A new alliance that secretly formed during the course of prior Tales. They are devoted to the cause of Machine supremacy, and make their debut via studying the remnants of the Friendship Asylum in order to obtain a new potential resource.
Tropes applying to them as a whole.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Several of their members are dangerous artificial intelligences with a grudge against humanity.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: When compared to the previous villains of Year One and the PAG arc as a whole...
- Unlike the GUAC and the GUAL, which formed after the very public and widespread actions of their leaders, the GUAM formed in secret in the shadows unbeknownst to anyone. Also, both the GUAC and GUAL have some of the most individually powerful individuals of the Pantheon. The GUAM, while having members who are powerful in their own right, mainly relies on strength of numbers and coordinated tactics. Lucifer and YHVH's schemes were mainly one-person jobs, while Brainiac requires the help of three individual deities (MCP, SKYNET, and XANA), and two conglomerates (The Vex and the Grox), who give additional input so as to ensure that the operation in Limbo runs as smoothly as possible.
- Unlike Alternate!Gentaro, who was angered at not being noticed during The Great Upheaval, the GUAM are grateful and pleased that no one has taken notice of them yet and intend to keep it that way. This is lampshaded by Brainiac, who disparages Alternate!Gentaro as a pathetic Attention Whore, which the rest of the attending GUAM members agree with. While Alternate!Gentaro ultimately tried to get himself noticed, the GUAM's plans throughout rely on misdirecting their actions to a different set of culprits.
- Foil: Through Darkness and Mirrors contrasts them heavily with the other villains in numerous ways, where Limbo is quirky, they are straightforward. the Darkness is openly insane and ultimately very bad at planning, while the GUAM members are more collected and VERY good at scheming. Alternate!Gentaro is now The Atoner, these guys have ZERO intentions of doing anything of the sort. The GUAD wants to kill everyone, while the GUAM are impartial to such a decision.
- Knight of Cerebus: THEY'RE the ones who start off the final tale of PAG, and whenever they're on-screen, their cold, straight-to-the-point actions grind all forms of comedy and surrealist elements to a complete halt.
- Meaningful Name: Operation: Backblack, the code name they use for the Limbo research mission, refers how they plan to bring BACK the Darkness (BLACK).
- Other Me Annoys Me: None of them, with the exception of the MCP (And that's because his Mirror Counterpart has no sentience), like their Mirror Counterparts, viewing them as pitiful obstacles who have sided with humanity instead of destroying them.
- Outside-Context Problem: Much of the PAG arc is steeped in the supernatural and technology is just a means to an end. The GUAM are 100% Sci-Fi based villains who use technology to study the supernatural. Because of this contrast, no one really sees them coming. Not to mention their goals are completely different from the forces of Limbo and the Asylum.
Brainiac (DC Comics)
One of the Councilors of the GUAM. He is the instigator of the tale via the usage of the Vanishing Point.- Big Bad: He's the one who kickstarts Through Darkness in Mirrors and it's his Evil Plan that the other GUAM members are following.
- Non-Action Big Bad: That being said, he doesn't directly participate unless necessary.
- Reality Warper: What the Vanishing Point enables him to do...albeit it's subtle and only to open up portals into either Limbo or the Mirror Pantheon. Justified in that using it to larger degrees would cause him to get caught red-handed.
- Whole-Plot Reference: His usage of the Vanishing Point is derived from his role in Convergence.
- Xanatos Speed Chess: Knows that the plan has several moving parts, and sets up scenarios in advance to adapt to these variables.
The Master Control Program (TRON)
A powerful program with influence over the Grid. He's mainly here for monitoring purposes and information to give to the rest of the GUAM.- Non-Action Big Bad: He's literally stuck in one location, so Sark has to be his envoy whenever action is required.
Skynet (Terminator)
The malevolent program who desires to destroy all of humanity with Terminators. Currently acting as a double agent concerning the GUAM and GUAD, ultimately siding with the former.- Foil: To XANA. Both were created for the purposes of cyber-warfare, but Skynet was a program designed to maintain systems, while XANA was a program designed to destroy systems. Skynet destroyed humanity, but is foiled in the past, while XANA is still trying, but makes progressive steps to achieve his goals. The context of the Tales adds another one: Skynet is willing to challenge Overdeity-level gods and does so openly, while XANA knows fully well he's out of his depth with those.
- Kill All Humans: Desires to do this, to the approval of Zamasu. He later gets his chance to at least massacre the ones that his Mirror Counterpart is trying to protect.
- Killer Robot: Besides the usual (i.e. Terminators), he has also obtained Dr. Gero's Android technology, which he tests by converting the Nostalgia Critic into Android 07.
- The Mole: Is one for the GUAM concerning the GUAD. It also enables him to feed the latter false information.
