Characters / With Pearl And Ruby Glowing Water Of The Womb

Main Index | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Water of The Womb | Blood of the Covenant | Heat of the Heart | Closet of Colours | Knots of Nature | Spirits Moving Musically | Pieces Of The Past | Hana Mo Naki | Antagonists | Holiday Specials

Multiple stories

• Central Theme: This collection is themed around family.
• Formula-Breaking Episode: The theme of the collection involves changing the format and style in various ways.
• Unconventional Formatting:
  • Soren's Internal Monologue shows up in gray text.
  • The "Cardinal Directions" have colored punctuation marks and a few words here and there in blue, purple, orange and red and each brother takes a different side of the page, with their lines sometimes coming together to look like a compass rose.
  • Holly and Poppy O'Hair have red and pale pink dialogue joined with orange text that fills in white space, in a reference to the inspiring song, about two sisters born "connected by the ends of their long red hair"; Holly and Poppy feel that they share only their looks in common.
  • Some of the Kubota's chapter is written in bold, marking the onscreen text of the imaginary video game.
  • Cricket's psychosis is portrayed by having the description of what he sees written in purple and what actually happened/is happening crossed out.
  • The paragraphs in Beezy's chapter are joined by centred grey zeroes representing a chain, with a split marked off at the end of the assault scene when Beezy realises fully what's going on.
  • Crocker's chapter is written in pink text where it becomes an Imagine Spot, turning rose-colored to match the more pleasant future where his brother never committed suicide.
  • Kitty's name and pronouns are greyed out while Katty's are in rainbow colours, representing how Kitty feels like a pale imitation.
  • Lines describing Aldrin's alcohol poisoning are in a sickly green colour, while those about Maggie's hallucinations have random colours and capitalisation, showing how out of it they both are, and whited-out text about what's happening around Maggie that she misses.
  • Spencer's schizophrenia-induced hallucinations show up in orange text.
  • Lines and pronouns referring to RJ are centered on the page.
  • Patsy's story is in rhyme, to the cadence and rhyme scheme of the original poem "Casey at the Bat".
  • In Boog and Beth's story, some of the letters and words are in bold. When put together, the bold text makes out a verse from "Teddy Bear Picnic."
  • Certain words in Pacifica's story are spelt backwards, mirror images of the messages scratched out on the walls of the Torture Cellar which Pacifica would see if she could see through the wall.
  • Ruby writes on the wall of the Palace's restroom to tell her story; what she writes down is in bold and is full of spelling and grammar mistakes.
  • The movie fragments in Mr. Peabody and Sherman's story begin with timestamps of the time of the day each scene occurs.
  • The main narrative in Ace's chapter is a screenplay that Elliot is writing for Dog City's season opener.
  • The Opposing Pairs follow a Back to Front format where the fragments are not the ones from the stories being told, but from the opposing pair of characters.

Silver and Gold (Soren and Claudia)

• Big Brother Instinct: Soren to Claudia which she reciprocates, saving him after his assault and telling Viren off for raising his voice.
• Daddy's Girl: Claudia was favored by her father Viren.
• Grade Skipper: Claudia skipped 8th grade and joined Soren (who was held back) for freshman year.
• Held Back in School: Soren had to repeat his freshman year, which made his relationship with Viren even more tense.
• Inner Monologue: Soren does internal monologuing while Claudia is speaking. His mind... is not a happy place.
• Meaningful Name: "Silver and Gold" are respectively The Unfavorite and the favorite child of the "Chairman of Coins".
• Parental Favoritism: Viren's favoritism towards Claudia is from their perspective this time. Claudia was praised for doing well in school and Soren, who had been held back, was looked down on.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Soren wanted Viren to be proud of him, but was looked down on for not being good at school. It's bad enough that one of his thoughts spells out that he doesn't even think that Viren loves him.
• Why Couldn't You Be Different?: Viren's treatment of Soren, whom he resented for not being as academically gifted as his sister.

The Pharaoh and the Sphinx (Cleo de Nile and Deuce Gorgon)

• Abusive Parents: Cleo's dad had her circumsized and Deuce's mom was emotionally abusive towards him because he was a Child by Rape.
• Bad People Abuse Animals: Averted. As a child, Deuce killed his pet Smoky, here a bearded dragon, but this was clearly an accident and he's not a bad person.
• Child by Rape: Deuce was conceived after his mom was assaulted.
• Does Not Like Men: Deuce's mother, after the assault which produced him, is paranoid about him turning out to be a rapist too.
• Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: Averted. Cleo and Deuce are revealed to have a very unhealthy relationship and while Cleo is presented as a Troubled Abuser and still very sympathetic, the narrative doesn't romanticize this.
• False Rape Accusation: Cleo threatens to make one, to manipulate Deuce.
• Gender-Blender Name: Traditionally, pharaohs are male and sphinxes are female.
• Honor Thy Abuser: Cleo doesn't want to report her dad, because she still loves him and knows he wasn't malicious about it.
• Meaningful Name: "The Pharaoh" is Egyptian and very much the alpha of the pair, while "The Sphinx" is Greek and silently boosts her visibility, like a statue, also appropriate because in canon he was a gorgon.
• My Beloved Smother: Deuce's mother constantly monitors him for any hints of violence or misogyny, from screaming at him for pushing a female fellow toddler to assuming he intentionally killed his own pet.
• National Stereotypes: The other reason Cleo won't report; she fears the incident will be blamed on the family's Islamic faith and Egyptian nationality.
• Understanding Boyfriend: Deconstructed with Deuce after Cleo begins manipulating him.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Cleo's dad genuinely thinks he has to have her cut, for religious and cultural reasons; he's as nice about it as possible, insisting on anaesthetic and buying her gifts afterwards, but he still did it at all.

The Cardinal Directions - North (Leonardo), West (Raphael), East (Michelangelo), South (Donatello)

• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: After Raphael was assaulted, the others dropped everything to come and see him even though he'd left without saying anything and ignored them all for at least a few years.
• Bar Brawl: Raphael got drunk and fought with someone at a bar, and said person ended up raping him in the parking lot.
• Can't Live with Them, Can't Live Without Them: The brothers' relationship is obviously strained at the present, but they definitely still love each other.
• Color-Coded Speech: Downplayed; only the quotes and punctuation are colored to show who is speaking: blue for Leonardo, red for Raphael, orange for Michelangelo, and purple for Donatello.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Raphael has serious anger issues and was forced to attend anger management in the past.
• Meaningful Name: "The Cardinal Directions" are four brothers that split off from each other and went their own separate ways after the death of their father, and each one's name matches the way they went.

