Characters / Saga

Note: This is the character list for the 2012 Comic Book series Saga, written by Brian K. Vaughan and illustrated by Fiona Staples. If you are looking for characters from the Square RPG series, click here.

Second Note: Character sheet represents latest character allegiances. Due to excessive character deaths and constantly changing allegiances, this character sheet is rife with spoilers. Read at your own risk.

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Hazel's family and associates

Alana

A soldier of Landfall who got busted down to prison guard duty after she hesitated when ordered to drop bombs on civilians. Mother of Hazel; wife of Marko. Tends to be more impulsive and outgoing than her husband. Alana was the one who first read A Nighttime Smoke by D. Oswald Heist, which put the idea that people from Landfall and Wreath could co-exist in her head.

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• Abusive Parents: She believes her father working a job he hated is what made him abusive to Alana and her mother during the few times he was present.
• Action Mom: She's not half bad at fighting, when she puts her heart in it.
• Ambiguously Brown: Fiona Staples says she drew Alana to be mixed race and wanted her father to seem Indian.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: In-universe, when Alana responds to an Open Circuit heckler.
• Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: Inverted. Alana is much more feisty, impulsive, and temperamental, and worries much more about her family and the situation they're dealing with. Marko, who is normally more easygoing, passive, and collected, is usually the only person who can talk her down and brighten her day. On occasion, however, it's shown that Alana actually serves as Marko's Morality Chain to keep his capacity for violence in check.
• Deadpan Snarker: Alana always has something sarcastic, dry or bitter to say.
  Alana: Anything I've ever tried to make has turned out like complete shit.
  Marko: Not Hazel.
  Alana: Great, so now you want to monetize my uterus?
• Die or Fly: A literal example occurs when Alana, who is convinced her small insectoid wings are useless even for slowing a fall, is cornered at the top of a lighthouse, then shoved off with Hazel in her arms — shoved off by Marko, who knew she'd come through with Hazel on the line.
• Drugs Are Bad: She uses Fadeaway as escapism from her horrible job. However she clearly becomes a Functional Addict with minimal peer pressure, and when Marko finds out she looked after Hazel on drugs, he becomes angry enough to throw groceries at her.
• Dye or Die: By issue #55 she has dyed her dark hair partially blonde so she's less recognizable.
• Fangirl: Alana is one for a Mills and Boon-style romance novelist (who uses his romance novels to conceal an anti-war message).
• The Lad-ette: Though for most of the first three volumes she's not able to drink due first to her pregnancy and then to nursing.
• Living Emotional Crutch: To Marko. After witnessing her get shot, Marko goes completely berserk until Alana intervenes.
• Mama Bear: Oh dear god, people who threaten her daughter do not get to live long, fruitful lives.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: The "masculine girl" part of the relationship, Alana is often rude and more prone to using violence and taking risks than Marko.
• The Other Darrin: In-Universe, her character Zipless gets recast on the Open Circuit after she leaves.
• Pregnant Badass: As of Issue 36, with a second child, but suffers a miscarriage in Issue 42.
• Punished for Sympathy: Part of Alana's time in the military included running afoul of this trope. Alana protested against and hesitated to carry out orders that would have meant dropping bombs on civilians as well as combatants. She eventually did and the strike was successful, but Alana's overzealous superior demoted and transferred her regardless.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: Alana's mouth is much more foul than Marko's.
• Struggling Single Mother: Alana becomes this to both Hazel and Squire after Marko and Prince Robot are murdered by the Will.
• Vapor Wear: In the early issues, Alana usually doesn't wear anything under her coat, so she can nurse Hazel at a moment's notice.
• Winged Humanoid: Her wings are insectoid, resembling those of a dragonfly.
• Wings Do Nothing: Alana's wings are too small to allow her to fly very far, and even then she can't support much more than her own weight.

Marko

A former soldier turned conscientious objector from Wreath. Father of Hazel, husband of Alana. Marko was raised to hate the people of Landfall by his militant parents, but quit and surrendered after experiencing battle for the first time, landing him in the jail Alana was guarding. Like everyone on Wreath he can use magic. Marko is the calmer and more pacifistic of the two.

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• Action Dad: He's a doting father to his daughter Hazel...and is caught in the middle of an intergalactic conflict. This often means he's thrown in many difficult situations.
• Actual Pacifist: Marko is strictly bound to a code of nonviolence and keeps his ancestral sword chained to its scabbard. He briefly breaks off from this belief to defend his family, though he still doesn't actually kill anyone. He returns to his oath and sacrifices his sword to power the rocketship. Subverted when he kills The March in Chapter 41.
• Ambiguously Brown: Word of God says he was drawn to look Asian.
• Badass Pacifist: Played Straight for the first few volumes before eventually subverted
• Beard of Sorrow: Marko grows one after his father dies, and again when he and Alana are separated on Gardenia.
  • He gets ''nicknamed'' Beard of Sorrow in issue 26.
• Berserk Button: The sight of Alana getting shot is what sends Marko into an Unstoppable Rage, mutilating an entire a squad of Landfall soldiers in issue 6. He doesn't stop until Alana steps in.
  Marko: [growling] Hrrr. Fuckers. Kill all the feathered fucks. Cut off their fucking heads.
  Alana: [shoots Marko with a heartbreaker] Dear. That's enough.
  Marko: [calmly] What would I do without you?
• Beware the Nice Ones: Marko's one of the nicest characters on the series thus far. He's sworn a vow of pacifism. If something drives him to break that vow... well, in Prince Robot IV's own words, he's "a fucking force of nature." He even bests The Will in combat and nearly kills him, except he decides to spare him, and The Will kills him.
• Blood Knight: Part of his Character Development is realizing just how much violence is inside him, and how he enjoys it on some level. After his Fadeout trip he comes to terms with it better than his previous attempt at complete suppression.
• Child Soldier: His first memory was of his parents taking him to the site of the final battle fought on Wreath so he would never forget the conflict between his people, and the people of Landfall.
• Contagious Powers: Accidentally gives Alana the ability to use magic the second time he gets her pregnant.
• Dark and Troubled Past: His Fadeaway hallucination shows some pretty violent acts during his life, including shooting down a ship he discovered later was civilian.
• Fingersnap Lighter: He's doing it in the image.
• Frequently-Broken Unbreakable Vow: Marko has broken has vow of non-violence twice to save his family. His daughter's narration points this out as inevitable given the circumstance they (and all of known space) live in.
• Generation Xerox: Marko's relationship with Alana is very similar to his father's relationship with his mother.
• Guile Hero: Due to his refusal to engage in any form of violence, his strategies in hostile situations involve confusion, evasion, and defense.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: Subverted, he has a sword but he doesn't like to use it as per his vow of pacifism. The one time he does use it, though, he's utterly lethal. He soon breaks it to power the family's rocketship.
• Horned Humanoid: His horns are curved and ram-like.
• Killed Off for Real: Stabbed in the heart by The Will in Issue 54. In Issue 55, The Will hands his skull over to the Wreath government, solidifying his death permanently.
• Living Emotional Crutch: To Alana. After kicking him out of their house, Alana becomes an emotional wreck, unable to handle any of her burdens without Marko.
• Magic Knight: He knows a variety of offensive and defensive spells and is an extremely skilled swordsman too, though he hardly ever uses his skills to hurt anybody post-vow.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: The "feminine boy" side of the relationship, Marko is gentle, sensitive and always looks for a careful, nonviolent solution to problems. He also enjoys doing the dishes and looking after Hazel.
• The Medic: He knows healing spells.
• Men Don't Cry: Aside from the birth of Hazel, Alana has stated that Marko never cries.
• Nice Guy: Probably the kindest and most morally upstanding character in the series.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: When he has the chance to kill The Will, he decides to show mercy towards him and not finish him off. The Will repays his kindness by killing him.
• Papa Wolf: He is gentle, reasonable, and if you do anything to hurt his daughter, he will not rest until she is safe and/or you are put down.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Marko is normally the more gentle and patient blue to Alana's short-tempered and aggressive red, although there are moments where they swap roles.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: Played With. It's clear that Marko deals with some mental scars from the war between Landfall and Wreath, though he doesn't wear his scars on his sleeve and does the best he can to be a loving husband to Alana and father to Hazel.
• Shock and Awe: Sometimes uses his magic to create lightning.
• Torso with a View: After The Will kills him in Issue 54.

