Characters / Sandra and Woo

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Main Characters

Sandra North

The protagonist of the series. Sandra is a typical middle school girl with a pet talking raccoon. She does have a bit of an egotistical side; she likes dressing up as "The Empress of Northia" and addressing her stuffed animal "subjects". She also likes to imagine herself as hard-boiled private eye Sandy South.

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• Affectionate Nickname: Sandy, mostly by Larisa.
• Barrier Maiden: Is revealed to be the only thing standing between Cloud being the Nice Guy he is and him turning into a vicious crime lord.
• Betty and Veronica: For Cloud, the Betty to Larisa's Veronica. Cloud chooses Sandra.
• Berserk Button: Coming off as a threat to Sandra's relationship with Cloud is unwise.
• Beware the Nice Ones: When the "hand of god" replaces Woo with Tom the talking toast, Sandra first eats the toast. Then she makes the hand an offer it cannot refuse.
• Character Blog: Sandra has a YouTube channel, also going by her alter ego Sandy the Third, empress and supreme ruler of Northia, there. It has not even been logged on since 2010, though.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: A mild example, but Larisa really shouldn't flirt with Cloud while she's around.
• Friend to All Living Things: She really loves animals and gets along very well with Woo, Lily, and their kits, despite them being (mostly) wild.
• Good Angel, Bad Angel: She quickly sides with the bad angel.
• Granola Girl: Mild example, she considers herself a conservationist.
• Outdoorsy Gal: Not so much after she started to hit puberty.
• Shipper on Deck: She's very supportive of her father's relationship with Hitomi. When he spontaniously asks her to marry him upon tasting how good her cooking is, Sandra busts out a pair of pom poms and starts cheering.
• Spammer: Spams Cloud's mail account out of revenge for him scaring Woo into losing control of his bladder while sitting on her lap.
• Technical Virgin: Possibly. When Tommy asks if she's a virgin, she starts talking about how it depends on how one defines virginity before he cuts her off. However, since he was considering making her into a Virgin Sacrifice, it's entirely possible that she was just bluffing.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: She and Larisa zig-zag this trope. While she generally comes off as more tomboyish than Larisa, she's also more sensitive and cautious.
• You Are Worth Hell: Not said out loud, but Larisa is willing to make a Deal with the Devil to save her.

Woo

Sandra's pet raccoon. Sandra rescued him from an abusive owner, and he's lived with her since. He seems to divide his time between living with Sandra and exploring the woods with his animal friends.

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• Big Eater: After being adopted by the Norths, one of the first things he does is clean out their fridge.
• Carnivore Confusion: Both averted and played straight. Woo is friendly with Shadow, a fox, and Sid, a squirrel. They regularly try to eat each other, but as the tagline says, fail. This doesn't stop Woo and Shadow from eating other woodland creatures, successfully.
• Civilized Animal: While Woo likes living with the Norths, he still goes back to the woods, where his partner Lily lives. Like other raccoons, he likes to eat a lot of food, including leftovers and other human foods!
• Deadpan Snarker
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Ate an Aztec god to save humanity from destruction.
• Happily Married: Well, not exactly "married", but he's certainly found a perfect mate in Lily.
• Intellectual Animal: Woo is no slouch intellectually. He can speak to humans and attempted subliminal cookie acquisition. His spelling skills do need some work, though this may be a Shout-Out to Hobbes, who has a similar problem.
• Jealous Pet: At one point, he gets jealous of Cloud due to being afraid Sandra would have no time for him.
• Motivational Lie: As he learned from Sandra, "The outcome justifies even the biggest lie".
• Pals With Seeoahtlahmakaskay
• Rascally Raccoon: To quote writer Oliver Knorzler's own description: "He will break your heart with a smile and then, while you are looking away for a second, raid your fridge." A classic example of Woo's modus operandi can be seen here.
• Superpowered Alter Ego: Apparently, Woo has a dangerous "expert mode".
• Talking Animal: Specifically, a Civilized Animal. Though all the animals talk to each other, Woo is the only one specifically shown as talking to humans. Sandra freaks out when she first discovers he can talk! Anytime other animals talk, it's a case of Translation Convention
• This Is My Human: And he'll find her.

Cloud Williams

Sandra's best friend and later boyfriend. Though he seems non-threatening and sweet-tempered, he's actually much stronger than his outward appearance would have you believe.

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• Anime Hair: Cloud has an Idiot Hair and this...
• Badass Adorable: He's one of the cutest boys, yet he can use a plastic knife as a weapon.
• Betty and Veronica: Sandra and Larisa, respectively, with Cloud as Archie. He chooses Sandra.
• Beware the Nice Ones: He's a really good guy, but if you get on his bad side, he can give you the walloping of a lifetime.
  • Was recently revealed to have the potential to become a brutal crime lord if he loses Sandra.
• Bully Hunter: After this moment, the only problem at school is Larisa.
• Bullying a Dragon: Ralph the bully makes this mistake with Cloud. In fairness, Cloud doesn't look particularly threatening.
• Chick Magnet: He's a 10 in the girls' ranking.
• Crush Blush: Not as much as Landon, but still.
• Cute Bruiser: Can you believe this adorable young teen can beat men twice his size?
  • James Eglamore is not only a grown man twice Cloud's size, he has 20+ years of training and experience and has superhuman strength. Cloud still manages to hold his own in a friendly duel and only loses when he lets himself get distracted.
• Dragged into Drag: Happens occsasionally, much to Cloud's chagrin. Sandra, OTOH, thinks he looks sexy in a skirt.
• Future Badass: Strips that feature hypothetical futures mostly depict Cloud following in the steps of his mom. "The Divine Comedy" reveals he has all the latent potential to be a vicious crime lord if he ever loses Sandra.
• Implausible Fencing Powers: See Bullying a Dragon above, he can slash you with a PLASTIC KNIFE.
  • Look at his mom and say his skills don't make sense.
    • He also takes on a bunch of Heartless armed only with a wooden sword.
• Master Swordsman: He's able to keep up with Sir Elgamore!
• Non-Standard Character Design: Drawn in a more animesque style than the other characters.
• Rebel Leader: He wishes to be the leader of the Burmese rebellion when he grows older, as most of his relatives from his mother's side have suffered a lot in the war.
• Red Is Heroic: The red-haired protector of his school's weaker students.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: He's the Manly Man to Landon's Sensitive Guy. This is in relative terms, however; Cloud's more conventionally masculine than Landon, but also pretty sensitive in his own right.
• Unusual Pop Culture Name: He's named after Cloud Strife. Lampshaded by Sandra, who explains that his parents were really into the game when he was born. His little sister is also named Yuna, though it's not stated if they were playing Final Fantasy X when she was born or if they were simply continuing the theme.
  Sandra: Cloud's parents were obsessed with the video game Final Fantasy VII at that time. Cloud was the name of the hero of the story.

