Ujurak

A mysterious grizzly bear who Toklo meets on his journey. He can shapeshift and has a mysterious voice in his head which tells him to save the wild. Even he doesn't understand his origins, as he forgot his past. He guides the other bears on their journey.

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• Bishounen Line: When he shapeshifts into a human, several girls he meets find him quite attractive.
• Blood from the Mouth: In The Last Wilderness when he eats a fish hook.
• Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu
• Carnivore Confusion: He almost gets even several times because he transforms into food that bears eat.
• Chaste Hero
• The Chosen One
• Chronic Hero Syndrome
• Cub Hero
• Disney Death: Survives a charge that he thinks will end his life. But then the avalanche happens.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him
• Fragile Speedster: As a bear. However, his shapeshifting lets him become a Lightning Bruiser.
• Friend to All Living Things
• Genki Boy
• Heartwarming Orphan: Looks this way at first, but then his mother shows up.
• The Hero
• Heroic Sacrifice: He dies saving his friends from an avalanche.
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness
• Interspecies Romance: He becomes quite attracted to Sally..... and then turns into a bear in front of her.
• It Has Been an Honor
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: His memories from before he met Toklo disappeared for no explained reason. Although he does later get them back.
• Martial Pacifist
• Messianic Archetype
• The Messiah
• The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: He has to struggle to retain his identity as a bear when he shapeshifts into other animals.
• Morality Pet: To Toklo, who sees caring for him as a way to atone for Tobi's death.
• Naked First Impression: With Toklo when he was in human form and Maria.
  • He seems to have learned, as he puts on some clothes before he goes to rescue Lusa.
• Nice Guy
• Non-Action Guy: He prefers not to fight until Spirits in the Stars, that is.
• Not Quite Dead
• Talking in Your Dreams: With the other protagonists in Return to the Wild.
• Tomato in the Mirror: He's not a bear. He's a constellation.
• Voice with an Internet Connection: Has one in his head. It's Silulak.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: He can change his shape at will.
  • Involuntary Shapeshifting: Sometimes when he sees a new animal he changes into it without thinking.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: As a human, because shapeshifting doesn't give him clothes. No pants either.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist

Toklo

A grizzly bear on the quest to save the wild. He was rejected by his mother Oka and became bitter because of it, but he eventually accepts his traveling companions as friends.

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• Anti-Hero
• Archnemesis Dad: His dad was the Big Bad of his manga spinoff.
• The Atoner: At first, he only cares for Ujurak to atone for Tobi's death.
• Big Damn Heroes: In The Last Wilderness, when he shows up out of nowhere to save Kallik and Lusa from a helicopter.
• Buried Alive: In Island of Shadows, but his friends save him.
• The Chosen One
• Cub Hero
• A Day in the Limelight: While already a main character, his manga spinoff, Toklo's Story focuses entirely on him.
• Dreaming of Things to Come: In Fire in the Sky, when a star bear tells him that one of his friends will die.
• Easy Amnesia: He gets amnesia for two minutes in Island of Shadows.
• Expy: Of both Jayfeather and Crowfeather.
• Genius Bruiser
• Hair-Trigger Temper
• Interspecies Romance: Is attracted to Tikaani, a polar bear.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold
• The Lancer
• Loners Are Freaks: Whenever he wants to leave the group, he is seen as wrong. At the end of Island of Shadows, he finally completely accepts the group.
• My Greatest Failure: The death of Tobi and Ujurak's death.
• Papa Wolf: Despite not being a father or a wolf, he is really protective of Ujurak and Nanulak.
• Pint Sized Powerhouse: When he was a cub, as he took on Shoteka, a bear much bigger than him.
• OOC Is Serious Business: His friends get very worried about him when he stops being angry in Island of Shadows.
• Screw Destiny: One of the reasons he leaves the group with Lusa in Fire in the Sky is to try and prevent the death of one of his friends that the Star Bear told him about.
• Sibling Rivalry: A one-sided one with Tobi.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill
• The Unfavorite: He was neglected by his mother in favor of Tobi.
• Unwitting Pawn: Until the very end of Island of Shadows, Nanulak plays him like a violin.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Tobi.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Water until he gets over it in Great Bear Lake.
• You Can't Fight Fate: Despite all of his efforts to prevent it, one of his friends still ends up dying in Spirits in the Stars.

Lusa

A black bear who lived in the zoo until she found out about the wild and journeyed there. She joins the quest to save the wild.