Hazel

^{Click here to see her as a toddler}

^{Click here to see her at Age 4}

^{Click here to see her at Age 10}

Alana and Marko's half-Landfallian, half-Wreathian daughter. Hazel is also narrating the story from some point in the future.

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• Adorably Precocious Child: Petrichor actually calls her this trope when trying to explain why she's leaving with Prince Robot.
• Babies Make Everything Better: Averted. As much as they love her, Hazel's existence complicates and endangers the lives of her parents, as well as nearly everyone else around her.
• Children Are Innocent: Is only sometimes aware of the danger she's in.
• Class Clown: She totally derails an art therapy session with fart comedy, and seems to be her classes' regular storyteller and jokester.
• Deadpan Snarker: Well at least her future narrator self.
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!: "Oh, fart."
• Foregone Conclusion: That she's narrating the story from the future indicates Hazel survives in some form.
• From the Mouths of Babes: "Oh, fucking!"
  Marko: Hazel, that's not a nice word, remember?
  Alana: And you're still using it wrong
• Horned Humanoid: Inherited horns from her dad's side...
• Last-Minute Baby Naming: Alana and Marko decide to name her Hazel after the librarian who suggested Heist's book to Alana. It's also a Stealth Pun, since "hazel" is the name for eyes that are a mix of green (like Alana's) and brown (like Marko's).
• Lemony Narrator: For instance, Hazel will often make snarky comments about the scenes where her parents are having sex.
  • She is also downright misleading with her choice of language. She says Marko and Alana 'split up', but this actually describes how Alana and Hazel are kidnapped and separated from Marko for years, instead of a divorce.
• Like Father, Like Daughter: A gender swapped version. She's inherited her mother's snarkiness and Sir Swears-a-Lot tendencies.
• Merger of Souls: Was bonded to Izabel as the price for Izabel helping her family to get off Cleave.
• Nonhuman Humanoid Hybrid: Half Wreathen, half Landfallian.
• Puppy Love: Hazel shares her first kiss with an anthropomorphic Meercat named Kurti.
• Shock and Awe: Used a weakened fulmo spell to restart Alana's heart.
• Winged Humanoid: ... and wings from her mom's side, though unlike Alana's, hers are feathered.

Izabel

Hazel's first babysitter. Izabel is the ghost of a teenage girl from the planet Cleave who was killed by a landmine. Izabel helps Marko and Alana escape Cleave in exchange for letting her bond with Hazel and thus escape the planet. The power that kept her spirit bound to the planet could only be broken if she was bonded to a native of Cleave, and Hazel qualifies as she was conceived and born there.

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• Badass Adorable: Manages to scare off The Stalk. And later The Lying Cat.
• Beast Man: Looks like a monkey.
• Blessed with Suck: How she views her race's ability to come back as ghosts.
• Body Horror: Izabel died by stepping on a landmine, blowing her whole lower body to smithereens. Since Cleave ghosts retain the condition in which they died, her legs are missing and her guts can be seen hanging out. She's since revealed that she could shapeshift into a full body if she wanted to, but it would mean changing 'clothes' and she likes the t-shirt she was wearing when she died.
• Cute Ghost Girl: Although her dangling entrails are a bit creepy.
• Deadpan Snarker: Being a teenager, she pretty often makes snide comments. To anyone and everyone.
• Drama-Preserving Handicap: Her illusions have no effect on Robots, a common enemy of the heroes. Her inability to manifest during the day also becomes a problem when the family is stuck on a planet with perpetual sunlight.
• Expy: Visually at least, Izabel appears to be modelled on Molly Hayes.
• Floating Limbs: Has no legs and her upper half just floats in mid-air.
• Genki Girl: Izabel is pretty excitable and pleasant for a ghost of a kid who stepped on a land mine.
• Gorgeous Gorgon: Before they're seen, Izabel and her friends were thought to be dangerous monsters. But it turned out they were the ghosts of children and teenagers casting illusions.
• Immortality: She cannot be killed because she is already dead, though she can be banished elsewhere. Subverted in issue #38; a Freelancer called The March binds and stabs her, making her explode and causing Hazel great distress due to their soul-link. Word of God on the letters page confirms her to have been Killed Off for Real.
• Magical Nanny: She looks after Hazel and much of Alana's knowledge of how to take care of a kid comes from her. She's also literally magical.
  Izabel: You were supposed to switch boobs ten minutes ago.
• Master of Illusion: Cleave ghosts ("astral shifters") cannot physically hurt anyone, but they can leave somebody scarred for life by inflicting horrifying visions.
• Merger of Souls: Had to do this with the infant Hazel in order to be able to leave her homeworld. She assures a nervous Alana that it would only hurt Hazel "on the day it ends". Sure enough, when Izabel is killed in issue #38, the last page is of Hazel looking stricken and grabbing at her chest.
• Not So Invincible After All: As a ghost, she is intangible and thus seemingly impervious to harm. That is proven wrong in issue #38, when a Freelancer uses special enchanted weapons to bind her, then kill her.
• Older Than They Look: While Izabel appears to be about 16 or so, several other characters note that she's oddly grown up for her age-at-death and wonder just HOW long she's spent as a ghost. Izabel bought her T-shirt at the last tour by a band called Pyrosis. Petrichor (who looks decades older than Izabel) is also a fan, but is too young to have ever seen them perform live.
• Our Ghosts Are Different: Izabel's race is so far the only race that creates ghosts when they die. She can only show up at night, and her ghost form is how she looked when she died, meaning her form has a blown-off torso. She can only leave her home planet if she bonds herself to someone who was born there and can only leave if they leave.
• Straight Gay: She says her last thoughts were of her girlfriend.