Larisa Korolev

One of Sandra's best friends, Larisa has a strong mischievous streak. She likes to tease Sandra, flirt with Cloud, and generally cause trouble. However, there are hints of a darker side to her personality.

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• Affectionate Nickname: Sandra occasionally calls her Liz.
• Betty and Veronica: The Veronica to Sandra's Betty.
• Be Yourself: Hilariously subverted. Sandra, being Liz's friend, gives her the wise advice of not being herself when in front of Landon's mom.
• Braids of Action: A single, characteristic braid.
• The Bully: To Zoey. Her appearances usually involve having Larisa doing something nasty to her. To put this into perspective, we haven't seen Zoey do anything to her at all, and she's often depicted as a Jerkass.
  • Larisa herself denies the accusation, see Disproportionate Retribution.
• The Corrupter: Since her Deal with the Devil (see below), she almost always tries and has her friends take the sexier option about whatever they're doing.
• Cute and Psycho: A very pretty, even hot, girl that just happens to find causing random mayhem fun and is ecstatic about the idea of becoming a succubus for the Devil to the point of openly drooling.
• The Dreaded: "The Divine Comedy" reveals that pretty much the entire city knows about Larisa's love for fires; an entire mall full of people fled after seeing her close to a little flaming paper.
• Deal with the Devil: In order to save Sandra's life from one of the human god's pranks, she signed a contract with the devil that would condemn her soul to hell upon death (the contract would be rendered void if they failed to save her). Although, it was more like a job offering than an eternity of torment (the devil wanted to put her talents to use as a succubus).
• Disproportionate Retribution: Debatable. She force-fed Zoey her French homework in retaliation for calling Sandra names behind her back. They both agree that maybe they should both back off a bit.
• Everyone Loves Blondes: She's considered for the boys a 10 in attractiveness, and could remain as 10 if it wasn't for her craziness giving her a -1. She's even recognized as the prettiest girl in her school in the 721 strip.
• Fille Fatale: Larisa likes to dress sexy to appeal to boys, has already smooched with around a dozen of them, and doesn't mind being called a bad example for this sort of behavior. See Hidden Depths for her side beyond this however.
  • She was a bit annoyed about being called a slut. Sorta.
  • Flirty girl. Leading to this gem by a commenter.
    The New Larisa 500:
    0 to Flirtatious in two seconds flat!
• First-Name Basis: She calls her parents by their names, showing how little she considers them an authority over her.
• Flight: She can defy gravity for the hell of it without explanation how.
• Funetik Aksent: Averted. Larisa speaks with a Russian accent, but you wouldn't know this unless you read Novil's posts or played the game.
• Give Geeks a Chance: Larisa starts going out with Landon after he helps her get a B- on a math quiz.
• Good Bad Girl: Saying that she's a wild girl is a bit of an understatement; Larisa has smooched half the boys in school, flirts with men older than her, and her own mother has given up trying to control her and is only concerned about her daughter's virginity being intact. But whenever needed, her heart is always in the right place, and she is currently in a healthy and stable relationship with Landon and has reconciled with her enemy.
• Heteronormative Crusader: Zigzagged; she tells to Zoey that she's completely OK with lesbians (of course, in the pragmatic way of "less competition for hot guys"). Gay guys, on the other hand, are fair game (because it means she can't have them and they add to the competition).
• Hidden Buxom: Judging by this panel, she has quite the knockers for her young age.
  • Although it's likely Powree exaggerated a bit to make it obvious she was naked without actually showing everything.
• Hidden Depths: Larisa asks deep questions, though she hardly seems stupid.
  • Despite her openly flirtatious nature and chaotic tendencies, she shows a secret desire for a happy and meaningful domestic life, including being Happily Married and having children. This is likely the result of her being ill and thus, not having a chance for that.
• Holy Burns Evil: Zoey's "angelic" singing in Kiss Of Life causes her hair to start burning due to her being a succubus.
• Inexplicably Awesome: Larisa displays a number of strange abilities that are played for laughs and has wreaked a surprising amount of havoc for someone her age. None of it is conclusively explained and most other characters just accept that the normal rules don't quite apply to Larisa.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Larisa may be kind of a jerk, but she cares for those she loves. Additionally, despite not liking Zoey, she worries for her when she sees her crying. As well as being quite outraged that Zoey thinks Larisa bullies her.
  • She recently was willing to sell her soul to the Devil for the sake of saving Sandra and preventing Cloud from making a Face–Heel Turn.
• Just Friends: Type IV gets averted outright, right after other characters discuss almost verbatim the trope's older older name ("Friend Zone").
• Like You Were Dying: Larisa's antics and behavior takes on a more disturbing and depressing undertone when the readers learn she has Wolfram Syndrome, which will blind her in her 20s and kill her in her 30s. She even heavily implies that her behavior is her trying to get the most out of life.
• Mad Artist: She paints as a hobby, and her pyromania alone definitely qualifies her as "mad."
• Manic Pixie Dream Girl: To Landon. He was rather invisible and stuck in the mud until they started dating and she does shake his world.
• Mistaken for Junkie: Larisa, who is diabetic, is caught by a teacher when giving herself an insulin shot during recess. She's then sent to the principal who informs her that taking this "dangerous drug" violates the school's zero tolerance policy against drugs. The plot was inspired by a similar incident on a U.S. middle school in the 1990s. Start reading here.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Granted, Landon's mother overreacts to everything, but Larisa slipping into her Troubling Unchildlike Behavior definitely put her on Landon's mother's bad side.
• Overly-Long Tongue: In #982, she enlarges her tongue to about two or three times its normal size to lick Sandra's icecream.
• Pyromaniac: She really likes to set things on fire. She even has an annual seminar with her friends to instruct them on fire-related activities and when trying to act as her own opposite, she proclaims her love for ice.
• Rubber Girl: Extends her mouth, so that her lips reach Landon's house and she can kiss him despite being grounded. She's done this on several occasions.
• Seen It All: She cannot be surprised by anything.
• Sensual Slavs: She's considered very attractive by her schoolmates, has no qualms (and in fact prefers) to use sex appeal to get what she wants, and speaks with a noticeable Russian accent.
• Shameless Fanservice Girl: She has no problem with the fact that she accidentally sent a nude pic to over 60 million people. There is a reason for this.
  Larisa: I'll be blind in ten years and dead in twenty. I don't give a damn if some puritans have a problem with my naked body.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Yes, despite her reputation as a shameless flirty and maniacal madwoman, she longs for a loving and stable relationship with a good man, which explains her crush on Cloud and later her relationship with Landon. Her relationship with Landon started when he decided to help her study out of the kindness of his heart and helped her earn a B- in Math. Despite Larisa's tendency to play around or tease with others (usually girls), it's clear that she is very happy with Landon.
  Larisa: Just be nice to me. That's enough. OK?
  • Foreshadowed in an earlier strip and then some.
• Snake People: In #762, she is able to unhinge her lower jaw (referring to an erroneous belief about snakes being able to unhinge their jaws to swallow animals whole) to open her mouth superhumanly wide to eat a really big burrito in one bite and reveals fangs and a forked tongue like a snake. She claims to be a descendant not of Adam and Eve, but of the biblical Serpent.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: She and Sandra zig-zag this trope. While she comes off as more conventionally feminine than Sandra in a lot of ways, she's also more reckless and less emotionally vulnerable than her.
• Toxic Friend Influence: Interestingly enough, Sandra was the one who begged Larisa to be this to her. It gets to the point where she teases Cloud by claiming she's not going to wear panties under her new skirt, causing him to liquefy.
• Troubled, but Cute: She's an attractive young lady, but she has a lot of baggage on her.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior:
  • Larisa carries a lighter just to set random fires, jokes about being a "junkie" when she injects insulin, accuses a teacher of molesting her to get out of a homework assignment (and has to be warned against molesting her guide on the camping trip), and flirts with the boys at an... adult level. Apparently, all the girls have been warned about her. Suggestions that she's got bigger problems than diabetes put this in a more disturbing light.
  • "You're still a virgin, right?" And remember. This is her mother.
• True Art Is Incomprehensible: She spouts explanations of a painting in the museum -- all contradictory. Alternatively a subversion: Her "Larisa Presents" strips seem to suggest she's making fun of modern artists and their attempts at being "clever" and "inventive," and seems to take great pleasure in seeing art patrons buy into the BS she makes up on the fly about paintings — however, she loves Van Gogh's Starry Night for its simple beauty.

