The wonderful cast of Ozy and Millie and their character tropes.
Ozy (aka Ozymandias Justin Llewellyn)
A young Northwestern Grey Zen fox boy. Tends towards excessive zen stoicism and Deadpan Snarker-dom.
Tropes associated with Ozy:
- Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: All he usually wears is a top hat and a vest.
- Animals Lack Attributes: possibly subverted, he gets Scenery Censors whenever he goes bald.
- Artistic Licence – Biology: His species, Northwestern Grey Zen fox, was invented. He did once admit to having some traces of Arctic fox in his genes.
- Character Tic: Is usually seen with his hands behind his back.
- Disappeared Dad: His biological father apparently abandoned him and became a monk. He shows up in a very late story arc, Ozy doesn't care, seeing Llewelyn as his true father.
- Happily Adopted: Knew what happened to his mom, but had no desire to search for his biological father, as he considers Llewellyn his real dad and refuses to go with his real dad when he actually did appear.
- Missing Mom: She achieved Nirvana after inventing the perfect flavor of ice cream, since perfection does not fit in with the grand scheme of the universe.
- Never Bareheaded: Is almost always seen with his top hat, which he got from Llewellyn.
- Only Sane Man: He enjoys a good shenanigan as much as Millie, but refuses to do anything downright stupid.
- Parental Abandonment: His biological father, who left him and his mom before he was born to become a monk.
- Stuffed Into A Trash Can: Thanks to Jeremy.
Millie (aka Millicent Mehitabel Mudd)
An energetic red fox girl. Excitable and rebellious, prone to random acts of destruction, but has a good heart.
Tropes associated with Millie:
- Beware the Nice Ones: She's the only one of Jeremy's victims who ever hit back (at least on screen).
- Disappeared Dad: Her father was never even mentioned in comic until one arc where she found a photo of him and discovered he was Captain Locke, who returned to his home dimension due to his Merlin Sickness.
- Generation Xerox: Her Mom was apparently exactly like her as a girl.
- Kiddy Coveralls: Millie—prone to random acts of destruction—always wears denim overalls.
- Mirror Character: With Felicia, of all people. Millie herself admits that, aside from the surface personality, both she and Felicia are smart (though it's more of a book-smart sort of intelligence in Felicia's case), competitive, a bit short-tempered, and prone to taking a black-and-white view of the world.
- Must Have Caffeine: She doesn't care
if it stunts her growth. Though subverted once she actually gets hold of some.
Llewellyn
A dragon and Ozy's adoptive father. He appears to be slightly over a century old and is prone to historical in-jokes, especially ones related to obscure presidents (e.g., he claims to be responsible for William Howard Taft getting stuck in the White House bathtub), as well as bad Zen jokes. He runs for president every four years, despite having seceded from the United States to form the nation of Greater Llewellynlland.
Tropes associated with Llewellyn:
- Been There, Shaped History: Has apparently met every major president and was present at John Lennon's memorial service.
- Breakout Character: Much like Bloom County's Opus, he soon became the biggest focus of the strip outside of the kids themselves.
- Bumbling Dad: Subverted. Despite being a bit...okay; a lot strange, he's a very wise and responsible adoptive father for Ozy.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: He's delightfully insane; it's a massive part of his appeal.
- Cool Old Guy: He's lovably eccentric and has been alive at least since the beginning of the 20th century.
- Delightful Dragon: In a strip where dragons in general are depicted as harmless, lovable eccentrics, he's the most prominent example.
- Draconic Humanoid: He's one of these, although we occasionally see other types of dragons in the strip.
- Extreme Omnivore: Regularly drinks gasoline, treats rocket fuel as wine, and claims to have eaten Joseph McCarthy's car. The buffet at the Llewellyn family reunion implies that motor vehicles are common draconic cuisine, as his Aunt Tulip ate a bus.
- Good Parents: Though he's a very strange person, he's also an extremely devoted father who regularly provides Ozy with wisdom and support. There's basically nothing Llewellyn won't do to assure his son's happiness.