The Wondersmith's Sons - the Romancer (Flam) and the Fabulist (Flim)

• Abusive Parents / Freudian Excuse: Their father had them work as pickpockets from a very early age, and when they didn't get enough they'd "run into a door", according to the Imagine Spot. The various foster families they were put with were also abusive in several different ways.
• Always Identical Twins: Actually averted, as much as they look alike and are confused for twins, Flam is older and they had a sister between them.
• Big Brother Instinct: Flam is the oldest and has this towards Flim who is, by his own admission, one of the only people in the world he cares about beside himself.
• Like Father, Like Son: Their father was a conman too, which is where they picked up the trade in the first place.
• Meaningful Name: "Fabulist" and "Romancer" are both words with double meanings that relate to storytelling on one hand and lying on the other, fitting as the two are a pair of conmen. The "Wondersmith" was their father, a stage magician who used his children to pick the crowd's pockets.
• My Hair Came Out Green: Both of them have a mix of red and bleach blond hair. This is explained in one of the fragments as being because Flam tried to dye his hair from red to blond, presumably because of his encounter with the sheriff, and Flim bleached part of his own to make his brother feel better.
• Related in the Adaptation: It's heavily implied that their sister is Trixie.
• Shout-Out: To the Astronautalis song "The Wondersmith and His Sons".
• Siblings in Crime: They're a pair of brother con artists.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: Their narration continually states that what's happening is not happening.
• Unreliable Narrator: They tell the truth, but the external narration denies it all.

The Rosey Sister (Poppy O'Hair) and the Fair Sister (Holly O'Hair)

• Big Sister Instinct: Twins, but both are willing to fight Hans to protect each other.
• Color-Coded Speech: Poppy's text is red and Holly's is pink.
• Meaningful Name: "The Rosey Sister and the Fair Sister" are named in a reference to the song "Long Red Hair", which they have, and as in the song their story involved a Traumatic Haircut.
• Polar Opposite Twins: Not that it causes much fighting between them until Hans turns up.
• Shout-Out: To Vermillion Lies' "Long Red Hair".
• Traumatic Haircut: Hans cuts off Poppy's hair while assaulting her.

Player 2 (Miko Kubota), Nica, Geoffrey, Lexi and Lee

• Gamer Chick: Miko. To the point where the whole narrative is visualized as part of playing a trippy video game.
• Meaningful Name: "Player 2" is a Gamer Chick whose family worries that video games are the only thing she likes or is good at.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Miko stops playing video games due to Ricky assaulting her. Her parents don't take notice of this and are actually happy because they didn't like her playing games all the time.
• The Unfavorite: Miko's parents do love her, but Miko thinks they don't because she gets bad grades and focuses too much on video games.

Epimetheus, the Afterthought (Craig Williams)

• Big Brother Bully: Bernard is this to him, but they still care about each other and Craig doesn't take it very well when the Dirty Cops get to him.
• Meaningful Name: "Epimetheus the Afterthought" narrowly avoided the harm that came to his older brother.

Sheep Laurel (Cricket Green) and Wolf's Bane (Tilly Green)

• Adaptation Dye-Job: In this 'verse, Tilly's hair was originally red, like her mother's, since in real life recessive genes mean a brown-haired man and red-haired woman are unlikely to have a black-haired child. Cricket remembers it as black because, when he saw her corpse, her hair was completely blackened with dried blood.
• Children Are Innocent: Creepy or not, it's pretty clear Cricket doesn't really understand what's going on.
• Companion Cube: Saxon has taken the place of Tilly and Cricket carries the toy around everywhere.
• Creepy Child: Cricket's not malicious, but he's definitely uncanny. To an extent this applies to Tilly too, what with her being a manifestation of her brother's mental illness.
• Flower Motifs: Sheep Laurel/Kalmia - perseverance and treachery, and Wolf's Bane - death and caution.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: It has been implied in other chapters that ghosts exist. Cricket is definitely having a psychotic break whether she's really there or not though; he doesn't remember that he witnessed her corpse being found, and he remembers her hair as always being black.
• Meaningful Name: "Sheep Laurel" is part of the Kalmia family, a flower that symbolizes perseverance and treachery, it's also sweet smelling and very poisonous fitting how he's created a hallucination of his older sister. "Wolf's Bane" is another toxic flower and represents death and has purple petals, a color Tilly is associated with.
• Nothing Is Scarier: We don't know exactly what happened to Tilly, but there was so much dried blood and bruising that Cricket remembers her with black hair instead of her natural red and a bruise-purple dress.
• Posthumous Character: Tilly isn't actually there, Cricket's just hallucinating her while carrying around Saxon.
• Through the Eyes of Madness: Cricket's clearly suffering from a psychotic break with everything he sees/remembers written in purple while what's actually happening has been crossed out.

The Weakest Link (Beezy Heinous)

• Abusive Parents: Emotionally. Lucius clearly loves Beezy and didn't want to hurt him, but was overly demanding and negligent at times. There was at least one incident where he came very close to assaulting him and Beezy witnessed him doing just that to his grandfather who was abusive in quite another way.
• Best Friend: With Jimmy, his neighbor, who he's staying with here.
• Breaking the Cycle of Bad Parenting: Lucius tried...
• Elder Abuse: Lucius brutalises and possibly kills his own father in front of Beezy, snapping after a lifetime of abuse going the other way. Even before that, he keeps him shut in the basement office where the abuse was perpetrated, to keep him out of the way and, it's implied, make him feel guilty.
• Gentle Giant: He's huge, in contrast to his tiny father, and also much more soft-hearted.
• The Irish Mob: His father is the head of the one in Calisota, though it's said that Lucius plays fast and loose with the more traditional rules, using other criminals to displace his own father as the family head.
• Mafia Princess: Another male example. His father is the head of The Irish Mob.
• Meaningful Name: "The Weakest Link" is the good-natured son of a mob boss whose family has a long history of repeating abuse, and he's trying to break the cycle.
• Morality Pet: To Lucius.
• Near-Rape Experience: There was an incident where an extremely angry Lucius grabbed at Beezy's belt, and then stopped suddenly and sent him away while looking horrified. Beezy would like to think he was just going to hit him, but doubts it.
• Red Is Heroic: In contrast to the rest of his family, who are also freckled redheads and mobsters, Beezy is remarkably normal and leaves after watching his father attack his grandfather.
• Shout-Out: To the Amanda Palmer song "Runs in the Family".
• White Sheep: Besides the organized crime thing it's heavily implied that his whole family has a history of fathers abusing their sons for generations, which is what makes Beezy want to leave in the first place.