Supporting Cast

Relatives of Main Characters

North Family

Richard North

A single father raising Sandra since his wife died two years prior to the series.

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• Beware the Nice Ones: Normally a very kind father, but after hearing Woo's previous owner abuse him, he locks him in the raccoon cage.
• Has a Type: He seems to have a thing for eccentric women. Hitomi cosplays 24/7 and thinks pouncing like a tiger is an effective method of courtship, while Melody may or may not have been a serial killer. It really makes you wonder what sort of woman his wife must have been.
• One of the Kids: A huge video game addict.
• Papa Wolf: Threaten his child around him, and he will sick Woo on you faster than you can say "Oh, Crap!". A man-eater learned this one the hard way!

Julie North

Sandra's mother and Richard North's wife who died 2 years prior to the start of the series

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• Missing Mom: She is, of course, this to Sandra, what with her being deceased and all.
• Posthumous Character: Long dead by the time the comic starts. The only time she's actually been seen alive is in a flashback to Sandra's birth.

Grandpa and Grandma North

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Williams Family

David and Ye Thuza Williams

Cloud's father and mother, respectively. Both are huge nerds, even going so far as naming their children after Final Fantasy characters. Ye Thuza is a Burmese immigrant who used to be a rebel back in her home country.

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• Action Mom: Cloud's mom Ye Thuza is not only a loving mother and housewife but also an urban ninja who single-handedly nails a Tonberry (a dangerous monster in the Final Fantasy series) to a concrete wall with a wooden staff. Not to mention she's also a former Child Soldier. Possibly a Deconstruction of the tropes. While certainly not a bad mom, her rebel experiences have left her "still somewhat messed up".
• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents:
  • The best kind. Also, see Shipper on Deck.
  • Oh, it's much worse than that.
• Child Soldier: Cloud's mom was a Burmese guerrilla fighter in her teens, making her literally a Former Teen Rebel.
• Everyone Has Standards: Ye Thuza punishes Yuna for using pieces of Cloud's Princess Mononoke action figures for fuel for her fusion reactor.
• Girly Bruiser: Ye Thuza is graceful, feminine and really enjoys being a Housewife. She's also an exceptional fighter.
• Happily Married:
• Manchild: In one strip, David was horrified that he was getting old (he liked vegetables better than the dessert!). Ye Thuza calms him down saying he was still too immature to be considered an adult yet. He's relieved.
• Open-Minded Parent: Cloud's mother seems to have no problem with having her son explore abandoned factories for treasure, unless he forgets to pack the rope. Of course, these are the same parents that sign him up for sword training.
• Retired Badass: Ye Thuza.
• Shipper on Deck: Cloud's mother and sister, much to Cloud's annoyance. (And yes, that is him hanging a lampshade on it. Possibly also qualifies as Leaning on the Fourth Wall.)
• The Team Normal: David is the only normal member of this Badass Family.