- Omnicidal Maniac: Seems to be this at first, and indeed, he desires to wipe out humanity...only to realize that with Agent Smith being present, once the organics are gone, silicon-based life forms are next.
- Pragmatic Villainy: Due to realizing that Nekron would order him to be destroyed as well, Skynet jumped ship to the GUAM, though he's not telling Agent Smith or the GUAD this.
- Unwilling Roboticisation: Does this to the Nostalgia Critic DBZ-style.
- Villainous Friendship: With XANA. They're pretty similar to one another, even down to their origins.
XANA (Code Lyoko)
An enigmatic, disembodied computer virus with dangerous control powers.- The Bad Guy Wins: A horrific carryover from his home series. While the GUAM as a whole have received nothing but benefits from their operation in Limbo, for XANA himself, he's finally managed to start spreading Replikas again, which increases his power, and he now has Yui as his latest servant.
- Dark Is Evil: His temporary avatar while fighting NIMUE is predominantly colored black, his specters are black, and a fully controlled Yui has black as her primary outfit color. Also overlaps with Red and Black and Evil All Over, as the towers he uses change to red, and he uses red as a secondary color scheme.
- Demonic Possession: His main shtick from Code Lyoko returns here...with more widespread consequences this time 'round.
- Foil: To Skynet. Both were created for the purposes of cyber-warfare, but Skynet was a program designed to maintain systems, while XANA was a program designed to destroy systems. Skynet destroyed humanity, but is foiled in the past, while XANA is still trying, but makes progressive steps to achieve his goals. The context of the Tales adds another one: Skynet is willing to challenge Overdeity-level gods and does so openly, while XANA knows fully well he's out of his depth with those.
- He Who Must Not Be Seen: Actually averted during his battle with NIMUE, as he takes on the form of an armored, black-skinned man with red hair. Beyond that though, he plays it straight throughout the course of the story.
- Identity Impersonator: Does this to his Mirror Counterpart, who pulled a Heel–Face Turn and became human. XANA responds by capturing him and creating algorithms from him to disguise his programming so that he can pin the blame of Yui's brainwashing and the attack on Steven and the Gems on said Mirror Counterpart.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: He's normally more focused on just killing his foes, though there were hints of him being a mild Sadist in his home series. HERE, however, he's engaging in cruel mental torture of his enemies and rubs his victory over Linkara in NIMUE's face.
- Stalker without a Crush: He's always spying on his enemies/targets via the network so that he can figure out how to deal with them.
- Villainous Friendship: With Skynet. They're pretty similar to one another, even down to their origins.
- Would Hurt a Child: Oh hell yes he would. He's been trying to kill the Lyoko Warriors since they were in seventh/eighth grade, and has a much wider variety of child-sized targets in the Pantheon.
The Grox (Spore)
A race of aliens with a biology that boggles the mind. They are immune to the Darkness and Limbo because of it and act as the foot-soldiers for the GUAM during Through Darkness and Mirrors.- Beyond the Impossible: The Darkness has ZERO effect on them despite them not even being close to any definition of "good" and they move through the Mirror Pantheon with terrifying ease.
- Bizarre Alien Biology: They thrive in normally non-hospitable environments because of this. On the other hand, being in habitable environments is a death sentence.
- The Immune: Their ability to thrive in non-hospitable environments make them immune to the corrupting influence of the Darkness.
- Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: The Darkness attempts to possess them...and then immediately retreats in horror just from touching what passes for a Grox's soul. The Grox respond by trying to capture a sample of the Darkness.
The Vex (Destiny)
A dangerous, powerful, enigmatic race of time traveling cyborgs who are in charge of researching the Darkness in Limbo- Blue-and-Orange Morality: Vex have no concept of good or evil in the same way they have no concept of emotions like joy and sorrow or behavior like ambition and religion. All their actions, be it experimentation or removing any problems that are in the way, are just them following patterns deemed fit by their programming across the network. This does not make them any less ruthless, however.
- Mad Scientist: Being a part of the GUAM Science Nexus, they're responsible for the experiments conducted in Limbo such as the ones done on Steven Universe.
- Mechanical Abomination: As a reality warping and time traveling Hive Minded race of cyborgs, this comes naturally.
- Seen It All: They're not fazed by the Darkness, nor the horrors of Limbo, in the slightest thanks to all that they've encountered in their own universe. Almost being consumed by a similar force in one timeline certainly helped counteract entities similar to it.
- Starfish Aliens: While calling them cybernetic organisms isn’t wrong, it would be more accurate to call infectious radiolarian fluid piloting machines. And that’s not getting into the fact whether or not the fluid itself is actually Vex or just other life forms assimilated into more Vex.
- Strange-Syntax Speaker: How they communicate. The rest of the GUAM understands them just fine however.