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• Action Girl: When she's not busy being kidnapped, that is.
• Action Survivor
• Brainy Brunette
• Caught in a Snare: She gets trapped in an ice hole in Island of Shadows. Nanulak leaves her to die there but she survives.
• The Chosen One: Chosen to save the wild and by the bears of Star Island.
• Cub Hero
• Damsel in Distress: Often, but most notably in Fire in the Sky.
• A Day in the Limelight: While already a main character, she'll be getting one in her manga Lusa's Tale.
• Determinator: In The Quest Begins she will not let anything stop her from finding Toklo.
• Disney Death: In Spirits in the Stars, when she gets shot.
• Expy: Of Squirrelflight.
• Fragile Speedster
• Genki Girl
• The Heart: She's the one keeping the band together, and the one who brought them together in the first place.
• I Will Find You: Towards Toklo in The Quest Begins.
  • Towards Toklo again in Island of Shadows when he gets lost in a mine.
• Naïve Newcomer: She used to live in a zoo, so her ideas about the wild are a little... off to say the least.
• Only Sane Man: Sort of. In Island of Shadows, she is the first one to realize that there's more to Nanulak than he says.
• OOC Is Serious Business: In Smoke Mountain.
• The Smart Guy
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: The tomboy to Kallik's girly girl.
• Taking the Bullet: In Spirits in the Stars, but she survives.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist

Kallik

A polar bear from the Frozen Sea. When her mother was killed by an orca and she was separated from her brother, she vowed to find him. Eventually she joins the quest to save the wild.

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• Action Girl
• An Ice Person
• The Big Guy
• The Chosen One
• Cub Hero
• Heart Is an Awesome Power
• I Will Find You: Towards Taqqiq in The Quest Begins and Great Bear Lake.
• Large and in Charge: When she takes the lead in Fire in the Sky.
• Mama Bear: Is very protective of her adopted son Kissimi in Spirits in the Stars.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: The girly girl to Lusa's tomboy.
• White Furred Pretty Girl
• Yamato Nadeshiko

Yakone

A polar bear from Star Island who falls in love with Kallik. After the death of Ujurak, he joins the traveling bears.

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• The Chick
• Expy: Of Tigerheart.
• Naïve Newcomer: He often needs to have things explained to him on the journey.
• The Unchosen One
• White Furred Pretty Bear: Mostly, but he also has some red fur.

Taqqiq

Kallik's brother, who goes missing during the events of The Quest Begins. Kallik's determination to find him was what set her on her quest.

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• The Bus Came Back: He will be returning in The Melting Sea, and has undergone another Face Heel Turn.
• Face Heel Turn: Kallik was very surprised.
• Face Heel Revolving Door
• Freudian Excuse: He fell in with the wrong crowd after being orphaned.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: A really well hidden one in Great Bear Lake and beyond.
• Put on a Bus: He decides to leave the group in Smoke Mountain due to seeing himself as only causing unwanted conflict.
• The Sixth Ranger: Albeit one who leaves almost immediately.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Between The Quest Begins and Great Bear Lake.
• Walking Spoiler: Although it's not as much as it seems.

Kissimi

A polar bear cub from Star Island. After his mother dies, Kallik adopts him.

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• Cute Mute
• Happily Adopted: By Kallik and later by the other Star Island bears.
• Heartwarming Orphan
• Tagalong Kid

Nanulak

A pizzly bear from Baliff Island. Because of his mixed heritage, he was driven off by his family and attacked by evil polar bears. When he meets the journeying bears, they agree to protect him and he becomes friends with Toklo. There's much more to him than meets the eye.

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• Bastard Bastard
• Big Bad
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He has a very thin layer of "sheep", but the bitch underneath is much bigger than it seems.
• Disproportionate Retribution: He wants to kill his parents because he is caught between being a polar bear and a grizzly bear.
• Easily Forgiven: But he rejects it.
• Evil Counterpart: To Ujurak
• Faking the Dead: Both of his parents thought he was dead.
• Freudian Excuse: Sure he's a Jerkass and distrusts bears that aren't grizzlies, but that comes from his horrible parents and the polar bears who want to kill him. Or so he says.
• Jerkass
• Obviously Evil: Definitely, but he's even more evil than he seems.
• Older than They Look: He may look like a cub, but he's nearly the same age as the traveling bears. He abuses this to no end.
• Patricide: His plan amounts to using Toklo as essentially a hitman in order to kill his father.
• The Sixth Ranger
• Sixth Ranger Traitor
• The Scrappy: Kallik and Lusa see him as this In-Universe. The fans agree.
• Up to Eleven: He is the most evil and irredeemable character in any Erin Hunter book. Yes, he tops Warrior Cats villains like Tigerstar and Brokenstar.
• Walking Spoiler

Shoteka

A huge male grizzly bear who tries to kill Toklo when the latter was a cub. So far, he failed.

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• Big Bad
• Everything's Worse with Bears: Played straight with this guy.
• Murder the Hypotenuse

Silaluk

The voice in Ujurak's head guiding him on his quest. It's his mother.

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• Big Good
• Voice with an Internet Connection