Yuna Williams

Cloud's younger sister. An adorable, smart, but annoying kid.

• Annoying Younger Sibling: To Cloud, teasing him about his relationship with Sandra (like the rest of his family), taking his things without warning, etc.
• Child Prodigy: Yuna is capable of making a home-made nuclear reactor and understands interuniversal Teichmüller theory. She's also a little math genius, and her parents tried to get her a personal tutor.
• Ditzy Genius: While she loves her math, science, and physics theory and is very able to put them in practice, she's not very good with mental arithmetics, needing to write her numbers down (which is what cost her a tutor). She also lacks the common sense and tact to realize that her mother's teachings on "self-defense" are way too extreme for her age and peaceful society, and she didn't know that "motherfucker" is a highly crude word.
• The Dreaded: Thanks to her Troubling Unchildlike Behavior, she's this to her teachers to the point where they always give her an A.
• Genius Bruiser: Able to hold her own in hand-to-hand combat and a little genius.
• Innocent Swearing: She says the word "motherfucker" on live TV. She didn't know what it means, however, and immediately apologizes after asking her mom what it meant.
• Little Miss Badass: Just like her brother, her mother has been training her. Unlike Cloud, there's very few moments when Yuna is being badass.
• Strong Family Resemblance: She looks like a mini Ye Thuza, and sometimes behaves like her.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior:
  • Yuna's way of playing with dolls is recreating a story where the Disney Princesses have had enough of Merida and plot her murder. And then finishing it with a song!
  • She also scares the crap out of anyone that gets in her way, even her teachers, who are convinced that she will become a supervillain "able to put all James Bond's villains to shame".
• Wise Beyond Their Years: She tends to ask the most surprising questions. She's also incredibly smart for her age, to the point she feels that normal school holds her down.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: Uses guerrilla knowledge in a pacific Slice of Life.

Korolev family

Ivan and Jelena Korolev

Larisa's painter father and his wife/manager Jelena.

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• Ambiguously Bi: There's little doubt that Ivan and Jelena are attracted to women and men respectively, but Ivan admits to finding Nick from Zootopia hot and Jelena shares Larisa's feelings about Judy.
• Berserk Button: Ivan hates Thomas Kinkade.
• Facial Profiling: The parents of Larisa have pronounced cheekbones and jaw-lines to have them look more Slavic.
• Foreign Cuss Word: Ivan vents his anger about how Russian policy is depicted in the US the trough somehow OK-ish Russian mat.
• Parents as People: Larisa's parents have long ago given up trying to control their daughter, but they still care about her and work hard to provide her with any medical need. It's just difficult to raise a child with both diabetes, allergies, and a disease that will kill her in her 30's.
• Parental Neglect: Mild example; Larisa's behavior has driven Jelena to the point where she doesn't care as long as Larisa's still a virgin.
• Vodka Drunkenski: After cursing seemed to be insufficient, he changed into an Adidas training jacket and pants (most likely referencing the Gopnik cliche) and sought relief in vodka and pickled cucumber (that's an actually correct depiction of what Russians eat together with vodka).

Classmates of Main Characters

Landon Hill

Larisa's boyfriend, whose advent does much to break up Larisa's flirting-with-Cloud habit.

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• Conditioned to Accept Horror: He seems to have gotten used to Larisa's... wild nature.
• Crush Blush: Unsurprising, given Larisa's forthright manner.
• Dating What Daddy Hates: Mother, actually, in this case. Landon's mother is very against his relation with Larisa, since Harriet is a very strict and religious person. After Larisa's visit, she's convinced the girl is actually a witch and just lets them date to keep Landon from becoming gay and as long as Larisa remains away from her. Ironically, Landon's dad seems OK with her.
• A Day in the Limelight: Landon gets an arc focused on issues related to his relationship with Larisa and his mother disapproving of it.
• Deadpan Snarker: He has his moments.
  Call me a naysayer, but I don't think it's possible to learn geometry through osmosis with a math book.
• Early-Bird Cameo: He has one where he gets saved from a bully by Cloud.
• Endearingly Dorky: He's a nerdy, sweet guy who does everything he can to make his girlfriend happy.
• Heroic BSoD: The guy literally has one when Larisa said that she would be ready in 10 seconds for them to take their relationship to the next level.
• Nerds Are Sexy: Larisa certainly thinks so.
• Promoted to Love Interest: He was just a background character until he helped Larisa study for an important test when no one else did. Larisa started to date him afterward.
• Satellite Love Interest: Rare Male Example. We still don't get a strip showing Landon without Larisa and/or in a situation that doesn't involve her.
• Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: The savvy guy to Larisa's (over)energetic girl.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: He's the Sensitive Guy to Cloud's Manly Man, but that's not to say Cloud's not pretty sensitive himself.
• Uptight Loves Wild: Kind of an inversion as it was Larisa who started the relationship, but still applies.

Zoey Irwin

One of Sandra's classmates and Larisa's enemy. Best friends with Michelle, who she is later shown to be in love with.