The Pigeon of Duty and Linnet of Devotion (Jaq and Gus)

• Big Brother Instinct: Jaq has this towards Gus who is his stepbrother here and to an extent towards the rest of his large family.
• Meaningful Name: "The Pigeon of Duty" is self-sacrificing and was assaulted trying to help a friend. "The Linnet of Devotion" is his step-brother and closest confidant. Both birds are also likely a reference to various tellings of Cinderella where they come up.
• Real Men Wear Pink: Inverted. Jaq believes his love of feminine things makes him less of a man, though Gus disagrees.
• Related in the Adaptation: Downplayed as it's not biologically. In the movie they were friends, here they're stepbrothers.

The Least Of My Kind (Howleen Wolf), the Werewolf (Clawd Wolf) and the Wifwolf (Clawdeen Wolf)

• Badass Family: Howleen put up a pretty good fight against her attacker and Clawd and Clawdeen finished the job.
• Big Brother Instinct: And Big Sister Instinct. Clawdeen and Clawd both have this towards Howleen.
• Eye Scream: Averted; Howleen goes blind because of brain damage, not eye damage.
• Karmic Death: It's not clear, but that might be what happened to Howleen's assailant.
• Meaningful Name: "The Least Of My Kind" was unable to fight off her own attacker, but Big Brother Instinct resulted in her older brother and sister beating her assailant possibly to death. Her siblings are the "Werewolf" and "Wifwolf" (female werewolf), referencing the Leit Motif and their pack/family mentality.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Howleen's assailant beat her hard enough to cause permanent blindness, and Clawd and Clawdeen beat him even harder in return, not that Howleen didn't make a pretty good start of it herself.
• Shout-Out: To the Three Weird Sisters' song "The Least of My Kind".

The Living Reminder (Denzel Crocker)

• Adaptational Sexuality: Poindexter was gay and got assaulted for it, leading to him killing himself.
• Adaptational Heroism: He appears to be a guy who just needs help, rather than one of Timmy's worst nightmares. Additionally, "Day Jobs" implies that he's actually a pretty solid teacher, as Waxelplax is willing to trust him with Lizzy.
• Big Brother Worship: He had an older brother who he looked up to. The details are unclear, but it seems he killed himself as a result of being sexually assaulted and that Crocker's peculiarities stem from that.
• Driven to Suicide: Poindexter shot himself in the head after being raped. Crocker mentions that when his parents split up over it, his father "chose him", implying that his dad killed himself too.
• Imagine Spot: The "movie fragments" are Imagine Spots anyway, but his is notable in that it's entirely his idea of what could have happened if his brother had lived.
• Meaningful Name: "The Living Reminder" found the body and the suicide note when his older brother killed himself after being assaulted and has had to live with that all his life.
• Noodle Incident: In Day Jobs, it's revealed he did something that got him accused of racially profiling Timmy.
• Point of Divergence: Feels that if he had followed Poindexter upstairs after the latter's assault instead of continuing to watch TV, then he would still be alive.
• Related in the Adaptation: Poindexter is his late older brother.
• Shipper on Deck: Downplayed, but his Imagine Spot pictures his late brother in a could-have-been relationship with Wallace.

Agent Copycat (Kitty Katswell)

• Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: Kitty kisses Dudley while drunk, leading to them (reluctantly on Kitty's part) hooking up.
• All Love Is Unrequited: Doesn't reciprocate Dudley's feelings.
• Evil Twin: She has one in the form of Katty whose assault on Dudley (who didn't know Kitty had a twin) leads to Kitty being arrested for the crime.
• Frame-Up: Katty would frame her for things, such as attacking her or shoplifting, when they were kids. In the present, she assaults Dudley and Kitty gets arrested for it because she never told anyone she had a sister.
• Identical Twin Mistake: Kitty is arrested for Katty's crime.
• Meaningful Name: "Agent Copycat" was The Unfavorite of a pair of identical twins, and got arrested for a rape her sister committed.
• Polar Opposite Twins: As in canon, Katty is a high-profile thief, while Kitty is an FBI agent.
• Questionable Consent: Kitty's current relationship with Dudley. She's very uncomfortable with dating him but won't say anything because she thinks saying no would hurt him and that he's been through enough.
• The Unfavorite: Her mom preferred her charismatic sister Katty over her.

Stingy Jack (Roman Torchwick)

• Abusive Parents: Not his own but he didn't have a lot of good foster parents. Physical abuse and neglect are implied.
• Body Horror: There's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it reference to Junior Xiong putting out cigars inside him.
• Driven to Suicide: Twice. His scarf is covering up old noose scars.
• Meaningful Name: "Stingy Jack" tells the story of the folklore figure in question rather than his own, and parallels are drawn by the narrative at various points.
• Open Secret: Never actually tells the Palace about what happened to him and seems reticent to actually do so, but Neo already told them so everyone knows.
• Papa Wolf: He allows himself to be arrested in order to protect Neo and treats her like his own daughter.
• Parental Substitute: To Neo. Enough that he's featured in the part all about familial relationships.
• Scarpia Ultimatum: Junior's mob ties prevented him from being assaulted while in prison and he offered this to Torchwick in exchange for sex. Torchwick likens this to selling his soul.
• Sole Survivor: Of carbon monoxide poisoning which killed his entire extended family.

The Party Crashers - Rotgut (Aldrin Pesky), the Teetotaler (Pupert Pesky), and Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds (Maggie Pesky)

• Anti-Alcohol Aesop / Drugs Are Bad: Downplayed, as the main issue is more that underage and unsafe drinking and drug use is dangerous.
• Ass Shove: Played for Drama. Aldrin's teammates get him drunk and then shove a full, uncapped alcohol bottle into his rectum, causing him to suffer alcohol poisoning when he absorbs that alcohol on top of what he already drank. Aldrin considers this to be a violation on par with rape with body parts, even though he knows his teammates didn't think of it that way.
• Gargle Blaster: The hazing ritual of Aldrin's football team involves drinking a concoction of everything from the party host's parents' liquor cabinet, resulting in a disgusting mess which gets Aldrin drunk almost instantly.
• Innocent Inaccurate: Maggie mistakes LSD tabs for candy, eats one, and ends up tripping.
• Meaningful Name: "The Party Crashers"' incident happened at a party, and their individual names are taken from what happened there; "Rotgut" suffered alcohol poisoning, "the Teetotaler" remained sober, and "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" mistook LSD tabs for sweets.
• Mushroom Samba: Maggie accidentally took LSD and began hallucinating.
• Sex as a Rite-of-Passage: Kind of. Aldrin is assaulted in a hazing ritual which involves questionable use of a beer bottle.
• Wild Teen Party: The incident happened at one.

