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The Gonzalez Sisters:
General
- Deadpan Snarker: All three sisters have their moments of snark, often to one another. Most of Maria's is directed at Rosa, while most of Maricela's is directed at Maria. Rosa's snark varies.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Maria ends up being the foolish sibling practically all the time, while Maricela and Rosa often share the responsible spot.
- Nice Mean And In Between: Maricela is the nice, due to being the most level-headed and kindly of the sisters. Rosa is the mean on account of her Hair-Trigger Temper and her ways of snapping back at Maria's quips and stupidity. Maria is the in-between on account of how often she playfully teases her sisters while also doing things to make them happy such as buying Rosa a book even if said book was bought using Rosa's credit card.
Rosa Gonzalez
- Big Sister Bully: Maria often sees Rosa as being this. However, with how she treats Rosa herself, Rosa could potentially be throwing the punches back rather than throwing first. That being said, Rosa does threaten Maricela after the latter accidentally calls her brainless.
- Big Sister Instinct: Rosa will always step in when Maria is pestering Maricela.
- Blind Without 'Em: Claims to be able to see "absolutely nothing" without her glasses, and to illustrate the point, in the one panel where she's not wearing them, she's drawn with an Eyeless Face.
- Boob-Based Gag: Rosa's boob size has been used as a joke in a few comics, such as her bra being used as a slingshot in a snowball fight: the resulting snowballs are gigantic.
- Broken Bird: Downplayed somewhat, given the series' comedic tone, but Rosa's powerful physique and stoic personality have been shown to be partly a response to the bullying she endured as a child, and partly to ensure she can protect her sisters from having to go through anything similar.
- Charles Atlas Superpower: During the carnival arc, she's seen lifting a 200-pound mallet like it's a toy hammer, and then swinging it hard enough to cause an earthquake on the other side of the planet.
- Cool Big Sis: She is much more gentle, protective and less acerbic toward Maricela, even willing to let her tag along in her exercise routines and participate in her tea parties with zero complaint. That said, she isn't afraid to be strict toward her if she does something wrong.
- D-Cup Distress: While she admits to have gotten used to them, Rosa hates her large bust for getting in the way and costing her a fortune in bras.
- Eyeless Face: Rosa is drawn this way whenever she's not wearing her glasses, to emphasise how she's Blind Without 'Em.
- Height Angst: Established to have been the case when she was nine as during that time when she was left alone at a fair for three weeks, she was forced to take part in the fair's show where people would laugh at her for how tall she was.
- Hilariously Abusive Childhood: While there have been hints of considerably less humorous instances of Parental Neglect, Rosa's parents somehow forgetting that they left her at a carnival for three weeks (during which time she was paraded around by said carnival like a freak show exhibit) definitely fits this trope.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Rosa tends to snark and has a short temper, but she loves her sisters dearly and will come to their aid in an instant.
- Not So Above It All: While Rosa is often doing her best to be the more mature of her sisters, on account of her being the oldest, she has no qualms with joining them in childish activities like jumping on the bed.
- Promoted to Parent: While not explicitly stated why (the girls' parents are shown to be alive in a few strips), Rosa is shown to be the most prominent parental figure in her younger sisters' lives. She will cook for them, tend to their schoolwork and administer discipline when they misbehave.
- Scary Shiny Glasses: Rosa's glasses will shine and hide her eyes when she is especially angry, surprised, or embarrassed. Which is surprisingly often.
- Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Rosa is athletic and hates the idea of being cute, but she also loves dresses, tea parties and watching telenovelas. "Dress for Stress" implies this streak was once more prominent
but she was bullied into suppressing it. - The Un-Smile: Rosa may not smile often, but if you tell her to, she responds by delivering a disturbing big grin that comes off as a Slasher Smile.
Maria Gonzalez
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Maria is this to Rosa as the former frequently pesters the latter, resulting in the latter biting back.
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: She has trouble focusing, which has her teacher to believe such the case to be the reason she gets bad grades. While Maria will claim otherwise, she will be quick to jump to an unrelated topic for no reason.Maria: Can you believe it, Maricela? Me? Lacking focus?? I have a very strong attention span- Oh hey! Check out this book I got on haunted bathrooms!
- An arc in mid-2023 shows Maria's attention problems in more detail, concluding with her being diagnosed with ADD.
- Big Sister Bully: Occasionally towards Maricela, which also earns her Rosa's wrath.
- Cool Big Sis: Though there are moments where she treats Maricela with kindness and warmth, like letting her sleep in her bedroom when she learns she's afraid of the dark.
- The Ditz: She's not particularly bright and is quite gullible.
- Genki Girl: Maria is always upbeat and energetic, much to Rosa and Maricela's annoyance.