Klara

Marko's mother and an old war veteran of Wreath. Klara hates Landfallians with a passion, so naturally she was quite upset to learn her son fathered a child with one. She loves her granddaughter though, and is slowly warming up to Alana. Klara tracked down Marko with her much more forgiving husband Barr, who died shortly after meeting the couple and giving his blessing.

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• Cool Old Lady: Even though she can be a real tough piece of work, she genuinely loves her son and comes to like his Landfallian wife. She's also a real badass for someone her age.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: At first, Klara is less than enthusiastic to learn that the mother of her granddaughter is from Landfall, but she soon manages to overcome her prejudice for both Marko's sake, and for Hazel's.
• Ear Ache: She gets her left ear bitten off by a bone bug on Quietus.
• Foregone Conclusion: Hazel visits her mother's planet with her grandmother at some point.
• I Choose to Stay: When Marko comes to rescue Hazel from the Landfallian detention center, she asks her son to leave her behind, having found a community and purpose in life among the other Wreather prisoners.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Klara is curt, short tempered, and a bit too quick on the draw, but she clearly loves her family, and eventually comes around to accepting Alana as her daughter-in-law.
• Mama Bear: Do not threaten her son. Do not threaten her granddaughter, or her daughter-in-law.
• Never Mess with Granny: Boy howdy. She was a respected and well known warrior from Wreath, and she ain't afraid to throw down with anyone who threatens her or her family.
• Racist Grandma: She participated in the war and her opinion of Landfallians is not the best. Meeting Alana and witnessing Marko's love for her smooths her over, though.
• Thinking Up Portals: She and Barr used to have crash helms until Marko burned them as fuel for the ship.
• Visual Pun: Her weapon of choice is an axe. Fittingly enough, since an aggressive old woman can sometimes be referred to as a "battleaxe", and Izabel calls Klara exactly that at one point.

Barr

Marko's father. Despite being at war with Landfall for decades, he's surprisingly less offended than Klara is about his son marrying the enemy. He's also revealed to be Secretly Dying.

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• Abusive Parents: Played With. Despite the fact that Barr clearly loved his son (as shown in flashbacks), Barr also admits he was never a great father to Marko. This is best evidenced by the time Marko harmed a neighbor's eight year old daughter as a child, Barr took off his belt and beat Marko with it.
• Face Death with Dignity: Despite the fact he has less than a month to live, Barr is at peace with it, focusing more on making what little time he has left count with the people he loves most. And that includes Alana.
• Happily Married: What little we see of Barr and Klara, it's clear that Barr loved his wife dearly.
• Heroic Sacrifice: When their ship is close to being torn apart, Barr manages to cast a spell that holds it together, saving everybody in the process. Unfortunately, it puts too much of a strain on his heart, costing him his life.
• Open-Minded Parent: Compared to Klara, Barr is much more accepting of Alana, understanding that the love between her and Marko is real, despite how unorthodox it is.
• One True Love: To Klara. Even though she would go on to love others, they were never as dear to her as Barr was.
• Nice Guy: Marko got it from somewhere...
• Secretly Dying: He's introduced as this, revealing it only to Alana.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Barr is introduced at the very end of Volume 1, and dies near the end of Volume 2.

Prince/Sir Robot IV

A Ridiculously Human Robot soldier recently returned from the front lines who wants to get back to his wife and newborn son. Unfortunately Landfall assigns him the job of tracking down Alana and Marko. He pursues the job efficiently, but his desire to get back to his family makes him approach the job in a violent, heavy-handed manner. Eventually he is forced to work with Marko and Alana.

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• Abusive Parents: His parents were cold to him at best, and were downright monstrous to him at worst. While he's hardly a saint himself, he makes sure that his son's upbringing is a damn sight better than his was.
• Alien Blood: He has literal blue blood.
• Anti-Villain: Prince Robot may be ruthless, but he's just trying to get back to his wife and newborn son.
• Apologetic Attacker: When off his head on fadeaway, he's about to shoot Marko but his screen displays the word "Sorry".
• Arm Cannon: Like most denizens of his kingdom, his arm can transform into a very powerful blaster.
• Attack Its Weak Point: According to him when he is going off on D. Oswald Heist in the throes of PTSD-induced mania, the scar on his neck which he got at Threshold None has a weakened circuit underneath, and stabbing him there "with conviction" would kill him. It would not be brought up again, and his death would be caused by other means.
• Berserk Button: Whenever anyone threatens his wife or child, or makes light of the horrific experiences he and others suffered at Threshold None. During a brief interrogation with a belligerent Wreathen PoW, his facial-screen goes into static and he almost puts the prisoner through a steel bulkhead. He later develops a new berserk button for being referred to as "Prince", or his son as "Princeling", after he is forced into exile.
• Blue Screen Of Death: When shot by Heist on Quietus, his screen face was a solid blue, requiring time to reboot.
• Character Death: The Will unceremoniously rips his head off in issue #53.
• Crusading Widower: He's even willing to ally with Marko to kill Dengo and rescue his son.
• Death Seeker: His time at Threshold None has caused him a great deal of psychological pain, such that when confronting D. Oswald Heist on Quietus, he dared that author to stab him in the neck with a pen. Later, he is nearly Driven to Suicide while under the effects of Fadeaway.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: His wife and son. Eventually sheds the evil part as he spends more time with Marko and Alana.
• Foil: To The Will. Both are traumatized and damaged people who dealt with childhood abuse and the cyclical nature of trauma and violence. While Sir Robot manages to find some portion of inner peace once he spends more time with his son Squire, along with Marko and Alana, The Will is too ingrained with violence to turn his back on it and he continues the cycle by killing Sir Robot and Marko.
  • He's also a foil to Marko. Both are scarred military veterans who want to do right by their children, and raise them better than they were. Marko is a Nice Guy though, while Sir Robot is a Jerk with a Heart of Gold at best. It's no accident that they both die not long after each other, and by The Will.
• Gender Bender: Implies he can change his genitals when turning his gun back into a hand. He's later seen having missionary sex with Petrichor, a transwoman.
• The Hedonist: Loses himself on Sextillion after another near-death experience, missing his son's birth and his wife's murder.
• Heroic BSoD: After nearly dying on Quietus, he falls into depression and ends up spending several days on Sextillion. He is only snapped out of it by the news of his son's birth and subsequent kidnapping following the death of his wife.
• His Name Really Is "Barkeep": He's a prince of a race of robots and that's exactly his name. Until he isn't a prince, then that stops being his name.
• I Have No Son!: Ends up disowned by his father and stripped of his noble standing.
• I Just Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Sir Robot eventually develops romantic feelings for Alana. While he confesses to her, he has no intention of starting a Love Triangle with Marko. Much of the things he does following this revelation are for her own benefit rather than his, in spite of his initial rush to return to his son. When Alana angrily tells him to leave her family alone, he complies and treats it as an unarguable banishment.
• Inspector Javert: Acts like this. But ultimately subverted once he joins Alana and Marko, and even forms a friendship of sorts with them.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's a huge prick, make no mistake about it. But he's not a bad person at heart and would rather not go after Alana and Marko. He wants to be with his family and find some sort of inner peace. He mellows out once he is disowned by his family and joins Alana and Marko. He even forms a friendship with them, though shaky.
• Lousy Lovers Are Losers: He is introduced while trying to have sex with his wife, but being unable to perform due to the stress and injuries he sustained in the war. She's understanding, but he still acts very bitterly about it. His sexual frustration eventually turns him into The Hedonist.
• Love Confession: His screen accidentally displays "I love you" when he's having sex with Petrichor.
• Masturbation Means Sexual Frustration: He is once seen preparing to masturbate after joining the family on their quest, and frustrated at there being no females on the ship besides married Alana (which makes it even more startling when she shows up naked in his fantasies).
  Robot IV: Let's clear out this cannon before it backfires.
• Meaningful Rename: Changes his name from Prince Robot to Sir Robot following his murder of Dengo and his father stripping him of his royal title.
• Mechanical Lifeform: A TV Head Robot with blood and organs.
• Painting the Medium: A shared trait with other Robots, his written dialogue looks like something typed on a computer.
• Papa Wolf:
  • Everything he does is for the safety of his son. And God help you if you do anything to keep him away from him or in any way try to hurt him.
  • He also starts doing this for Hazel, immediately pushing her behind him when Petrichor first appears on the rocketship.
• Predator Turned Protector: He is initially tasked with taking out Alana, Marko and Hazel and morally agrees with doing so, although he's also under threat from his dad, who is King Robot. He eventually becomes a fairly committed ally of the family. Although his intentions for doing so are still murky at best, he does begin to show a much greater deal of honour and courtesy to them.
• Punch-Clock Villain: He's only doing it for his family. He ultimately abandons his mission once his son is kidnapped, and ends up joining Alana and Marko.
• Royally Screwed Up: Downplayed, but it's mentioned that the royals are physically weaker than the commoners due to their inbreeding.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Being a prince of his planet doesn't keep Prince Robot from being part of the Wreath and Landfall war, though he'd prefer to be at home with his wife.
• Scars Are Forever: Gets a crack on his screen following his battle with Heist that acts in the same way. Moreover, the crack seems to be expanding over time. Also has a scar on his neck from Threshold Zero.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: Prince Robot IV is obviously suffering PTSD after surviving what's implied to be a particularly ugly series of battles at Threshold None. Among other things, he's shown dreaming of the time he took a shot to the neck and began bleeding out before he was stabilized by a friendly medic, only to watch the medic disintegrate in front of his face as the attack resumed, leaving him coated in gore. He takes insults to the soldiers who died there very personally and has no intention of rejoining combat, but may be in denial about how deeply scarred he really is.
• Redemption Equals Death: He was already redeemed by the time The Will caught up with him, but sadly the past isn't done with Prince Robot and The Will kills him.
• Talking in Your Sleep: His screen shows whatever he's dreaming.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Eventually ends up becoming close allies with Alana and Marko, a relationship absolutely drenched in snark and disdain on both sides.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Being with Alana and Marko, alongside being a father, makes him a better person overall, even if he remains a bit of a prick. Sadly, his past catches up to him and The Will kills him.
• TV Head Robot: Their screens are usually a blank gray, but sometimes display images that reveal their emotional states. Commoners have black-and-white screens, medium-ranks have mostly green-only with occasional 8-bit color, and royals have vibrant color screens.
• The Unfavorite: Has a dead brother whom his father regards as a hero.
• Unrequited Love: He soon falls in love with Alana, but has no intentions of stealing her from Marko nor winning her affections.

