A list of characters and their respective tropes in Team StarKid's sci-fi theatrical musical comedy Starship.
Bug World
- Played by: Joey Richter
A, well, bug from Bug-World who wants nothing more than to be a Starship Ranger, like the ones he watches in films from a crashed starship outside his hive. When actual Starship Rangers arrive on Bug-World, Bug has to choose which side he really belongs on. When Pincer gives him a chance to become human a la Avatar he takes it, only to later sacrifice his human body to save the Rangers.
- A Dog Named "Dog": A bug named "Bug".
- Aliens Speaking English: One has to wonder how hyper-intelligent Bug has to be to be able to (mostly) be able to fluently speak English by watching just one video over and over again with no context.
- The Ditz: Takes that boyish, doofy Joey Richter charm to the max.
- Disney Death: While his human body died, he regained his true form.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: See Meaningful Name.
- Iconic Item: The classic Joey Richter headband— er, brain leech.
- Meaningful Name: Uh... duh?
- Naïve Newcomer: To humanity.
- The Sixth Ranger: To the Starship Rangers.
- Played by: Brant Cox
Bug's best friend since they were hatchlings, Roach is perfectly content living the bug lifestyle and doesn't understand why Bug would want more.
- Expy: Of Sebastian the Crab from The Little Mermaid (1989), with his first big musical number (his verse of "I Wanna Be") trying to persuade Bug to abandon his dreams of humanity (a la "Under the Sea"), and his second one ("Beauty") switching sides to help Bug woo his love interest (a la "Kiss the Girl").
- Only Sane Man: Only Sane Bug: His whole role is trying to save Bug from his own delusions.
- Sex Equals Love: Falls in love with the Over Queen after being assigned to mate with her.
- True Companions: Accepts that Bug has to follow his dreams, even if it means losing him, and even tries to help him win February over on Bug World because he knows Bug loves her.
- Played by: Dylan Saunders (voice and facial puppetry); Nick Lang, Lauren Lopez, Meredith Stepien (claw puppetry); unknown (tail puppetry)
A giant scorpion who lives outside the hive, Pincer simply loves humans as meals. When Bug leaves the hive, Pincer lets him take over the brain dead body of a human so he can fulfill his dream and bring him dinner.
- Affably Evil: Initially, but he eventually becomes more Faux Affably Evil.
- Captain Ersatz: He's basically Ursula from The Little Mermaid.
- Even Evil Has Standards: He's rather upset when Bug doesn't keep his end of the bargain.
- Scary Scorpion: He's a giant scorpion.
- To Serve Man: Turns out he just wants Bug to bring people for him to eat.
- Played by: Lauren Lopez
A caterpillar who wants nothing more than to get alone with Bug... then rip off his head, and place her larvae in his body.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Threw herself in front Bug to save him from Junior. Almost veered into a Senseless Sacrifice, as Junior smugly pointed out that he still has ammunition and could just try shooting the defenseless Bug again were it not for her offspring emerging from her egg sack and devouring Junior.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: At first she subverts it, but later plays it straight when she takes the bullet.
- Meaningful Name: She's a girl bug. To take it further, her full name is Bugette Buggington.
- Romantic False Lead
- Played by: Brian Holden (Veeto), Jaime Lyn Beatty (Neato), Jim Povolo (Sweetheart)
A trio of mosquitoes who work for Pincer. They are killed when Up overloads them with blood.
- Co-Dragons: To Pincer.
- Non-Indicative Name: They’re collectively called “the Mosquito Brothers” but Sweetheart is stated to be Neeto and Veeto’s sister. She’s also not really a sweetheart, being a villain.
- Odd Name Out: Sweetheart.
- Played by: Jim Povolo
An enormous, seemingly immobile sickening mass of flesh from which all the varied members of the bug species were originally spawned. Also Roach's girlfriend.
- Big Good: From the bugs' perspective, anyway.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: It is apparently necessary for her to devour her own spawn for "nourishment" to maintain the energy needed to sustain the hive. She even consumes Buggette's corpse while still crying over her sacrifice.
- Hive Queen
- Reasonable Authority Figure: For a Hive Queen, anyway. Bug's actions convince her to make peace with the humans and release him from his duties to be an ambassador.
- Sickeningly Sweethearts: With Roach.
Galactic League of Extraterrestrial Exploration (GLEE)
- Played by: Denise Donovan
The scouting expedition's chief "schience officer", February seems rather... unqualified for being sent to another planet. Or for being a science officer. It turns out that she was selected for the mission due to a lack of gag reflex, to better transport bugs off-world. While on Bug-World, she falls for Bug while blinded by mucus, and shows absolutely no liking toward bugs until she learns Bug's true nature towards the end.
- All Women Love Shoes: She would much prefer Bug-World if it was filled with shoes.
- The Ditz: She and Bug make a good pair.
- Dumb Blonde: Denise Donovan, the only blonde female Starkid regular, is typecast as this.
- Loves My Alter Ego: February hates bugs, but loves Bug's human form. By the end, she learns to truly love his true form.
- Valley Girl: A mutated far-future version of this dialect.
- Played by: Joe Walker
Commander Up was a hero of the Galactic League during the Robot War until he received his "famous injury". Since then, Up has had major self-confidence issues and has, in his own words, "lost his balls", becoming a sentimental, worrying, somewhat senile old man.
- Captain Ersatz: Looks a lot like Old Snake.
- Cool Old Guy: Clearly an Expy of Old Snake from Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.
- Cyborg: The entire right side of his body is prosthetic.
- Dual Wielding: Uses two pistols in combat.
- A Father to His Men: The doting, permissive kind of father.
- Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: Up's a badass, so he gets away with smoking cigarettes.