The Lamia's Keepers (Drake & Josh)

• Big Brother Instinct: They still care about Megan, despite everything.
• Cain and Abel: The Abels to the Enfant Terrible Megan's Cain.
• Internal Reveal: As it turns out, Megan is the one who killed Tilly Green.
• Meaningful Name: "The Lamia's Keepers" are there to warn the group about their Consummate Liar and murderous Enfant Terrible of a younger sister.
• Morality Pet: Deconstructed.
  “On TV, they always make it seem like the bad guys aren’t that bad as long as they care about something. In real life though… [...] maybe caring about one person doesn’t matter so much - no matter how much you care about them - if you aren’t willing to do half that for anybody else.”

The Music Man...ager (Dave Seville)

• Because I Said So: Deconstructed. Dave says the boys got mad at him for not letting them go on tour with Ian because he didn't properly explain why it was a bad idea, pointing out that saying "Because I said so" isn't really a good reason to make a kid not do something you don't want them to do.
• Bungled Suicide: Withdrawal from amphetamines causes suicidal thoughts, and Dave finds Alvin with a knife. Fortunately, it wasn't sharp enough to cause very serious damage.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: The press is making him out to be a controlling Stage Dad, when, in actuality, Ian was the one pushing the boys into the spotlight. Dave wanted to keep them out of it.
• Meaningful Name: "The Music Man...ager" is the guardian of child popstars and his story is about how the industry hurt them.
• Nephewism: Sort of; here, the Chipmunks are his cousin's sons.
• Papa Wolf: To the Chipmunks, here human children.
• Related in the Adaptation: He's the Chipmunks' second cousin here.
• Sequel Hook: The story ends with Ian now managing the Chipettes, with the implication they are going to suffer in the same way the Chipmunks did.
• Stage Dad: Mentions that the press is making him out to be one. In actuality, he's pretty level-headed.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: The Chipmunks display it, caused by trauma and forced stimulant use.
• We Used to Be Friends: He admits that he did consider Ian to be his friend, but after learning what he did to the chipmunks, the friendship is over.

The Gemini - Castor (Edric Blight) and Pollux (Emira Blight)

• Big Brother Bully: Both of them towards Amity though they've come to regret this.
• Half-Identical Twins: Possibly literally, because...
• Intersex Tribulations: Emira has Turner Syndrome; she originally had a Y chromosome at conception that was damaged or lost, giving her a designated-female appearance and a lot of health problems.
• Meaningful Name: "The Gemini" are a set of Half-Identical Twins who found evidence that one of them was abused, but not which one of them it was.
• Nothing Is Scarier: They don't know exactly what happened, or to which of them, leaving both of them traumatised.
• Parental Favoritism: Subverted. Initially it comes across like their parents favor them over Amity, but it's strongly implied they allowed one of their friends to molest one of the twins.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Them teasing Amity about her relationship with Luz in front of their parents lead to her panicking and claiming Luz assaulted her. They're pretty regretful about it.

The Surrealist Unburned (Spencer Shay)

• Domestic Abuse: On the receiving end, in his relationship with Mrs. Ackerman.
• Funny Schizophrenia: Painfully averted. When stressed, he hallucinates fire, and this is both terrifying and a great hindrance, shown when he douses the kitchen in fire extinguisher foam for no reason and wakes up Carly to save her from an imaginary inferno.
• Meaningful Name: "The Surrealist Unburned" is an artist with schizophrenia and his hallucinations are centered around fire.
• Promotion to Parent: He's raising his sister by choice and much of his issues come from the fear that she'll be taken away if anyone finds out about his mental health.
• Through the Eyes of Madness: His hallucinations of fire appear visibly in the "movie fragment" of his memories, shown in orange text.

"Me" (Blue) and "Gramps" (Red)

• Childhood Friend Romance: With each other.
• Comic Role Play: The chapter is structured as Blue rehearsing how to tell Oak what happened to him, hence the narrative nicknames. Despite the seriousness of the conversation, they both end up laughing at Red's awful impression of Oak.
• Delinquent: Blue went through a rebellious phase and started hanging out with some of Giovanni's operatives.
• Gayngster: Sort of. Blue was never officially a member of Giovanni's gang or even really a runner but he did hang out with them for a time.
• Meaningful Name: Subverted; they're not Palace members, and are practicing a future conversation with Blue as himself and Red roleplaying as Professor Oak, while the narrative only refers to them as "Me" and "Gramps".
• Related in the Adaptation: Blue is Gary's cousin and Red is Ash's half-brother.
• Sins of Our Fathers: In "Vet Visits" Wilhelmina calls Oak out for being too harsh on Blue and assures him Blue is nothing like his father. "Statements" reveals what she means; Blue's father confessed to the molestation and murder of Leaf Ketchum and is presumably still imprisoned.
• The Unfavorite: It's not said outright, but he does seem to be this to Oak, who in all fairness does have his reasons for paying attention to Gary, and issues with Blue's father.

The Woodland Critters - the Turtle (Verne), the Opossum (Ozzie), the Joey (Heather), the Boar (Lou), the Sow (Penny), Porcupettes One, Two, and Three (Bucky, Spike, and Quillo), the Skunk (Stella), and the Squirrel (Hammy)

• Disposable Vagrant: They're aware of the trope's existence and this is part of why they were almost taken by the Ark and why they come to the group after RJ was since they don't think the police are going to care that much about him.
• Family of Choice: They're a homeless camp that came together and consider themselves a family.
• Heroic Sacrifice: RJ, to make up for selling the group out to the Ark, after he's finished helping everyone escape the truck, opts to remain onboard.
• Meaningful Name: "The Woodland Critters" are a group of homeless people who live in a camp in the woods and their names are their canon species.
• Too Good to Be True: All of them admitted to having their suspicions about RJ, but considering what he was promising and getting for them, they let themselves believe he was trustworthy. They all admit to this trope when talking about it.
• Uncertain Doom: They aren't sure if RJ was simply taken to a warehouse, killed for letting them escape or managed to get away from the Ark truck, but they can't find him, so they're trying not to believe the worst.