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• Alpha Bitch: She is stated as being one of the more popular girls in class as well as being shown insulting Sandra on a couple occasions.
• Ambiguously Bi /Bi-Wildered: While she stated before that she was a lesbian, she has shown signs of bi-curiosity as shown here and here.
• Beautiful Singing Voice: She claims that her grandmother told her that she has a voice like an angel. While this obviously sounds like an exaggeration given the source, it turns out that she meant it literally since hearing her singing causes succubus-in-training Larisa to catch on fire.
• Boomerang Bigot / Armoured Closet Gay: A lesbian example.
• Butt-Monkey: Tends to be on the receiving end of Larisa's pranks. In more recent strips, however, it's her losing to Sandra that invokes this.
• Character Development: She started off as little more than a tittering bully to Sandra and the butt of Larisa's pranks at first, but as her popularity grew, the audience got to see more to her, more prominently, her troubles with finding love as a lesbian and her passion for sports (she's also a great singer too!) She has also seemed more willing to confide in and hang out with Sandra and Larisa as well, even if she does get snarky and vain from time to time.
• Closet Key: The combination of admitting her crush on Sandra and Sandra's extreme reaction to the steamy fanfics Zoey wrote about the two of them seems to have made Sandra realize that she's bi-curious, as she invites Zoey to join her, Larisa, and Cloud at a weekend study session, and then greets Zoey with a passionate kiss.
• Continuity Snarl: Her last name, which switches back and forth from "Irwin" to "Irvine," sometimes even in the same strip.
• Coming-Out Story: Her Day in the Limelight revolves around dealing with her unrequited crush, her heart getting broken, and her admitting she's a lesbian (and not bi).
• Dating Catwoman: This strip reveals that Zoey is actually interested in Sandra, who takes this revelation surprisingly well.
• A Day in the Limelight: Zoey has her own arc now, where she deals with her lesbian issues, starting here.
• Deadpan Snarker: Even when depressed, she can still keep up the snark.
• Forceful Kiss: Gives one to Michelle, thinking that she would reciprocate her feelings. She didn't.
• Incompatible Orientation: Has a crush on Michelle, her best friend, who has a crush on Cloud.
  • Unrequited Love: Finds out the hard way that Michelle has no interest in her and that she is disgusted by gay people.
• Inelegant Blubbering: In this strip. She tries to pass this off in the last panel as Beauty Is Never Tarnished, which only earns her a confused look from Michelle.
• Kick the Dog: Middle school girls: The only known species that always tortures its prey before devouring it.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Even Larisa can tell something's wrong here.
• Secret-Keeper: She is initially the only one Larisa has told her secret medical condition to, in exchange for Zoey telling her about her sexuality. No longer the only one as of Strip #718.
• Sore Loser: She does not take losing to Sandra well.
• Spell My Name With An S: Her last name is occasionally said to be Irvine. Inconsistent enough that Zoey herself uses both names in this strip alone.
• Take That!: She breaks up with Julia, stating that she was 'unbearably bland', which makes this one to both Gilligan, the rabid shipper who insisted on them hooking up and to the concept of creating characters in media that have no actual personality or purpose other than to satisfy a shipper or a diversity checkmark.
• Those Two Girls: Up until she and Michelle got more focus, they were just background characters that always appeared together.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Admittedly, she considered Larisa a bully, so she never felt the need to show her or Sandra kindness, but after agreeing to a truce with Larisa, she has become a kinder person... to the audience.
• Tropaholics Anonymous: Got their help to become less of a bully.

Michelle

One of Sandra's classmates. She has a huge crush on Cloud, which generally shows itself as jealousy. Best friends with Zoey.

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• Ascended Extra: Thanks to Zoey's A Day In The Lime Light as well as more focus overall, Michelle too has received more focus.
• Alpha Bitch: Like Zoey, she is a popular girl whose most common appearances are of her insulting Sandra or Larisa.
• Closet Key: To Zoey.
• Green-Eyed Monster: She is incredibly jealous of Sandra's relationship with Cloud.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: While pretty much all of her appearances have been of her insulting Sandra or Larisa, she tries to help Larisa and Landon's relationship.
• Those Two Girls: It's not often that she won't be seen with Zoey at her side.
• Unrequited Love: To say she has no chance with Cloud is something of an understatement.

Luna Herrera

One of Sandra's classmates, who just came from Camden, New Jersey after some troubles with local folks.

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• Beady-Eyed Loser: Her character design.
• Beware the Nice Ones: She can get really passionate about football. And best part? The referee actually did what she said.
• Book Dumb: She's not very good at factorizing. How bad she is? She gets to traumatize her former teacher and after some help and 20 terms, Sandra just got one nervous breakdown.
• The Caretaker: She looks after her dad now that he fell into a deep depression after a robbery and his wife's murder.
• Chekhov's Gun: In strip 663, Larisa gave a blue box containing what she later described as a Plot Device to be used as a Deus ex Machina at a later moment. It got used in strip 842.
• Dude Magnet: No less than five boys have shown interest in her over the strip's run.
• A Friend in Need: Her classmates donated their own old furniture for her empty apartment and collected enough money for her bills for a while. Larisa even sold her precious flamethrower. One of them agrees to give her leftovers from his family's butcher shop and another gave her dresses she made with her tailoress aunt. She's brought to tears at all the kindness.
• Limited Wardrobe: She doesn't have that many clothes, and gets chewed out by Zoey as a result. Justified by her family's poverty.
• Missing Mom: Her mother was killed by a crackhead.
• My God, You Are Serious!: Larisa doesn't appreciate that Luna didn't take her seminar seriously.
• Not So Above It All: Despite being normally shy, she ends up taking Larisa's attempt at getting her a boyfriend in a direction that even Larisa didn't expect. As one commenter points out, she's basically a reverse harem.
• The Pollyanna: Despite coming from a city where murder is considered a natural cause of death, she thinks of the place as "not so bad" and has managed to stay strong in her situation.
• Polyamory: She's happily in an open relationship with three boys.
• Tears of Joy: Our 666th strip is about a shy girl trying on dresses and crying tears of joy. Deal with it.

