative beliefs, and any inmate who does not share these beliefs will be at best verbally reprimanded and at worst shocked to death, in one horrific instance.
• Hate Sink: In order for Joe Iconis to convey his anti-bigotry messages, Miss Asp is meant to be despised.
• Heteronormative Crusader: Has an especial hatred for LGBT+ inmates, in one case, to fatal results.
• Hope Crusher: Grinds the girls' dreams of expressing their true selves into dust. A prime example is her destroying Susannah's ukulele when Susannah enters Nation.
• Obnoxious Entitled Housewife: In this case, she ''is'' the manager. She can change Nation's rules to be as bigoted as she wants them to be and often exaggerates the "pain" that the inmates are causing her.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Justified, as she is the antagonist in a show about social movements in The '60s. She's extremely racist towards the inmates of colour and psychologically abuses Kitty for being trans. Above all, she is violently homophobic, going so far as to have her own daughter tortured and killed after catching her with another girl. She frequently punishes the girls for behaving in an "unladylike" way, and her entire motivation is fighting the emergent equality movements in favour of American conservatism. She attends a group meeting named "Women Against Change."
• Sanity Slippage: After discovering Sheila and Susannah together, she develops a "nervous condition" and shuts herself off from the public until LIFE Magazine is set to arrive. She slips into believing the girls are aliens from the future and ends up trying to stab Sheila during the climax.
• Social Climber: She goes all out to make Nation look like the perfect juvie hall for the sake of getting her picture on LIFE Magazine, but she forces the inmates to look and act "feminine" against some of their wills to make this happen.
• Stepford Smiler: She tries her best to look pretty and feminine for the public, especially LIFE Magazine, but behind her prim and proper look is a deeply unstable woman.
• Teen Pregnancy: Became pregnant with Harriet at age sixteen; this is why she was imprisoned in Nation and given electroshock therapy.
• Troubled Abuser: She's undeniably abusive to the inmates, but it's clear this is because the same abuse was drilled into her head. This comes out more in Act 2 as she suffers a nervous breakdown and rants to the girls about how she underwent horrible things like them, and she had no voice in the matter.
• Wardens Are Evil: Makes life hell for the inmates if they don't conform to her rigid standards of femininity. Though she does have the above-mentioned Hidden Depths.

Buzz

• Ephebophile: Though he may also like adults, Buzz frequently tries to grope and presumably rape Judith and, during the climax of "Revolution Song," tries to grope Sheila.
• Orderlies are Creeps: Self explanatory.
• The Dragon: To Miss Asp.

Francis Alcott

• Berserk Button: Being refused something.
• Entitled to Have You: Takes this attitude towards Susannah big-time, repeatedly pressuring her to have sex with him, and later to marry him. When she hesitates, he launches into hateful tirades about her being abnormal, accusing her of being a lesbian and insisting that as a Black girl she should be grateful to him, a wealthy white boy, for even considering her.
• It's All About Me: He doesn't really care about Susannah's needs. He just wants to use her as a political prop, and once she makes it clear she doesn't want to marry him, he gets mad that she isn't "kissing [his] feet" for trying to save her.
• Manchild: Francis whines, throws tantrums, and goes on racist, sexist, and homophobic rants when he doesn't get love or sex from Susannah.
• Understanding Boyfriend: Subverted. It seems at first that Francis genuinely wants to care for Susannah against a racist society, but it becomes clear that it's just to soothe his own ego.

Doc Shock

• Mad Doctor: Self explanatory.
• Small Role, Big Impact: He only appears for one short song and one flashback scene, but his electroshock therapy is what killed Harriet, traumatizing Miss Asp and the girls, and he's a looming threat to any of the girls who act out, and gets called on Sheila after she almost kisses Susannah.