Ghüs

A rancher who sold Marko a large quadrupedal walrus creature named Friendo in exchange for Klara's ax. When Alana, Hazel, and Klara are kidnapped by Dengo, Ghüs uses his psychic connection with Friendo to help track them down.

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• Badass Adorable: Ghüs is absolutely adorable and apparently a retired soldier.
• Berserk Button: He flies into a fit of rage if he sees anything happen to his animal companion, Friendo. He cuts off the fingers from The Will's right hand because he had Friendo sedated, which Ghüs interpreted as a poisoning.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Ghüs did things as a soldier that he is not proud of.
• Good is Not Nice: Ghüs claims that he is this when Yuma calls him "sweet". He later proves this when Marko and Yuma have an overdose of tainted drugs: upon learning that the drug can be purged using Robot blood, he starts menacingly approaching Prince Robot with his "chopper".
• The Heart: Acts as an intermediary between Marko, Yuma, and Prince Robot.
• Kid-Appeal Character: Even though Ghüs appears in a series that is not for kids, he does have the qualities that would appeal towards kids such as his harp seal-like appearance, his kind personality, his yellow overalls, and the fact that he does not swear or do sex and drugs unlike other characters.
• Series Mascot: He is this along with Prince Robot IV and Lying Cat. Many fans root for him to survive through the whole series.
• Underestimating Badassery: Yes, he looks like an adorable baby seal. No, that does not mean he won't slice you in half with his battleaxe if you make him.

Squire

Formerly known as the Princeling, Squire is Sir Robot IV's beloved son.

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• Arm Cannon: Learns how to morph his arm into a cannon just like his father when he and Hazel are confronted by a cop.
• Brother–Sister Incest: Squire eventually develops feelings for Hazel. While they aren't actually related by blood, Hazel is still squicked out by his affections because he's her adopted brother.
• Children Are Innocent: Appears to be genuinely goodhearted. Justified in that he's been growing up on a planet far away from any danger thus far (until The Will shows up and threatens Squire for Marko and Alana's whereabouts).
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Future!Hazel's narration implies that he becomes a force to be reckoned with later on.
• Like Brother and Sister: Future!Hazel refers to Squire as her new brother during their first meeting. She later outright refers to him as such, as it's revealed Alana adopted him after Sir Robot's death.
• Meaningful Name: Was originally named Princeling, but his name was changed to Squire after his father, a Prince, was disowned and banished.
• Morality Pet: For his father. Squire is the only one Sir Robot acts genuinely caring towards besides his late wife.
• Save the Princess: Hearing that Hazel is "the fairest maiden in all the lands" is enough for him to beg his father to help rescue her. He's somewhat disappointed to see that Hazel doesn't look like a fair maiden.
• The Speechless: Stops talking for a long time after his father dies. Though he eventually gets better.
• Trauma Conga Line: This kid has been through the wringer since birth. First his mother is murdered and he's kidnapped by Dengo and taken halfway across the galaxy. When he finally reunites with his father Prince Robot IV, said father soon loses his temper and tries to strangle him. If that weren't enough, Prince Robot dies. He's adopted by Alana... right before their house burns down, leaving them homeless. He's also apparently a victim of bullying.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behaviour: After the death of his father, he grows obsessed with the notion of bringing him back or avenging him in some way, growing willing to kill people who get in his way. It is a line Hazel isn't comfortable crossing.

Petrichor

A transgender female Wreather whom Hazel meets during her time in a Landfallian detention center. She joins Alana and Marko in their journey after Hazel reunites with her parents.