Benjamin and Theo

Cloud's other male friends

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• Those Two Guys: Are always seen hanging out together.

Gilligan

Thought to be a Stalker with a Crush to Zoey before turning out to be a hardcore shipper instead. He spends all of his appearances trying to hook Zoey up with a previously unseen classmate named Julia (In other words, making Zoelia happen).

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• Ambiguous Disorder: He's clearly not sane of mind given the antics he pulls throughout the entire shipping arc.
• All for Nothing: Zoey breaks up with Julia offscreen.
• Karma Houdini: Despite constantly harassing Zoey during the Shipping arc about her getting together with Julia, he managed to escape conviction when he was arrested for said harassment and actually got what he wanted.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: That is, until Zoey states she and Julia broke up offscreen. Potentially, anyway, since this kills his long desired ship.
• Shipper on Deck: He seriously wants Zoey and Julia to be a thing and would go to extreme lengths to make it happen. He's also no stranger to shipping fictional couples to the point of obsession.
• Stalker without a Crush: He spent his first appearance in the comic lurking behind Zoey as she goes about her day which made her initially think he was a Stalker with a Crush. It was clarified in the next strip that Gilligan is actually a die-hard shipper which is a lot worse than Zoey could imagine. To list, he harassed Zoey into going after Julia, build a giant toothpick statue of her and outs Zoey while expressing the desire to make his ship happened to the entire school over the intercom.
• Take That!: Gilligan is loosely based on the person who sent 20 emails about Zoey getting a girlfriend to Oliver Knörzer, the writer of Sandra and Woo. Leading to an arc of the very same idea with the addition of said person being portrayed as an invasive, creepy, shipping-obsessed stalker.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Has not shown up since the Shipping arc ended.
• Yuri Fan: Pairs up Zoey and Julia despite the latter never being mentioned by Zoey or anyone at any point of the comic before her introduction or knowing her sexual orientation (An in-universe Crack Pairing if you will). However, Gilligan's intuition proves to be correct when the girls got together in the end...until Zoey breaks up with Julia due to her being "unbearably bland".

Julia

A classmate of Zoey who later hooks up with her due to Gilligan's meddling.

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• Official Couple: With Zoey which surprisingly stuck around longer than it should have after the shipping arc concluded despite how the arc was to shut up the guy who harassed the creators over email and Julia's long absence.
• Put on the Bus: Barely showed up since the Shipping arc ended (only showing up for a cameo here before disappearing again afterward) and then Zoey metioned she broke up with her offscreen as in strip 1322.
• Satellite Love Interest: So much so, that it's the reason Zoey eventually breaks up with her, and the audience never learns as much as her last name.
  Sandra: Are you still with Julia?
  Zoey: Nah. [Shakes head]
  Sandra: Oh. What happened?
  Zoey: Nothing. And that was exactly the problem! She was unbearably bland! The human equivalent of a marshmallow!

Justin

Larisa's ex-boyfriend who is a soccer player

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• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: He was never even mentioned once after his departure from the comic strip, not that anyone would notice or care for that matter.
• Put on a Bus: Went to go for his soccer practice and was never seen again.
• Satellite Love Interest: He is this to Larissa. Until she started dating Landon.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Appeared in a total of 3 strips before disappearing from the face of the earth.

Woodland Creatures

Shadow

Woo's friend, a fox who lives in the woods.

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• Carnivore Confusion
• Happily Married: With his vixen mate, Echo.

Sid

Woo's squirrel friend. Has to occasionally avoid being eaten by Shadow and Woo.

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• The Chew Toy: Winter is not a very good season for him with tons of hungry predators around.
• Misplaced Wildlife: He is a Eurasian red squirrel living in North America, because his pregnant mother fell into a tourist's suitcase in France.
• Odd Friendship: He and Shadow were practically raised together, as they were under the same animal saver's care.
• Ship Tease: With Ruth.

Lily

Woo's girlfriend.

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• Every Proper Lady Should Curtsy: Especially in front of a racoon celebrity.
• Mama Bear: HAH! Lily's over-protectiveness of her newborn kits puts mother bears to shame. She pulls out a shotgun,threatens Woo to stay away from them and won't let him see the kits until they're three and a half years old (aka adults) and btw, Woo is the kits' father. Only changing her mind after Seeoahtlahmakaskay agrees to condemn anyone who hurts the kits to Hell.
• Pals With Seeoahtlahmakaskay
• Relationship Upgrade: She and Woo were in a Friends with Benefits sort of relationship; it was after Woo saved her life that she decided on both being a monogamous Official Couple.
• Satellite Love Interest: She's normally seen with Woo. Recent strips are subverting this as she's meeting more of Woo's friends, like Sid and Sandra, though with the latter she has some problems.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: She gives a nasty glare at Butterfly for daring to hint Woo is a liar.

Butterfly

A raccoon celebrity famous for being able to climb higher than any other raccoon.

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• Crushing Handshake: Gives one to Woo, not out of aggression but because she Does Not Know Her Own Strength.
• Performance Anxiety: "21 hours, 17 minutes and 14 seconds before I fall to my death...
• You Need to Get Laid: The raccoon goddess suggests that she go look for a new goal after Butterfly climbed the most difficult mountain in the world,thus finishing her 'to do' list. By which she meant Butterfly finding a mate and having babies. Amusingly, Butterfly doesn't get it and starts planning more difficult and awesome challenges.
  • Until The Stinger on the arc hinted that the goddess had arranged it anyway, but much more surreptitiously.

Ruth

A self-described "Level 5 predator", a squirrel that hunts predatory animals such as wolves and bears.