The Blood Traitors - Daniel and the Stray (Adora and Catra), the Trailblazer of Mistruth (Glimmer), Joan Barleycorn (Perfuma), Apsu and Tiamat (Sea Hawk and Mermista), the Mad Scientist (Entrapta), the Frost Giant (Frosta), the Tight-Lipped Gladiatrix (Scorpia), and the Mythomaniac (Double Trouble)

• Adaptation Name Change: Averted for the most part, actually, since their names are taken from the original She-Ra's alternate character names. This is, however, played straight with Glimmer, now Gilda, who didn't have an alternative name, Double Trouble, whose alternative name was Rebekkah, but who goes by the more androgynous-sounding Bex and their deadname is Lucien, and Peekablue, whose assigned name was Penelope as in the original show but is now transitioned to male and going by Prometheus.
• Adopting the Abused: Frosta was adopted by Spinerella and Netossa after she escaped her kidnapper, and Angella seems to accept Adora as part of the family.
• Bad People Abuse Animals: Deconstructed with Sea Hawk. As a child he kills oysters, snakes, and goldfish, and everyone assumes he's an Enfant Terrible, but he actually does it due to his own abuse making him desperate for something to have control over, and he regrets it as an adult.
• Big Sibling Bully: Double Trouble was this to Glimmer and later Flutterina when they were still living together (though, in the latter case this was more because Flutterina's father used their mother's pregnancy as a means to abuse the former and they blame their sister for that.)
• Big Sister Instinct: Exploited by Flutterina who manipulated Glimmer. Glimmer also seems to have this towards Frosta, being the one the younger girl clings to when she upsets herself while telling her own story.
• Boarding School of Horrors: The military academy is one - various students are abused by each other or the teachers and Scorpia becomes the semi-willing listening ear for them all.
• Childhood Friend Romance: Adora/Catra, Glimmer/Bow, Sea Hawk/Mermista.
• Consummate Liar: Double Trouble and Flutterina, here their sister.
• Crack Pairing / Related in the Adaptation: Double Trouble's parents are Castaspella and Tung Lashor. Unsurprisingly, it was a brief and chaotic relationship. Flutterina is also a real person, and Double Trouble's sister.
• Crying Wolf: Double Trouble's tendency to lie means that their mother didn't believe anything they said whether it was true or not, including their stepfather's abuse.
• Disproportionate Retribution:
  • Catra was often punished in a physically violent manner by Shadow Weaver for things Adora did wrong or things Catra couldn't possibly be responsible for, like Adora tripping up.
  • Mr. Blithe persuaded himself Mermista was so unusually smart and mature for a ten-year-old that she was able and willing to consent to sex. When she cried and begged him to stop, as a child normally would, he tried to drown her in the tub. This is sadly Truth in Television, as some molesters will panic when a child doesn't react the way they want and will kill the child in order to preserve the fantasy that things went how they wanted.
• Easily Condemned: Entrapta and Hordak were in a very loving relationship and even had a kid together, but when Bill tells Hordak that she was cheating on him (which was actually rape), he immediately believes him and kicks her out. To be fair, Bill did have her bra as evidence, and is well-established (to the audience, but not to Hordak) as a Consummate Liar.
• Embarrassing Damp Sheets: A common symptom of sexual abuse, which Sea Hawk suffers as a child.
• Enfant Terrible: Flutterina, and to a lesser extent Double Trouble and Sea Hawk.
• False Rape Accusation: Played straight from Flutterina's point of view, more complicated from Glimmer's. Flutterina falsely accused Peekablue and pretended to be too scared to press charges, so Glimmer injured herself and made the accusation for her. Unfortunately, it was easily disproved, and Glimmer was branded a liar.
  • Subverted with Double Trouble, who is a compulsive liar and was assumed to not be telling the truth in this case, but was.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Double Trouble is this to the rest of the group. Scorpia even lampshades this when they go to speak.
• Lecherous Stepparent: Flutterina's father/Castaspella's second husband was this to Double Trouble. This is implied to be the reason Double Trouble has never gotten along with Flutterina.
• Living Emotional Crutch: Catra and Adora to each other. They both go off the deep end when they have their falling out with Catra lashing out and Adora turning to Self-Harm. Mermista is also this to Sea Hawk who was never stable completely loses it when it looks like she's disappeared.
• Meaningful Name
• Mistaken for Cheating: Entrapta is very much in love with Hordak, however, Bill is able to convince him that his abuse of her was a mutual relationship and she's thrown out of their apartment.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Glimmer was just trying to help her cousin, and ended up exposed as a liar and indirectly responsible for Peekablue nearly being killed by GWF. Perfuma tried to protect the environment and was assaulted when she couldn't untie herself from a tree fast enough. Scorpia tried to be a listening ear to all her friends and heard about so much abuse that she was traumatised herself and had to drop out of military school.
• Not Blood Siblings: Adora and Catra. They were raised together, but never developed the Westermarck effect because Catra was never treated as a family member by Shadow Weaver and was still in some contact with her birth parents during that time window.
• One Side of the Story: Entrapta tries to tell Hordak that she wasn't cheating on him with Bill, but he just shouts at her to get out because he assumes that she's attempting to lie to get out of trouble.
• Orphan's Ordeal: Frosta was orphaned in a car accident and left with a foster family who ignored her so much they didn't even notice when she was kidnapped.
• Pædo Hunt: Hordak gets a lot of flak for dating Entrapta, who's the same age as him but short, pigtailed, autistic, and hyperactive.
• Parental Favoritism:
  • Catra never considered Shadow Weaver her mother, but she was the girls' guardian and favoured Adora over Catra, implied to be because Adora looked more Caucasian (though it's later revealed she's Palestinian) and thus "prettier". Of course, the "favourite" treatment involved sexual molestation, so Adora was no better off.
  • Castaspella very much preferred Flutterina over Double Trouble (though Double Trouble is an admitted Consummate Liar with reason to be resentful so it's unclear how much of what they say is fair). She is called out for this by Double Trouble's father when they tell him about their stepfather abusing them.
• Pyromaniac: Sea Hawk. He apparently has a clinical diagnosis.
  "Everyone at the psych ward knows my name."
• Parental Neglect: Mermista's father didn't pay much attention to her. Also Shadow Weaver towards Catra.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Double Trouble's father treats them better than their mother ever did, and when they tell him about what their stepfather is doing to them, he believes them. Double Trouble's father then yells at their mother for not believing them and for playing favorites with Flutterina.
• Secret-Keeper: Scorpia tries to be this for her fellow soldiers, only for some of the secrets they tell to take their toll her. The final straw was when Kyle told her about how he was gang-raped in front of Lonnie and Rogelio. She finds it unfair how she wasn't abused while they had to suffer.
• Sociopathic Soldier: Several of Scorpia's cohorts are good people, but others are not; Lonnie, Kyle, and Rogelio all get abused at various points by others at the military school, including the sergeant.
• Surreal Horror: The movie fragments in their chapter are full of surreal, almost fairytale-like imagery, a lot of which is metaphorical.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior:
  • Flutterina's leads to Glimmer becoming a pariah, and Double Trouble's leads to no one believing their stepfather hurt them.
  • Deconstructed with Sea Hawk who filled out the Macdonald Triad as a child, and was written off by adults as having been born bad rather than these behaviors resulting from abuse.
  • Inverted with Mermista; Mr. Blithe was troubled by her not behaving in an un-childlike way, as like many pedophiles he'd persuaded himself she was mature enough to consent, which she wasn't and didn't.
• War Is Hell: Played with; Scorpia never even qualifies from military school because that's hell enough for her.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: By Flutterina, to trap Glimmer.