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• Meaningful Name: Her name comes from the term for the distinct smell of rain falling onto soil after a long period of dry weather. Quite fittingly, she is one of the first friends Hazel meets during her two years in a Landfallian detention center, and her appearance comes not long before her reuniting with her parents. It also fits with her keen sense of smell.
• Murder by Mistake: Petrichor accidentally kills Sophie when Sophie stands in the way of a poison dart meant for the Will.
• The Nose Knows: She has a very keen sense of smell, capable of confirming Marko is Hazel's father when he comes to rescue her from the detention center, as well as confirming Alana's second pregnancy.
• Official Couple: Enters into a passionate relationship with Sir Robot.
• Polyamory: While she isn't involved in a poly relationship, she has stated that she wasn't opposed to the notion.
• Parental Substitute: She becomes a motherly figure for Sir Robot's son, Squire.
• Revenge Before Reason: Alana tries to convince Petrichor that going on a quest for revenge against the Will is a bad idea. She turns out to be right.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Petrichor goes on one of these after Sir Robot's murder at the hands of the Will. She even nearly succeeds in killing the Will, only for Sophie to unwittingly pull a Heroic Sacrifice and take a poison dart meant for him.
• A Shared Suffering: Petrichor and Hazel quickly become friends thanks to the struggles they face as a transwoman and a Landfallian-Wreather hybrid, respectively.
• Trans Tribulations: Her trans identity made her a social outcast among the other women in the Landfallian detention center. It is a very touchy subject for her, one she gets defensive about as she makes a point of keeping it secret.

Upsher

A reporter for the newspaper the Hebdomadal. Upsher and his lover/photographer Doff are pursuing the Hazel story, which eventually puts them in contact with Alana and Marko.

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• Fish People: As is Doff and apparently everyone from planet Jetsam.
• Gayngst: Because Jetsam outlaws homosexuality, he and Doff can only consumate their relationship offworld.
• Intrepid Reporter: He takes his newspaper job very seriously and is committed to telling the story correctly.
• Painting the Medium: Upsher's speech bubbles look very bubble-y and his text is light blue, possibly due to being an aquatic person talking on land.
• The Redeemer: Following Doff's murder he manages to become this by taking Doff's murderer, Ianthe, and actually rehabilitating her on Quietus. Volume Eleven ends with the implication he's going to try to same thing with Gale.

The Will's family and associates

The Will

A Bounty Hunter, or "Freelancer", hired by Wreath to kill Alana and Marko and bring back Hazel alive. Along the way he picks up a few stragglers. He used to be in a relationship with The Stalk, whose death causes him no end of grief. In most on-page appearances he comes off as a reasonable, civil man, but future Hazel describes him as "a fucking monster".

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• Abusive Parents: His father regularly hit him and Sophie, and is implied to have sexually abused the latter. The Will remembers his father's death at the hands of his uncle as a happy memory.
• Affably Evil: The Will is a bad, bad man. But he's generally polite and reasonable, and seeks to avoid senseless violence.
• Badass Cape: Comes equipped with a cowl. It is also fireproof and can block bullets.
• Badass Normal: He doesn't have Wreath magic or Landfallian flight, but he has some amazing technology at his disposal and he's not afraid to use it.
• Berserk Button: Sexual abuse of children. Considering the abuse he and The Brand endured as children at the hands of their father, it's not surprising.
• Beware the Quiet Ones: The Will is generally quiet and stoic. But several tragedies befall him and eventually he showcases why he's so feared as a Freelancer. He kills Marko and Sir Robot when the opportunity presents itself.
• Big Bad: The closest the series has to one after he kills Marko.
• Big Brother Instinct: He loves his sister very much, and had gotten his uncle, another Freelancer, to kill his abusive father when he and The Brand were kids. He also does not take The Brand's death very well.
• Bounty Hunter: His job. Wreath or Landfall, he'll work for whoever is willing to foot the bill.
• Bring My Brown Pants: When he threatens Ianthe, she threatens to replay his memory of shitting his pants in front of the entire third grade.
• Charles Atlas Superpower: As far as we know, the Will is an ordinary human with no known superpowers, and yet he's capable of smashing a sleazy pimp's head in with his bare hands.
• Cool Mask: His cape has a Batman-like cowl, though he is pretty much never seen wearing it.
• Death Seeker: Implied. While he isn't actively suicidal, he doesn't fear death and there are times, such as when he lashes out at Sophie and Gwendolyn, it's hinted that The Will wants to die.
• Determinator: During one fight his right hand is shattered into a bloody mess, he's tackled off of a cliff (smashing through a roof in the process), choked almost to death, and then hit by lightning, and he keeps on coming. They don't call him 'The Will' for nothing.
• The Dreaded: Hazel refers to him as 'a fucking monster' and for good reason. He showcases himself to be capable of stomach churning violence without a shred of emotion, and kills Marko and Sir Robot.
• Empowered Badass Normal: Played With. While it's never said if he's been enhanced in any way, he does showcase that he's stronger than an average human being. This is best demonstrated in how he kills the pimp and Sir Robot by ripping their heads off with his bare hands.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: The Will is still obviously carrying a torch for The Stalk, he's kind to Slave Girl, and there are hints that he and Gwendolyn might be interested in each other. And when his sister The Brand shows up at his bedside, she looks utterly heartbroken to see him in that condition. He reacts similarly to the news of her death.
• Even Evil Has Standards: He may be a ruthless freelancer who will kill anyone for money, even children. But extorting them for prostitution? That's a line even he never crosses. He also is shown to have a distaste for pointless cruelty, particularly towards animals and creatures.
• Fat Bastard: His weight gain after The Brand's death coincides with him becoming noticeably harsher. He eventually loses the weight after he gets captured and tortured by Ianthe.
• Fingore: Gets four of his fingers sliced off by Ghüs. The damage gets worse during his fight with Marko when his jerry-rigged autolance explodes in his hand. By the next time we see him, he's down to his thumb and a set of prosthetic hooks.
• Formerly Fit: Has really put on weight since learning about his sister's death. He eventually loses the weight and is back to his normal size.
• Freudian Excuse: His father was violently and maybe sexually abusive, while his mother was an alcoholic and his uncle was a freelancer who killed his father in front of him
• Heartbroken Badass: After The Stalk is killed after a misunderstanding with Prince Robot IV. Also after his sister The Brand dies.
• Hero Killer: "Hero" may be stretching it a bit but he kills Sir Robot in Issue 53. Played Straight when he kills Marko in the following issue.
• His Name Really Is "Barkeep": His sister calls him "Billy", implying his name is not just a moniker but also short for "William".
• Hitman with a Heart: The Will might be a ruthless killer, but that doesn't make him any less sympathetic. Deep down, he doesn't want to be a bounty hunter and would like to make something better of himself that doesn't involve murdering people for money. But his self-destructive streak leaves him trapped in the life of a killer for hire.
• Humiliation Conga: After The Brand dies, The Will becomes a pathetic, fat, drug addicted shell of his former self. He wanders around for a while with The Brand's dog Sweet Boy, getting high off his ass and searching for Sir Robot, Marko, and Alana. Then he gets captured by Ianthe, who kills Sweet Boy and tortures The Will for months on end. This causes him to finally snap and go on a rampage, killing Sir Robot, Ianthe, and eventually Marko.
• I Just Want to Be Loved: From his relationships to The Stalk, Gwendolyn, and Sophie. It's clear that The Will is desperate to form connections with people. But his wildly self-destructive behavior prevents him from forming said relationships.
• Incest Subtext: He is addicted to a drug called Heroine, which makes one hallucinate their "first love". Naturally, it makes him hallucinate the Stalk, but also his sister, the Brand, who even calls him out on it.
• Imagine Spot: At the beginning of Volume 2, The Will dreams that The Stalk survived being shot, and that they go to Sextillion to save Sophie. After waking up from his coma, The Will starts using Heroine to live in a permanent fantasy of The Stalk.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: It's openly established that while The Will is most definitely a "monster" by any other name, there are others worse than he is.
  "The Will wasn't the first bounty hunter to come after my parents, and he wasn't the last. Like every Freelancer I had the misfortune to eventually meet, he was a fucking MONSTER. But as my family was about to learn, some monsters are worse than others..."
• Manchild: It's eventually revealed his Badass Cape isn't some standard-issue Freelancer gear. It's a costume from a TV show he's loved since he was a kid. It was the very first thing he spent his first Freelancer paycheck on.
• Moral Myopia: He knows full well the trauma of losing someone so senselessly after The Stalk and The Brand die, yet he shamelessly inflicts that trauma on dozens of other people, children included. This is apparent when he kills Sir Robot and Marko, taking Squire and Hazel's parents away from them.
• Nightmare Fetishist: He's attracted to an arachnid-woman creature The Stalk, and when he's confronted by a large, nasty creature, who when killed, The Will only balks at how the Wreath woman who hired him killed 'a beautiful creature.'
• Noble Demon: The Will will take a job that requires him to track down and murder a pair of deserters and deliver their infant child for unknown consequences, but then he'll try to free a six-and-a-half-year-old Sex Slave.
• Professional Killer: His job as a Freelancer.
• Punch-Clock Villain: The Will doesn't even seem to enjoy his work, and lacks the sadism of some of his fellow Freelancers. He treats his job as any other. This becomes increasingly deconstructed as Saga shows just how messed up he is to keep doing his job, even if he doesn't find any personal satisfaction in it.
• Retractable Weapon: His "lance", which can stretch dozens of meters, can be somehow collapsed into a very tiny pommel.
• Sanity Slippage: Even years after the incident with the hallucinogenic food, he continues to talk to The Stalk as though she were right with him, even though others see nobody. This is explained as the effect of a Fantastic Drug he's been taking since coming out of his coma.
• Spell My Name with a "The": Along with all the other Freelancers.
• Shock Collar: Ianthe puts a collar and bracelets on him that let her electrocute him when he doesn't obey her.
• Sour Outside, Sad Inside: While The Will isn't an outright Jerkass, he isn't the nicest guy in the world and is generally a sullen individual. It covers up for the fact that he's a wildly self-destructive man who wants to belong somewhere and be loved and have a family of his own.
• There Are No Therapists: He breaks down and vents his problems to a prostitute because freelancers aren't allowed to see shrinks.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Several tragedies befall The Will, including losing his sister The Brand, getting stabbed and put into a coma, getting out of said coma and developing a drug addiction, and then getting captured and tortured. This makes him into a much colder and more jaded individual, and he kills Marko and Sir Robot when the opportunity arises.
• Trauma Conga Line: His whole life seems to be this.
• The Stoic: Generally doesn't lose his calm demeanor, even when he's up against some truly bizarre creatures. That said, that's not to say he has no emotions at all.
• Übermensch: The Will's personal moral code apparently condones killing children in the line of duty, but not the sexual abuse of them for any reason, by anyone. He even tells Mama Sun if she'd have to ask about the difference, she's too far gone to understand it.
• Whip Sword: His weapon of choice is a "lance" that works much like this.
• Would Hurt a Child: Zig-Zagged, as he offers to kill Hazel along with her parents. But he seems to have a soft spot for children, especially those who have been sexually abused.