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• Ascended to Carnivorism: Provides the page image.
• Badass Normal: Is a squirrel who is proficient at using guns and knives to kill her predators- er, prey.
• Death by Irony: Her victims are predators whose method of death was "killed and eaten by a squirrel".
• The Dreaded: For proof, just see this.
• Heel Realization: Played With. She realizes after killing a young jaguar who has kids that killing those predators who still have a whole life ahead of them is wrong. Sid helps her compromise so that she'll only kill the old and sick, but tells her that she can still kill the wolf pups, which she agrees to.
• The Hunter Becomes the Hunted: Her presence causes this.
• Killer Rabbit: Again, hunts wolves.
• Orgasmically Delicious: In #770, she describes a steak she stole from Sandra's father's fridge and how she will eat it in very sexual terms.
• Ship Tease: Judging for this chapter, there's something going on between her and Sid.
• Shrouded in Myth: The eagle describes her with "razor-sharp claws and fiery eyes".

Sirius, Canopus, Arcturus, and Vega

Woo and Lily's kits.

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• Ridiculously Cute Critter: Hello. Raccoon kits.
• Stellar Name
• Theme Naming: They are all name after stars in the constellation.
• Talking Animal: Vega so far is the only one shown to have inherited this from her father.

Gods and Deities

General

• Animal Stereotypes: Seeoahtlahmakaskay, Coyote, El-ahrairah, and Reynard are tricksters, and Isengrim and Roc are very mighty beasts. Meanwhile, Thomas is more on the order side of Order Versus Chaos.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: They all favor their own subjects, which leads to conflict when one animal clearly intends to eat another.
• Carnivore Confusion: Ratatoskr seems a tad bit nervous about the presence of predators in the room.
• Celestial Bureaucracy: Hinted at by the Devil, who fearfully refers to them as "Upper Management".Not to be messed with apparently.
• Jerkass Gods / The Gods Must Be Lazy: They all have signs of this. Except Roc.

Animal Deities

Seeoahtlahmakaskay

The Raccoon God. She's rather close to Woo and Lily.

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• Big Good
• The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: If flashy-thinging becomes necessary, she can do it to the reader.
• Great Gazoo: Has certain hints of this.
• Rascally Raccoon: Especially if you ask Thomas.
• Real After All: Woo saying that Seeoahtlahmakaskay asked for a cheesecake offering sounded like an excuse to eat cheesecake seemed farfetched until we see her in the last panel of the same strip.
• Stealth Mentor / Trickster Mentor

Coyote

Supposedly the God of Coyotes... although considering what he is in the other comic, it's not entirely certain.

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• The Cameo: Is here to remind us that Sandra and Woo and Gunnerkrigg Court actually take place in the same universe.

Ratatoskr

The Squirrel God.

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El-ahrairah

The Rabbit God.

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• Shout-Out: The god of rabbits in Watership Down.

Reynard

The Fox God.

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• Cunning Like a Fox
• Fantastic Foxes: As implied by being the God of Foxes.
• Shout-Out

Isengrim

The Wolf God.

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Roc

The God of... Eagles? Birds of prey in general? Birds in general? Dinosaurs in general? It's not outright stated what his role is.

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• The Atoner: After accidentally causing the Cretaceous-Palaeogene extinction event which killed off most of the dinosaurs, he spends most of his time answering the prayers of the last surviving ones, which are birds.
• The Gods Must Be Lazy: Averted. Compared to other gods, he's a workaholic. There's a very good reason for this.
• My Greatest Failure: See Phlebotinum Killed the Dinosaurs.
• Phlebotinum Killed the Dinosaurs: He did it, by accident.
• Shout-Out

Human Gods

Thomas J. God

The Human God.

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• God: Has the appearance of Him, but is slightly different in purpose.
• God Is Dead: Killed by Odin at the end of the "Divine Comedy" story arc.
  • Legacy Character: He's immediately replaced when a random human is offered to take over his job. It's implied Thomas wasn't the first one to hold the position.
• Grandpa God: He has the stereotypical "old-aged man" look, with his all-white hair and big beard and mustache.
• Jerkass Gods: To the point even the devil is disgusted.
• Made of Bologna: When Odin kills Thomas J. God, he is not shown to have any inner organs... And dissolves into nothing like a video game character.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Every single horrible thing he does gets blamed on the Devil thanks to the organized religions.

The Devil

Thomas' main enemy.

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• Affably Evil: Makes no pretense not to be evil, but he's so damn nice about it you can't help but sympathize.
• Berserk Button: Possibly, but he went pretty damn frigid and managed to scare Larisa when she asked him about Mr. Rogers:
  The Devil: Don't ever talk about the "anomaly" again!
• The Corrupter: In a very nice way.
• Deal with the Devil: Of course. Given how he is, it's more a job offer than anything.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Even he is disgusted by Thomas' antics.
  • Subverted when he finds out Larisa would wish insomnia, immobility, and immortality on her worst enemy: he offers her a place on the board of directors.
• FacePalm: Shown doing this as his sister Fortuna unleashes a spider Cthulhu-like monster from her mouth to eat John after the latter fails to stop using the fate alteration engine despite multiple warnings.
• Humans Are Bastards: Downplayed, but he laughs at the idea of a truly "pure and innocent human." At least until Larisa mentions a certain Mr. Rogers...
• Not Me This Time: A regular occurrence for him: he doesn't cause much trouble for humanity, especially compared to Thomas, but he's always blamed because the one who does has a multi-billion dollar P.R. agency.
• Only Sane Man: Apparently the only one with common sense among the divinities.
• Tom the Dark Lord: He's actually named Kevin.

Odin

The God of Valhalla.