Rasalhague the Faceless and Ophiuchus the Serpent-Bearer (Spencer Wright and Billy Joe Cobra)

• Abusive Parents: Billy has emotionally abusive stage parents who exploited his talent for money and refused to go see him in the hospital after he was rescued from Madame X.
• Attention Whore: Deconstructed. Billy's tendencies stem from childhood abuse and a deep insecurity that being constantly showered with any kind of attention is equivalent to love.
• Broken Ace: Billy. He's a successful, handsome, rich pop icon, but has also been abused so many times and by so many people that he fell into drug addiction and has a desperate need for attention which he considers the same as love.
• Cool Uncle: He's Spencer's cousin once removed, but this is essentially the role he fulfilled when he was young.
• I Have No Son!: Billy's parents disown him over a falling out involving his will and refuse to visit him in the hospital after he's saved from Madame X.
• I Just Want to Be Loved: Billy, to the point where he's started visiting his rapist in prison because he views her obsession as just a form of that love.
• Long-Lost Relative: Literally to each other. Billy and Spencer haven't seen each other in years due to Billy being kidnapped by a fan when Spencer was very young and presumed dead until very recently.
• A Match Made in Stockholm: Billy suffers Stockholm Syndrome towards Madame X, who kidnapped him and kept him imprisoned in her basement for years, because a lifetime of abuse has left him feeling like this is what love is.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Downplayed, but the circumstances around Billy's 'death' and even some of his life are pretty similar to the circumstances of Marilyn Monroe.
• Unusual Euphemism: "She's my... you know. 'One-side stand.'"

Cast and Characters - the Soloist (Tori Vega), the Diva (Trina Vega), the Director (Jade West), the Stager (Beck Oliver), the Accompanist (Andre Harris), the Chartreuse (Cat Valentine)

• Dysfunctional Family: The Vega parents are neglectful, Jade's father is distant and she was assaulted by her stepfather and not believed, Cat was repeatedly assaulted by her biological brother, and Andre's grandmother suffers from Alzheimer's, which sometimes makes her behave dangerously towards him, his grandfather, and herself.
• Malapropism: Cat probably meant "chanteuse".
• Meaningful Name: Their code names relate to roles in production.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Andre calls the police when he thinks his grandmother is about to harm or kill herself. The cop who arrives is the one who hates and regularly assaults black kids.

The Spectrum Suit - the Ace, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine and Ten of Shades, and the Joker (Lori, Leni, Luna, Luan, Lynn, Lucy, Lana, Lola, Lisa, Lily, and Lincoln)