- Happily Married: To Mrs. Mudd, according to the final strip.
- Historical In-Joke: Is fond of these, given the fact he's around a century old.
- National Animal Stereotypes: Downplayed, but he's a red dragon with a Welsh name.
- Only One Name: Doesn't seem to have a given name.
- Older Than They Look: Slighly more than a century old. At least.
- Relationship Upgrade: Was Mrs. Mudd's closest friend, to the point where he eventually asked her out, and ends up marrying her in the strip's final arc.
- Wacky Parent, Serious Child: He needs Ozy just as much as Ozy needs him.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Had a fear of dentists due to dentistry being much less developed when he was a child, though he seemed to get over it when he visited the dentist with a toothache. In fact, the dentist seemed more scared of him.
- According to Ozy, he's also afraid of rubber chickens.
Ms.Mudd (aka Mililani Minerva Mudd)
Millie's mother, a lawyer and single parent. Although the most normal of the main four characters, she is implied to have been similar to Millie at her age. Also, her "hair" is blue for some reason.
Tropes associated with Ms. Mudd:
- Mama Bear: When her daughter has truly been wronged, she will do something about it, even when it's an uphill battle.
- Not So Above It All: On occasion she seems to approve of her daughter's antics, and it's all but stated she was pretty similar at her age.
- One Name Only: Until October 2008, near the end of the strip's run, when her full name was finally revealed.
- The One Who Wears Shoes: Until one of Dana Simpson's periodic re-designs, when she became a Barefoot Cartoon Animal like most of the other characters.
Avery
A raccoon child prone to mindless following of pop-cultural trends.
Tropes associated with Avery:
- Follow the Leader: In-Universe. Follows every trend and ad blindly, to the point it's the whole of his personality.
- Heel Realization: While not certainly a bad person, realized in his final appearances that he'd wasted his entire elementary school life trying to be cool, and that coolness is only admitting you're a loser.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: Felicia noticed him, and hinted she liked him in their final appearance.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Despite his trend-chasing and the insensitivity and self-centeredness that often accompanies it, Avery's a nice kid deep down.
Timulty
Avery's younger brother, who radiates Incorruptible Pure Pureness. (It helps that he's four years old.)
Tropes associated with Timulty:
- Children Are Innocent
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Though he's four so there's some justification to it.
- Cuckoo Snarker: Though he practically personifies childhood innocence, he's shown to be not above the occasional bout of snarkiness, even at his own expense.Timulty: (upon sitting on a bike with training wheels that's too big for him to ride on) I think whoever invented "training wheels" is laughing at me.
Captain Locke
A "dread pirate" fox who lives in a Magical Land inside Llewellyn's couch, and is subject to Merlin Sickness. He's also Millie's father.
Tropes associated with Captain Locke:
- Disappeared Dad: Millie's, for obvious reasons.
- Fully-Dressed Cartoon Animal
- Merlin Sickness: An odd variant that boomerangs back around just in time for him to hang out with Millie's own kids.
- The One Who Wears Shoes: He's never seen without his pirate boots. (Except in an early arc where he impersonates Millie.)
- The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: Not always, sometimes the piracy business is just slow.
- Supernaturally Young Parent: Due to Merlin Sickness, he's about the same age as his daughter Millie.
- Surrounded by Idiots: His crew is so incompetant, it seems more like he's running a day-care.
- Walking Spoiler
Felicia Laine
A snobby sheep girl who's obsessed with being popular. She treats Ozy and Millie disdainfully until her Character Development in later strips.
Tropes associated with Felicia:
- Alpha Bitch
- Arch-Enemy: To Millie, whom she considers "dorky". Although they make peace by the end of the strip, with hints that they might genuinely become friendly later on.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: A literal example.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: She becomes a little more sympathetic and self-aware as the strip progresses.
- Girl Posse: Was in one throughout a majority of the strip's run. However, after Felicia decided to become a goth, this caused the other two members in her group to basically disown her, being turned off by her weirdness.
- Goth: Later in the strip's run. She stopped for a while after it became too hard but then picked it back up until near the end of the strip.