- Groin Attack: His balls were stuck to his sweaty right half when he was cut in half.
- Heart Is an Awesome Power: Up learns over the course of the story why this is true in both a literal and figurative sense— his heart compels him to fight harder for his team, but also lets him make human-sized mosquitoes violently explode.
- Large Ham: In the great Joe Walker tradition.
- Mama Bear: If you mess with anyone on the team, especially Taz, Up will mess you up.
- Memetic Badass: In-universe, before his injury, although Taz initially still views him as one.
- Super-Soldier: Was a straightforward example of one in his prime, but the nature of his cybernetic prosthetics after his most recent disabling injury has greatly compromised his combat ability.
- Team Dad: Up is this to the Starship Rangers, but his sensitive nature also makes him a...
- Team Mom: To the point of tucking his "little heroes" in for their daily naptime.
- Played by: Lauren Lopez
Up's partner back in the war, Taz wants to believe that Up is still the same Super-Soldier from before his injury, but gradually begins to lose her faith in her old friend until he saves her from the Mosquito Brothers.
- Beware the Quiet Ones: Played for Laughs. Impossible as it is to imagine, Taz in her youth was apparently a shy, nerdy Expy of Bastian Balthasar Bux and a Girly Girl who was attacked at her quinceñera. Took a Level in Badass thanks to Up, which is why she feels the need to return the favor and get him out of his funk.
- Fantastic Racism: Despises Mega-Girl thanks to being a veteran of the Robot Wars. A parody of Ripley's distrust of Bishop due to her history with Ash.
- Gratuitous Spanish: Much of which doesn't make any sense.
- The Lancer: To Up.
- Small Girl, Big Gun: The smallest girl in the cast, with the biggest gun (until Junior shows up with a BFG at the climax).
- Spicy Latina: Lauren Lopez puts on a Mexican accent with great verve.
- Team Dad: Taz fills this role somewhat better than Up.
- Played by: Meredith Stepien
An android who, like all robots, really, really wants to kill humans, but cannot due to an inhibitor chip. However, as she gets to know humans like Tootsie Noodles, it seems like something is starting to make a breakthrough...
- Action Girl: Well, robot, but you get the idea.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Like all robots, she just wants to kill humans. Eventually, though, it's subverted.
- Love Redeems: In this case "Love" is an actual program she downloads from the Internet, but it still has this effect.
- Last-Name Basis: In Up's impromptu wedding ceremony apparently her full name is "Ultrabeam Mega-Girl", although this may be more of a model designation (or even just the name of the weapon she's armed with) rather than first name.
- Played by: Dylan Saunders
A simple minded Farm Boy from... well, Farm-World, Tootsie is not the brightest bulb in the box. After he falls in love with Mega-Girl, he slowly begins to to make her realize that humanity, though completely illogical, is not all bad.
- Cargo Ship: An In-Universe example - Tootsie says early in the musical that a horse ate his cousin. A later line clarifies that the cousin in question was (somehow) a stack of hay that he initially tried to flirt with.
- Farm Boy: He grew up on Farm-World.
- Informed Ability: We never actually see him "toot".
- Kindhearted Simpleton: Tootsie would be the first to admit that he's not very bright. He's also one of the sweetest characters in the cast and even manages to give the Defrosting Ice Queen treatment to Mega-Girl.
- Meaningful Name: On Farm-Planet, your first name is what you do and your second name is what you like. Though the fact that he toots a lot and likes noodles are both an Informed Ability.
- Meaningful Rename: He later reveals that your second name is what you love. Accordingly, he changes his name to Tootsie Mega-Girl, and goes exclusively by that name in Starship: Requiem.
- Naïve Newcomer: To the Starship Rangers.
- Singing Voice Dissonance: Tootsie speaks with a high-pitched, childlike voice and in an exaggerated Half-Witted Hillbilly manner. Except during his duet with Mega-Girl, where he has Dylan Saunders's natural voice and expresses himself much more eloquently.
- Southern-Fried Private: A parody.
- Played by: Brian Holden
The son of the leader of the Galactic League who also happens to be Dr. Space-Claw, Junior is the League's ambassador to the scouting ship. He tries to get the bug eggs to make a private army.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: With Pincer in Act 2.
- Catchphrase: See his quote.
- Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: Smoking pot earns you some bad points.
- Iconic Item: He actually steals one from another StarKid— in his final scene, he's wearing a very familiar pair of pink sunglasses.
- Overlord Jr.: Literally!
- Smug Snake
- Tomato Surprise: Everyone knows he's the son of the head of the G.L.E.E. but no one says his name until Act 2, since "Dr. Space-Claw" might give the game away.Krayonder: Oh yeah, I've heard of your dad!
Junior: Yeah, I'm his son.
Krayonder: Nice! - "Well Done, Son" Guy: At first.
- Played by: Joe Moses
A headstrong, rather dim Starship Ranger. Basically just Hudson with a different name.
- Butt-Monkey: No one likes Krayonder.
- Unexplained Recovery: After apparently being squashed and/or bifurcated by Pincer, he shows up at the end with a few bandages and no explanation as to how he survived.
- Krayonder: You stabbed me!
- Played by: Julia Albain
The Starship Rangers' resident genius.
- Played by: Jim Povolo
The most evil villain in the galaxy , head of the Galactic League, and Junior's father.
- The Faceless: His face is always out of frame on the viewscreen, a la his namesake Dr. Claw from Inspector Gadget.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Everything bad that happens is a result of his desire to use the bugs as weapons. An Expy of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation in the Alien franchise.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: Parodied. Junior already knows.
- Space "X": As mentioned, he's just Dr. Claw Recycled In Space.