• All of the Other Reindeer:
  • Lori and Lola were ostracised by their classmates and had to switch schools due to Lola's lie; Lori because rumors already spread by the time the case went to trial, and Lola because Lana told a classmate who then proceeded to tell everyone else.
  • Luan became a laughingstock due to Ricky posting the video of her wetting herself after he and Vicky attacked her (which was cut out).
  • Lincoln thinks he doesn't fit in with his sisters since he wasn't hurt, but they all are quick to assure him he's wrong.
  • Kids from the gifted program bullied Lisa thanks to Ratigan convincing the other kids that she got more attention and didn't belong there.
• Ambiguous Gender Identity: Lana wants to be a boy, or at least not be a girl, but is herself unsure if this is indicative of being trans or if it's just a trauma response to her assault, as she originally thought boys couldn't be sexually abused.
• Black Comedy: How Luan is coping.
• Body Horror: During Lisa's examination, the doctor was shocked to see the damage that Ratigan's repeated assault had done to her. Lisa notes that, despite her using medicine on it, it's probably going to scar.
• Brainy Baby: Lisa, at three, is one of the youngest kids in Mew's genius study, and Ratigan plays on the other kids' jealousy to get them to pick on her.
• Bring My Brown Pants:
  • Luan wets herself during her assault by Vicky and Ricky.
  • Lisa developed anxiety-induced diarrhea due to Ratigan abusing her and being bullied by kids at the gifted program. She also mentions that Ratigan would put down a towel, implying that she soiled herself while he assaulted her.
• Child by Rape: Lily here is actually Leni's baby from her assault. The family decides to pretend that she was Rita's, as they all agree Leni isn't ready to be a mother and that they don't want said assailant to learn about Lily, lest he becomes involved in her life.
• Clueless Aesop: Discussed. Lola does what she does because parents, teachers, and TV told her that someone touching her was bad, but not how bad or why or what would happen if someone did.
• Color Motif: As in the show each of the kids is associated with a particular color which is referenced through both colored text and direct allusions to said color in their passages.
• Disproportionate Retribution:
  • Unintentionally done by Lola, who didn't know the severity of sexual abuse accusations. Her reasoning for accusing Lori of touching her? Lori slapped her for spilling her pink nail polish.
  • Luan's assault plays this straight. What was Vicky and Ricky's reasoning for raping her and then putting it online? She made fun of them during one of her gigs at the comedy club.
• Driven to Suicide: Lori tries to hang herself after her Trauma Conga Line of being accused by Lola, being assaulted by the Dirty Cops, and ostracized at school over Lola's accusation. Thankfully, Lincoln saved her and did CPR.
• Easily Forgiven: Averted. It's been stated in several side stories that Lori has yet to fully forgive Lola as, even if she didn't know what would happen to Lori, Lola still accused her of an extremely heinous crime that pretty much ruined her life.
• Entertainment Above Their Age: Lucy, a nine year old, has read The Cement Garden, a novel about Brother–Sister Incest. Justified in that she's a Creepy Child and a sexual assault victim who copes by getting invested in dark media where she's in control of what she sees.
• False Rape Accusation: Lori was accused of touching her sisters... by Lola.
• Family Relationship Switcheroo: The Louds pretend that Lily is Rita's when she is actually Leni's daughter.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Ratigan deliberately fuels the other gifted kids' envy of Lisa's greater intelligence, and it's hinted that he's jealous of her too.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Lynn developed serious anger issues after being assaulted.
• Instant Humiliation Just Add Youtube: Ricky posts the video of Luan wetting herself and she is bullied by everyone at school.
• Interrupted Suicide: Lincoln saves Lori's life after she tries to hang herself by performing CPR.
• I Want My Mommy!: Lola freaks out during her exam and screams for Lori to come and help her.
• Kids Are Cruel: Invoked by Ratigan, who manages to turn Lisa into an outcast at the gifted program by getting the other kids, most of whom are much older, to hate her. It leads to another boy in the class, who is heavily implied to be Dexter, sexually assaulting her, presumably because Ratigan has been doing the same thing to some of the other kids. Cody is an exception since he knows better than to bully a three/four-year-old.
• Lady Looks Like a Dude: Lisa's young enough and frumpy enough to look like a boy, which is a bad thing when Ratigan's around.
• Last Disrespects: Lucy wore white when she found out Ricky was killed at Camp Green Lake since wearing black means you're unhappy someone died.
• Late Pregnancy Realization: Leni's pregnancy test is a rare false negative, and she's spacey enough not to notice until it's too late for medical abortion, which she doesn't want anyway.
• Layman's Terms: In "Mouths of Babes" Lisa explains what happened to Mulmangcho to the other young kids:
  “I presume they directed him to place his external reproductive organs into the oral or excretory cavity of the cadaver, or perhaps vice versa if that was possible, and enforced this by intimidating him with physical violence.”
  (The kids stare.)
  “They said they’d kill him if he didn’t put his penis in the body.”
• Meaningful Name: The card suit motif calls back to Lincoln's Ace Savvy fan status. "Shades" and "Spectrum" refer to their signature colours. The sisters are numbered in order of their age from "Ace" Lori to "Ten" Lily and Lincoln is the "Joker" because he feels like the odd one out as the only boy and the only one who hasn't been directly affected by abuse.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Once Lola realizes what her accusation resulted in, she's horrified with herself because of what she did to Lori.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Downplayed, but Lisa telling some of the other younger members that germs thrive better on living people than dead ones lead to several of them becoming Terrified of Germs.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: When people at Lola's school found out about her lying about Lori, they kept calling her "Lying Lola" and she had to switch schools.
• Poor Communication Kills: Played for Drama and mixed with Lola being too young to understand what she did. She didn't think that her framing Lori for touching would lead to something so bad. At worst, she thought she would get Lori grounded, not that she would try to kill herself due to the fallout.
• Properly Paranoid: After saving Lori during her suicide attempt, Lincoln starts carrying around a pair of scissors out of paranoia something might happen again. Sure enough, they come in handy when Ruby is discovered trying to hang herself in the bathroom of the Palace.
• The Punishment Is the Crime: Lola is grounded for lying, but not punished further for the magnitude and consequences of the lie, because a) she couldn't possibly have known about that and b) undergoing a traumatic medical examination, being ostracized by Lori and Lana, and being mocked at school when Lana tells people about the incident are enough.
• Prison Rape: Lori is raped by the cops at the police station.
• Related Differently in the Adaptation: Lily is Leni's Child by Rape here, which would make her Rita and Lynn Sr.'s granddaughter and the Loud Siblings' niece. However, the family pretends that she's one of Rita's kids.
• Significant Name Overlap: In "Cat out of the Bag", Lisa Simpson bitterly thinks of Lisa Loud as "the better Lisa".
• Shame If Something Happened: Ratigan threatens Lisa with damaging her chances of getting into a good school if she tells anyone about him sexually assaulting her. Eventually, she says that she doesn't care about that anymore, but Ratigan just encourages most of the other kids in the gifted class to bully her.
• Shout-Out:
  • One of the writers reviews at Das Sporking and had their Berserk Button pushed by a book in which an escaping character cuts off a tracking device and still brings it with her, hence Leni, a prime example of The Ditz, remembering to remove and break hers here.
  • Also to A Clockwork Orange as a bit from Lincoln's chapter refers to Luna as being as queer as one, a pun on the supposed cockney phrase.
  • Luan quotes Tom Lehrer near the end regarding rhymes for "orange".
• Sole Survivor: Non-death version, but Lincoln is the only sibling to not have dealt with anything related to sexual assault.
• Teen Pregnancy: Leni ended up pregnant due to her assault and ended up giving birth to Lily.
• Tell Him I'm Not Speaking to Him: Lincoln has to relay messages from Lola to Lana because Lana is too angry to speak to her.
• Wrong Assumption: Played for Drama. Lola, due to no one actually telling her why accusing someone of rape or molestation is bad, thought that it was just something that she could use to get Lori grounded as payback for slapping her and not letting her use her new nail polish. When she realizes that it was far worse then she thought following Lori's arrest and her parents taking her for a forensic test, she's mortified.

Kissin' Kate and the Fox's Tailor (Nick Wilde)

• Dirty Cop: Nick is usually a decent guy, but when he witnesses the crooked cops assaulting Foulfellow and Gideon, who sold an eight-year-old to a sex ring, Nick is reminded of his own trauma from when he was eight and walks away without reporting it.
• Forced to Watch: Kate is left unharmed while GWF murders Sam.
• Maligned Mixed Marriage: Being in the twentieth century, Kate and Sam last a lot longer than they did in canon and are actually able to get married, but it still doesn't end well.
• Mama Bear: Kate doesn't start murdering after Sam's death here because she has her son to live for; when he gets assaulted too, she tracks down as many of the perpetrators as she can find and shoots them.
• Murder the Hypotenuse: Trout Walker's real motive for turning Sam and Kate in to GWF.
• Related in the Adaptation: Sam and Kate are Nick's parents.