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• Big Damn Heroes: Saves the day in the "Divine Comedy" arc.
• Deus ex Machina: Literally: he's a god, and pops out of a small blue box up to kill Thomas right as he's about to pass judgment on (read: '''murder''!) Sandra.
• Foreshadowing: Larisa gave the box he was imprisoned in to Luna precisely for this.
• Frame-Up: Thomas once put on him the blame for manipulating the driver's logbook, hence his status when he appears in the series.
• Sealed Good in a Can: He's been imprisoned in a blue box for millennia.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: Upper Management put him in the box for allegedly tampering with the driver's logbook.
• Walking Spoiler: Big time.

John J. God

The new God of Humanity.

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• God Job: Seeoahtlahmakaskay offers him the job after Thomas is killed by Odin.
• Hope Spot: With him replacing Thomas, Seeoahtlahmakaskay believes that humanity's woes are finally (mostly) over, and starts saying it. Only for John to make clear that the power went to his head.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: The next time we see him after his debut, he ends up killed by Fortuna.

Fortuna

Goddess of fate and Satan's little sister. For the love of God, don't make her cry.

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• Berserk Button: Messing with her fate alteration engine will get you eaten by the Cthulhu-like spider monster that comes out of her mouth. In a twist, she doesn't get mad when it's pressed, she just starts crying.
• Beware the Nice Ones: She seems like a sweet lady...until you make her cry, as John learned the hard way.
• The Dreaded: When Satan realizes that John made her cry, he starts panicking.

Other

Roger Brown, Tommy and Lloyd Parker

Three characters who appeared in the "Under A Killer Balloon: The Serial Killer" arc.

General

• We Hardly Knew Ye: All three plunge to their deaths in an active volcano towards the end of the arc.

Roger Brown

Tommy

• Halfway Plot Switch: The "Serial Killer" arc was formerly about Sandy South (Sandra North's detective alter ego) comforting whoever changed the formula of her favorite cereal. Tommy's entrance threw all that out the window in favor of an action-packed adventure involving him sacrificing virgins to Huitzilopochtli, the Aztec god of war.
• "Here's Johnny!" Homage: How he introduces himself in the comic, complete with brandishing an axe and saying "Here's Tommy!"

Lloyd Parker

Dorothy Cambridge

A "moral police" member who becomes the biology teacher in Sandra's school.

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• Expy: To Dolores Umbridge, naturally.
• Does Not Like Men: Cloud describes her as a man-hater while talking with his mother.
• Henpecked Husband: Variation. Her husband is supportive to her hardcore feminism and he seems to have no problem with her being the one wearing the pants in the relationship. He even asks her if he can make her a sandwich.
• Killed Off for Real: May be the case, though she just disappeared with a "Puff". After getting on Ye Thuza's bad side.
• Straw Feminist: In her introduction, she takes over from the former biology teacher (who's dragged off the classroom by two female masked thugs) for teaching that there are statistically more smart men than women (he was in the middle of explaining that men have a higher statistical variance in intelligence and was interrupted before he could say that this means there are more stupid men than women as well); she then proceeds to permanently close all men's bathrooms in the school under the justification that it's where boys expose their genitals mere feet away from girls (technically true if you don't care about the wall separating the two bathrooms), straight-up call females the "better sex", give higher marks to girls than boys for correct answers on multiple-choice tests, and force the boys to wear skirts as uniforms, all while preaching about gender equality with actions that clearly favor the girls. In her last appearance, she goes as far as to state that gender equality can only be achieved by castrating all men and drilling a hole into them.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: She just disappeared after going into a room. Puff. She has never been mentioned or acknowledged since then.

Melody Crawford

One of Richard North's new coworkers, and head of the graphics programming department. She and Richard seem to disagree on just about everything, particularly when it comes to the esoterica of computer science.

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• Anything but That! / Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: In order to go after Richard, she changes the indent style on all of his code. He doesn't take it well.
  Jack: I can provide an alibi for you on Saturday from 4 P.M. to 6 P.M.
  Richard: [while sharpening an axe] I always knew I could count on you when it really mattered, Jack.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Seems to be going this way with Richard, although given how little attraction there is between the two, it may be plain old belligerence.
  • It got bad enough that they were brought into mediation, and drove the mediator to drink.
  • And then Richard invites her to dinner...
• Cloudcuckoolander: She leaps on the table during the mediation session in order to throw further childish taunts at Richard.
• Cute and Psycho: She's a nice girl who likes to write code for open projects, cooks fancy three-course meals, and sexually identifies herself as a praying mantis who devours her lovers' heads after intercourse while flashing a pair of gardening scissors. Then it's implied she might actually be a serial killer.
  Richard: (thinking while looking clearly disappointed) There's always something.
• Nerd Glasses: A part of her nerd getup.
• Put on a Bus: She's built up as a potential love interest for Richard before promptly disappearing at the end of her introductory arc, only showing up in two more strips (one of which was the 1000th page special).
• Rich Boredom: She won two million dollars from the lottery, but quickly grew bored and started to seek a job or getting hobbies for the sake of doing something.
• Volleying Insults: It's easier to count the things she does agree with Richard on.

Hitomi Sato

A young woman working at a maid cafe that Richard hits it off with during a business trip to Japan.

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• Book Dumb: By her own admission, she's not "the brightest bulb on the cake", and she also states that she failed 10th grade.
• Cosplay Otaku Girl: She works at a Maid Cafe during the day and dresses up as a catgirl while at home.
• Eloquent in My Native Tongue: Her one line of (translated) Japanese when talking to her father is far more natural sounding than the rest of her dialogue that's in English.
• Meido: Her day job is working at a maid cafe.
• Not So Above It All: She's not above having a woman "show off" her body, as she suggests her step daughter that Cloud might like it if she dressed in only cat ears.
• Second Love: For Richard. Discounting that time he invited Melody to dinner (which didn't end up going anywhere), she's the first woman he's shown being in a relationship with following his wife's death.
• Third-Person Person: Hitomi rarely uses first-person pronouns due to not being fluent in English.

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