Lying Cat

An alien cat that can tell when someone is lying, either to others or themselves. She is The Will's sidekick.

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• Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: An illusion created by Izabel implies that lying cats come in various colours.
• Action Pet: The Cat's usefulness goes beyond just calling out lies. She's about the size of a cougar or leopard, so if needed, she can straight-out rip someone's head off.
• Cats Are Mean: Mostly averted. Her meanest moments involve her saying her catchphrase at inopportune moments, and only because it's in her nature to do so.
• Dark Is Not Evil: She looks devious and monstrous, and is technically on the antagonists' side, but she loyal to her friends and gentle, even comforting, to Sophie.
• Does Not Understand Sarcasm: Will call "LYING" on sarcasm or poetic language.
• I Choose to Stay: After spending several years alongside Sophie and Gwendolyn, when the Will returns and asks Lying Cat to return with him, she sorrowfully declines and stays with Sophie.
• Living Lie Detector: Lying Cat calls out "LYING" if she hears a lie.
• Loyal Animal Companion/Non-Human Sidekick: The Lying Cat is one of these to The Will and later, to Gwendolyn and Sophie.
• Mega Neko: Though Izabel implies that it's the runt of its litter.
• Pet the Dog: Ironically enough. When Sophie starts listing off traits about herself, the Lying Cat says nothing... until she starts dismissing herself as "dirty" because she was raped, at which point the Lying Cat interrupts with "LYING".
• Pokémon Speak: Lying Cat's human vocabulary consists solely of "LYING", and that only when she hears a lie. She has a variety of feline hisses, grumbles, and cries for emotional expression.
• Series Mascot: Easily the most iconic character of the series, had merchandise made of her ahead of the other characters, and has made cameos or been referenced in other comics.
• Talking Animal: Lying Cat's vocabulary seems to be limited to "LYING", but she can understand humanoid speech well enough to tell when people aren't being truthful.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: The Will loves the Lying Cat, but that doesn't stop him from being incredibly annoyed when she calls him out for lying to either himself or others. At one point Gwendolyn asks him how hasn't he killed the animal yet. He responds that he's tried.

The Stalk

Another Freelancer and The Will's ex-girlfriend, not that The Will was over her. The Stalk was sent before The Will to assassinate Alana and Marko and recover Hazel, but ran into Prince Robot IV who shot her when she reached for her phone.

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• Bounty Hunter: Part of the Freelancer job description.
• Cool Starship: Had one made from a dragon's skull. Prince Robot IV ended up taking it.
• Professional Killer: Part of the Freelancer job description.
• The Lost Lenore: For The Will.
• Posthumous Character: Her appearances as a hallucination or dream of The Will outnumber her appearances when she was alive.
• Psycho for Hire: She's clearly more unhinged and sadistic than The Will and The Brand.
• Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Her humanoid half is armless, but her spider legs are perfectly capable of manipulating multiple weapons at once.
• Spider People: Her species has a mostly-human upper half on a spider body and can apparently spin webs. They also have extendable, lance-like tongues for some reason.
• Unexplained Recovery: Subverted. The Stalk, killed earlier, reappears alive to help The Will save the Slave Girl... but it's just a dream The Will is having.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: A rare female example, and Saga being Saga, she's not usually as covered up as shown here.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Dead before the end of the first volume.