- Middle Child Syndrome: Maria tends to be very envious of her sisters, with Rosa being the caretaker on account of being the oldest and Maricela being an eight-year-old Child Prodigy.
- Nightmare Fetishist: Is fascinated by horror stories and ghosts. Being a ghost hunter is her ideal job.
- Oblivious to Her Own Description: Maria in this strip
, when she asks why Maricela is allowed to sit in Rosa's recliner but she isn't:Rosa: Maricela respects my stuff, cleans up after herself, and knows how to ask for permission. Unlike a certain someone I know.
Maria: What are you talking about? What does this "certain someone" have to do with me not being able to sit in your recliner?
Rosa: More than you'll acknowledge. - Overly Long Name: As revealed in one strip, her full name is Maria José Alma Juliana Augustina Isabella Bianca Nicole Gonzalez. It's unknown whether her sisters have similarly long names.
- Super Gullible:
- In one strip, Maria pesters Rosa to let her help with cooking. In response Rosa tells her to help by holding a bowl of fried potatoes and standing by the fridge, telling her that it would bring blessings to the table. Maricela lets Maria know how easily fooled she was, but Maria fails to catch it even when she is told.
- In another strip, after she enthusiastically follows Polterpals magazine's advice on how to contact ghosts, Maricela calls her out on this trope rather more explicitly:Maricela: Do you believe everything you're told? You're so gullible!
Maria: I'm not gullible, I'm open-minded.
Maricela Gonzalez
- Aerith and Bob: Maricela is a rather unusual name compared to the more common Rosa and Maria.
- The Baby of the Bunch: At eight years old, she's definitely the youngest of the three sisters (i.e., Rosa is 25, Maria 16)
- Big Eater: Do NOT leave food laying out around her.
- Child Prodigy: Maricela excels in her classes to where she gets into high school at eight years old. She even helps Rosa with taxes.
- Innocently Insensitive: Maricela has a habit of being unintentionally condescending to both of her sisters. It sometimes gets her in trouble.
- Innocent Prodigy: Despite being highly intelligent and mature for her age, Maricela is still a child; she's afraid of the dark, often asks her elder sisters if she could sleep with them because of her fear, still believes in holiday characters like the Easter Bunny and loves holding tea parties.
- Mature Younger Sibling: Zig-Zagged. On one hand, she often needs to be looked after by her eldest sister, Rosa. On the other hand, she proves herself to be much more mature and responsible than her other big sister, Maria. She is also the smartest of the three sisters, which Rosa acknowledges and likes about her, but there are moments when Maricela may accidentally rub that fact in.
- Morality Pet: Out of the two sisters Rosa is much kinder and more protective towards her than Maria because she's the youngest, is smart and responsible and annoys her the least (not that it saves Maricela from her wrath if she ever gets in trouble).
- Never Bareheaded: Always seen wearing either a bunny hat or a sleep cap (barring one instance where Maria hit her with a snowball).
- Not So Above It All: Downplayed in one arc, where she goes along with Maria's plan to prank Rosa, but doesn't hesitate to tell her how silly the whole idea is.
- Performance Anxiety: While she is the smartest of the sisters, she freezes up when she has to do a speech in front of her whole class.
- Security Blanket: Her stuffed rabbit, Señor Bun, who she sleeps with every night to alleviate her fear of the dark and sometimes carries him around wherever she goes.
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Played for Laughs in one strip in which she gets into a slanging match with Maria, who calls Maricela things like "idiot" and "moron" while Maricela responds with things like "benighted"note and "coccydynia"note . Maria has to look that last one up.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: As stated above, Maricela has nyctophobia (a fear of the dark) and always sleeps with her stuffed rabbit to help alleviate her fear. Failing that, she often comes to her older sisters to sleep with them.
- Wise Beyond Her Years: Despite being 8 years old, Maricela often proves to be the more mature sister and sometimes acts as a Straight Man toward Rosa and Maria's quarreling.
Other Characters
Plush Maria
- Creepy Doll: She is a living, silent doll who resembles Maria. Maricela lets her know how unnerving such a thing is. Plush Maria is often portrayed as creepy in her own comics as well.
- Hockey Mask and Chainsaw: Inexplicably dons them mid-comic in one strip, frightening the bejesus out of Maricela.
- Offscreen Teleportation: At one point during the vacation arc, Maricela drops Plush Maria into a hole in the sand, intending to bury her. She turns round, picks up a bucket of sand, and turns back to see that Plush Maria is somehow sitting next to the hole...
- Once per Episode: The text on Plush Maria's shirt changes (almost) every time she appears, both in Rosebuds and in her own comics. Even fanart usually follows suit.
- Spin-Offspring: Is the star of her own comic that is more-or-less set in a different universe.