- Karma Houdini: Has gotten away with bullying Millie more than a few times, in most cases verbal teasing (though unlike Jeremy she has gotten some form of payback from time to time).
- Perky Goth: Was so peppy about being one that the Middle School Goths rejected her.
- Popular Is Dumb: Subverted in a slightly depressing way. She seems to only be playing dumb because her Girl Posse would kick her out if they knew she wasn't as shallow as them.
- Ship Tease: With Avery in her final appearance.
- With Friends Like These...: After she goes goth for the second time, Felicia`s Girl Posse ends up coldly cutting ties with her, claiming to be glad they stopped hanging out with someone "dorky". It could make one consider if there ever was any real friendship to begin with in the first place when hearing this.
Jeremy Studley
A Jerk Jock rabbit who seems to live to stuff Ozy into trash cans—although that doesn't stop him from asking Ozy to do his homework for him. He's also attacked other kids (including Millie) a time or two.
Tropes associated with Jeremy:
- Hair-Raising Hare: Simpson made him a rabbit "because that seemed funny".
- Hate Sink: He beats up Ozy, Millie, Stephen and possibly many students for little to no reason and often gets away with it. And unlike other antagonistic characters like Felicia, his personality gets no examination and he never goes through Character Development.
- Jerk Jock
- Karma Houdini: He hits Millie, stuffs Ozy and other kids in trash cans, and is generally a bully. The one time we see him pay for it is when Isolde is around to protect Ozy.
- Stuffed Into A Trash Can: One of his favorite tactics.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Ozy has helped him with his homework before. Doesn't stop him from beating up the zen fox the next time they meet.
- Villain with Good Publicity: This trope seems to be fitting when he's at school. Whenever he bullies someone, it's often the victim that gets blamed. Jeremy's actions on the other hand are seen as "helping kids conform" and that he`s "just doing his job".
- Would Hit a Girl: Millie, who returns the favor because he's finally pushed her too far.
Stephan Aardvarke
A truly epic geek. Simpson created him to satirize the emerging cyber culture's "sense of entitlement and superiority".
Tropes associated with Stephan:
- Bumbling Dad: His dad was watching a Doctor Who marathon and didn't notice Stephan was missing for a week until Stephan came back.
- Cannot Talk to Women
- The Cracker
- Demoted to Extra: He used to be a much bigger part of the comic. The cartoonist explains that he was created to represent the overly confident geeks of the dotcom era; when the dotcom bubble burst, there simply wasn't as much of a place for him.
- Future Badass: Thinks he'll be a millionaire and show everyone who mocked him. Or at least he did before the Dot-com bubble crashed and toned him down a bit.
- Hopeless Suitor: Has had crushes on Felicia, Isolde, and Stephanie. They never pan out.
- Proud to Be a Geek
- Species Surname
Stephanie
An nerdy, sarcastic aardvark girl who becomes Stephan's Love Interest.
Tropes associated with Stephanie:
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: She likes Jeremy. Need we say more?
- Brainy Brunette
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome
- Deadpan Snarker
- Distaff Counterpart: To Stephan, as shown in this strip.
- Fun T-Shirt: It has a peace sign on it.
- Goth
Isolde
Llewellyn's niece, Ozy's cousin, and an aspiring reporter. Often helps Llewellyn with his plans and babysits Ozy and Millie.
Tropes associated with Isolde:
- Bizarre Mythical Creature Biology: She conducts photosynthesis.
- Delightful Dragon: She has her quirks, but overall she's friendly and likable.
- Draconic Humanoid: Like her uncle.
- Dyeing for Your Art: In-Universe. She turned herself silver (by bathing in mercury) when she became a reporter. The one time she appeared in color before that, she was green.
- Fully-Dressed Cartoon Animal: One of the few examples in the strip.
- Intrepid Reporter: She aspires to become one.
- Noodle Incident: Accidentally sneeze-fried Ozy three times while babysitting him.
- The One Who Wears Shoes: Though oddly enough, the outfit she wore to the wedding didn't seem to include any.