Sophie, formerly Slave Girl

A six-year-old sex slave The Will rescued from the planet Sextillion. Sophie has limited Psychic Powers, which she is using to help The Will track down Alana and Marko.

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• The Cutie: She's so adorable.
• Doom Magnet: Everyone who is in charge of taking care of Sophie suffers a horrible fate.
• The Empath: Sophie seems to have some latent clairvoyant powers; she was able to trace where Marko and Alana are based on their wedding rings, which were forged with Gwen's pendant. Later she says that her powers have faded, possibly from the effects of the asteroid's hallucinogen or from being away from Phang for so long.
  "Excuse me, but your necklace sounds sad... Her necklace misses its old friends. It can finally hear them again, both of them, not far from here."
• Entertainingly Wrong: Her years working under Gwendolyn has somewhat colored her perception of Marko, who she assumes is an "abusive fuck".
• Heroic Sacrifice: She shields Gwen from Petrikov's poison darts and subsequentially dies.
• Hooker with a Heart of Gold: The "hooker" part wasn't voluntary.
• Humans Are Psychic in the Future: It's implied that most people from Phang share her empathic ability to "hear" objects.
• Meaningful Name: The Will named her after his beloved sister.
• Naïve Newcomer: Gwendolyn provides Sophie with the best education money can buy but she is still woefully out of her depth as page to Wreath High Command, due to being taught the Black-and-White Morality propaganda of the Wreath education system (not to mention how Gwendolyn's influence has warped her worldview) and even admits she holds a lot of prejudices such as those against the bluebloods of the Robot Kingdom.
• Never Given a Name: Sophie's name was given to her by The Will when he rescued her. Prior to that, she had no name.

Gwendolyn

Marko's ex-fiancée. She teams up with The Will to find Marko, who broke her heart (and their engagement).

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• Big Bad: After she is promoted to High Command, she inherits this position from Vez, on the Wreath side of the conflict. Becoming one of the major players contributing to the perpetual war.
• Cast From Life Span: Her weather control magic shortens her life by a few weeks every time she uses it.
• First Girl Wins: After considerable Ship Tease with The Will, she goes back home and marries her first girlfriend. Ends up being subverted when she has an affair with The Will anyway. She claims she and her wife have an "agreement." Lying Cat disagrees.
• Horned Humanoid: She has short white horns a bit akin to a bull's, fitting her brash personality.
• Locked into Strangeness: After using her life-draining lightning spell to fight the dragon on Demimonde, Gwendolyn receives a prematurely whitened streak of hair.
• Lack of Empathy: Shows no remorse or sadness when she learns Marko is dead. As a matter of fact, she's joyful.
• Manipulative Bitch: She plays The Will's feelings for her like a fiddle to get him to do what she wants.
• Parental Substitute: She wouldn't admit it, but she becomes a surrogate mother figure to Sophie. Even after they abandon The Will, Gwen keeps Sophie as her page so the young girl still has someone to take care of her.
• Playing with Fire: She uses the Bruli spell to set a guard on fire when she's looking for a cure to help The Will.
• Psycho Ex-Fiancé: At the end of Issue Eight, Gwendolyn looks to be this, but she turns out to be pretty level-headed and at least a little justified in her aggravation. Marko was supposed to marry her when he got back from fighting in the war and used her engagement ring, part of a specially-forged set and one of her family heirlooms, as his wedding ring for Alana.
  • The "level-headed" part goes a bit out the window when she fires a heat-seeking missile from The Will's ship on a mere suspicion that Marko may be in the area. She turns out to be right, but her rash action almost costs everyone in The Will's craft their lives when she accidentally hits the Timesuck.
  • Furthermore, when The Will brings her Marko's skull, she cries tears of joy and they literally have sex next to it.
• Shock and Awe: She learned weather control magic from Marko and can use it to call down red lightning upon enemies. The Will, though, says it's an inefficient method of battle that shortens one's life.
• Whip Sword: She learns to use The Will's lance.
• You Are in Command Now: Becomes Wreath High Command after Vez passes away during a timeskip.

The Brand/Sophie

Another freelancer who joins Gwendolyn and Sophie on their quest.

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• Affably Evil: She might be a ruthless killer in her own right, but she's personable and downright reasonable considering some of the other people she works alongside.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: A trenchcoat, white dress shirt, and black slacks with suspenders, to be precise.
• Bifauxnen: Short hair, masculine suit and trenchcoat.
• Broken Bird: It comes to light that she was regularly sexually abused by her father.
• Distaff Counterpart: The Brand resembles The Will a great deal - a presumably-human Freelancer with an animal sidekick and a weird moral framework. Even their outfits, when considered as a whole, are the same ensemble (long and flowing outer garment over white shirt, crooked belt with holster and pouches, archaic-seeming weapon, loose pants, distinctive shoes) composed using different elements. The Brand especially makes the similarity kind of eerie when wearing a helmet a lot like the mask on The Will's cape. It stops being so odd when you discover that they're siblings.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Moreso than most Freelancers — The Brand avoids killing unless her contracts require it, still cares deeply about her surviving family, and maintains a basic sense of fairness. For example, she's introduced using a selective silencing potion on Doff and Upsher rather than murdering them to suppress their story about Hazel, because she appreciates their reporting on behalf of the Freelancers' Union.
• Foil: To The Will. Whereas The Will is much more given to physical force and killing, The Brand prefers to use violence only as a last resort. The Will is fairly stoic, whereas The Brand is more personable. Furthermore, The Brand's sidekick is a big canine named Sweet Boy, in contrast to The Will's Lying Cat.
• Half the Man He Used to Be: In Issue 29, after getting chomped on by a giant dragon.
• Killed Midsentence: By said dragon.
• Noble Demon: Even more so than her brother The Will. She generally is more reasonable and less prone to violence than other Freelancers.
• Technical Pacifist: As The Brand explains to Sophie, while she is entirely capable of killing she prefers a non-lethal approach to fulfilling her contracts. Her choice of Sidekick helps with this: Sweet Boy, her red-and-black St. Bernard, can shoot tranquilizer darts from his nostrils.
• Thinking Up Portals: Uses a crash helm for interstellar travel.
• Whip Sword: The Brand uses a retractable whip sword like The Will.

Other

Gale

Special Agent of Landfall Secret Intelligence. Prince Robot's handler in his hunt for Marko and Alana.

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• Bad Boss: See I Have Your Wife. He constantly threatens Prince (later Sir) Robot with harming his wife if he fails in his task.
• Bondage Is Bad: Played with. His boss, Director Croze, walks in on him engaging in bondage. However, his concern for the life of Miss Olive, his dominatrix, is one of the very few redeeming qualities Gale shows.
• Dressed to Kill: He's shown wearing a tuxedo when attending a royal ball in the Robot Kingdom.
• Good Wings, Evil Wings: He has giant bat wings, so you know the guy is no good.
• Hate Sink: He's probably the most morally repugnant and despicable character of the series.
• I Have Your Wife: Likes to make veiled threats at Prince Robot's wife to keep him focused on the job.
• Lack of Empathy: He shows zero empathy or compassion for Upsher after the latter tells him Doff was killed by Ianthe.
• Manipulative Bastard: He sometimes pushes Prince Robot to action by coaxing him to return to his wife and incoming son faster... and sometimes by outright threatening his wife. When Upsher and Doff question him about Alana's apparent defection, he threatens to out them as a couple, a serious threat to their livelihood on homophobic Jetsam.
• Meaningful Name: Gale is a pretty cool name for a flying humanoid.
• Pet the Dog: For all the threats he's made, after Prince Robot's wife dies, he gives Prince Robot some information about her killer and seems genuinely upset about her death.
  • He also seems genuinely upset that Director Croze had his dominatrix, Olive, killed and agrees to take a more direct hand in going after Hazel and her family if she agrees not to hurt anymore of his friends.
• Satanic Archetype: Blond, blue eyes, manipulative, dresses in black a lot, black bat wings.
• The Sociopath: He lies and manipulates as easily as he breathes. He has no scruples when it comes to ruining people's lives or blackmailing them for his convenience. He has little to no empathy at all. He has a shallow charm to him, and is unafraid to use violence to get what he wants.
• Spies Are Despicable: An intelligence officer who is, with a few exceptions, a cold manipulator who toys with or destroys lives with no qualms or thoughts of the consequences while living the good life.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: He looks like a mixture of Lucifer Morningstar and John Constantine.
• Winged Humanoid: Bat-winged.
• Would Hurt a Child: He has no compunctions about killing Hazel when offered the job.

D. Oswald Heist

An author who wrote the novel A Nighttime Smoke, a book that appears on the surface to be a trashy romance novel but is actually an anti-war tract. Marko and Alana travel to his home in hopes of finding a kindred spirit.

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• Actual Pacifist: And he made a seemingly trashy novel to preach for it.
• The Alcoholic: Heist is never seen without a glass or a bottle in his hand.
• Broken Bird: Heist never recovered from his son's suicide.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: A broken alcoholic novelist who writes subversive literature.
• Cyclops: Has only one eye.
• Killed Off for Real: By Gwendolyn.
• The Lost Lenore: His first wife.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: For SF writer Samuel R. Delany.
• Outliving One's Offspring: His son fought for Landfall. He didn't die in battle, though: he was Driven to Suicide by PTSD.
• New-Age Retro Hippie: His philosophy comes down to "make love, not war.''
• Sacred Scripture: Alana and Marko come to regard A Nighttime Smoke as one.
• Voice of the Resistance: A resistance of one, but he still subtly voices objections.
• Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Drunkenly vomits over baby Hazel when he first meets the main characters.

Dengo

A lowly Robot janitor, who is on a crusade against his monarchy as he feels they've put the war above the concerns of their people.

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• Anti-Villain: He's driven by the horrible death of his young son, caused by an easily preventable disease that he couldn't afford treatment for. He feels that if his planet was ruled more compassionately, such deaths would be easily avoidable.
  • He quickly becomes wary of the ruthlessness of the Revolution.
• Almighty Janitor: Literally. And yet this Robot carved a trail of death across the galaxy and killed a princess.
• Bad Ass And Child Duo: With the interesting variation in that he kidnapped the child in question after murdering his mother.
• Boom, Headshot!: Seriously, Dengo... how could you believe the husband of the woman you killed and the father whose child you kidnapped would ever waste time listening to you?
• Killed Mid-Sentence: When Prince Robot finally confronts him, Dengo's about to go into a tirade about the injustice of the Robot Kingdom. Naturally, Prince Robot couldn't care less, and blows his brains out before Dengo can even complete his first sentence.
• Magnificent Bastard: invoked Quain calls him this when he realized that Dengo kidnapped the royal baby.
• One-Man Army: He's frighteningly effective in combat.
• Outliving One's Offspring: His child died of an infection back on his planet.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: All in all, he did what he did only so the Galaxy could know about the suffering of the lower classes during the war.
• Would Hit a Girl: Kills the Robot princess.
• Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Refuses to hurt Hazel or the baby prince.
• TV Head Robot: Due to his low social status, it's a black and white TV with tuning knobs.

Bombazine

Alana's koala-like business associate who is missing one of his arms, which has been replaced with a prosthetic.

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• An Offer You Can't Refuse: Is blackmailed by the Pirate Captain threatening to reveal to Alana his past as "La Buĉisto" in return for him doing some undisclosed favour, which apparently requires him to join the crew as First Mate to do it.
  Bombardine: "Do what you want, but you can't tell my boss. She trusted me. With her children. After everything that woman's been through, if she finds out how wrong she was about me..."
• Artificial Limbs: Has a prostethic arm. He claims to have lost it driving over an IED on a supply run carrying twenty-six pallets of off-brand toilet paper to Wreath soldiers. However, it seems like an obvious lie.
• The Butcher: His nickname - "La Buĉisto" - is "The Butcher" in Esperanto and he seems to favour a giant meat cleaver, although he only uses it for cooking in the comic itself.
• Dark and Troubled Past: While he seems friendly and well-adjusted now he used to go by "La Buĉisto". Guitar describes his past self as a psychopathic war criminal who wore a badass hood and fought on the side of Wreath. Exactly how he lost his arm or he ended up in his current line of work as a Neighbourhood Friendly Drug Dealer isn't revealed, neither is the exact extent of his history. But - horrifyingly - it's implied among his many crimes he poisoned food, sawed off people's heads, and did "something worse than death" to children.
• Guest-Star Party Member: He only travels with Alana and her kids for the extent of Volume Ten before leaving. Future!Hazel says he represents just one of many of Alana's "work friends" who seemed to disappear (and, less frequently, reappear) with little rhyme or reason across her life.
• Parental Substitute: Subverted. He tries to fill the role of a substitute father figure for Hazel and Squire after Marko's death. However, due to his forced departure shortly after his introduction, Future!Hazel never considered him real family.
• Platonic Life-Partners: Seemed geared to be this with his "boss" Alana before the Pirate Captain gives him An Offer You Can't Refuse. He has zero sexual interest in her (due to only being attracted to his own species) and clearly cares deeply about her, Hazel, and Squire.
• Retired Monster: These days he seems like a fun, laid back step-father, but once he was "La Buĉisto." We never see him do anything evil, never even see him in combat in fact.
• Trapped in Villainy: Despite his apparently horrific past as a war criminal he now seems to be making a genuine go of it as a friend to Alana, a father figure to Hazel and Squire, and a relatively benign minor drug dealer. But when the Pirate Captain they make a drug deal with blackmails him with revealing his past to Alana he leaves to become First Mate of a group of drug smuggling pirates.
• Would Hurt a Child: Heavily implied to have harmed many innocent children in his past as a war criminal.

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