The Spotted Jaguar (Kipo Oak)

• Action Survivor: She was raised in the Ark, it comes with the territory.
• Amazing Technicolor Population: Justified. She has a fairly realistic case of purpura, a condition sometimes caused by medications, which causes purple-red spots to form on the skin after blood vessels pop underneath it. This is likely where the 'spotted' part of her name comes from.
• Children Are Innocent: Why it takes her so long to realize what the Ark is doing.
• Daddy's Girl: Her father is her only known family and her main goal is to find him again.
• Innocent Inaccurate: Slight variation. She's very far from unaware of the horrors of the Ark, but her father explained sex and rape to her as being two entirely different things so as not to scare her about normal sex, so she doesn't realise there's even a connection at all until Benson and Dave explain.
• Meaningful Name: "The Spotted Jaguar" has spots caused by purpura on her skin like a jaguar and her father went by the name "Dr. Jaguar" in the Ark.

The Stunt Double and the Top Performer (Zack and Cody)

• Bring My Brown Pants: Cody wets himself when Ratigan corners him in the bathroom.
• Identical Twin Mistake: Played for Drama. After Cody gets away from Ratigan, Ratigan finds Zack and, not knowing Cody had a twin, raped Zack in mistake for Cody.
• Meaningful Name: "The Stunt Double and the Top Performer" are twins and the Stunt Double had to do the dangerous and damaging act in the place of the Top Performer.
• Successful Sibling Syndrome: Zack has always felt inferior to Cody who is academically gifted while Zack is ordinary.
• Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Cody was appalled at how the other kids were okay with bullying the preschool-aged Lisa Loud, and when Ratigan tried to convince him to do the same, he refused.

El Segundo (Esteban)

• Blackmail: What Shuriki does to him and what Victor is planning to do. Victor has qualms about taking it to a sexual level. Shuriki does not.
• Broken Bird: Male example. Years of abuse by Shuriki and keeping secrets from his family have changed him and not in a good way.

The Catbird Kid (Patsy Casey)

• Big Sister Instinct: It shows up with Chester who she babysits and tries to look after.
• Cool Big Sis: Presumably to her sisters, but it's even more evident that she was this to Chester who clearly adored her right back.
• Daddy's Girl: A lot of what she does is to please her father. For his part, Casey does love her back, even if he's flawed.
• Gender-Blender Name: Patsy is short for Patrick.
• Meaningful Name: The "catbird seat" in baseball refers to a player with no strikes, or more generally in an advantageous strategic position.
• Wanted a Son Instead: Casey resented his daughters for years for not being able to carry on his legacy. Patsy's old enough to have a complex about this.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: She's the oldest child and very aware that her father Wanted a Son Instead, she's been shown to go out of her way to impress him in baseball.

Barbie's Girls - Barbie Classic (Barbie), Platinum a.k.a. the Dulcimer Player (Skipper), Second Edition (Kelly), Third Edition (Stacie), and Fourth Edition (Chelsea)

• Absurdly Youthful Mother: Justified with Barbie who has a teenage daughter as a result of Teen Pregnancy.
• Bratty Half-Pint: Chelsea to Skipper. Stacie was also this to an extent. Of course Barbie was a...
• Bratty Teenage Daughter: Justified and sympathetic example. Barbie transforms into one after Kelly dies.
• Companion Cube: Krissy, a talking baby doll passed down among the family from Barbie.
• Composite Character: Stacie is the combination of her canon self and previous counterpart Tutti and Tutti's brother Todd, being a Transgender girl with two first names.
• Cool Big Sis: Barbie was this to Kelly and is this to Stacie and Chelsea. Fits the role with Skipper, but made more complicated because technically they're not sisters at all.
• Crossdressing Voice: In a Shout-Out to the Barbie Liberation Organisation, the Krissy doll comes with a GI Joe-esque voice box. Barbie, age seven at the time, loves it.
• Death of a Child: Kelly dies from a heart problem.
• Determinator: Despite her injuries, Skipper's able to grab Jake's gun, use it to hold Judge Hopkins hostage, and steal the cultists' car to get herself and Chelsea away.
• Dramatic Irony: The remnants of GWF misunderstand the situation and think Skipper is the unwed mother of Chelsea; Skipper is not only not Chelsea's mother, but is both the result of a Teen Pregnancy and, herself, infertile. The actual unwed mother is Barbie, who isn't present at the time because she's taking her Transgender sister Stacie to the doctor, which would have got both of them killed if GWF knew the truth.
• Little Miss Badass: Skipper is one of the few GWF victims to successfully fight back and she manages to save Chelsea to boot.
• Teen Pregnancy: Barbie gets pregnant young with Skipper and GWF mistake Skipper for having one that produced Chelsea.
• You Will Be Spared: The judge's wife insists that they do this with Chelsea despite Jake's vocal disagreement, likely because Chelsea is a cute, young white girl and thus 'mostly innocent' in her eyes.

The Holy Apostate (Sophia) and the False Witness (Caleb)

• Abusive Parents: Sophia's parents kick her out for filing a report against her abuser. "Cat Out of the Bag" reveals that they even made her wait on the porch on a cold night until Lionel and Susan could come get her.
• First-Person Perspective: The main narrative and movie fragments are from Caleb's point-of-view.
• Forced from Their Home: Sophia is kicked out for reporting her abuse.
• I Have No Son!: Sophia is disfellowshipped for telling the police about her abuse at the hands of the Kingdom Hall elder.
• Meaningful Name: "The Holy Apostate", despite being disfellowshipped from her family of Jehovah's Witnesses, is still faithful. Her brother, "The False Witness", is not as faithful and falsely tells the police that his sister is lying about her abuse, albeit because his parents told him to.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Caleb's reaction to telling the police Sophia was lying at his parents' behest, in order to protect the man that abused her.
• Nephewism: Sophia's been sent to live with her aunt, here Adelina Fortnight.
• Pedophile Priest: An elder at Sophia and Caleb's Kingdom Hall abused Sophia.
• Related in the Adaptation: Adelina is their father's sister.
• Restrained Revenge: Lionel and Link can't stand the idea of letting Sophia's parents get away with treating her so badly, but Adelina told them not to make a scene, so the most they can do is steal the family's tomato plants.
• The Unfavorite: Sophia's report against the Kingdom Hall elder results in her being disfellowshipped and her parents sending her away to live with her aunt.

Ang mga Nalulunod Na Sirena - ang Sireno (Marzel) and ang Sirena (Marisa)

• Meaningful Name: The name is Filipino for "the Drowning Mermaid - and Merman". Marzel really did nearly drown.
• Near-Death Experience: Half their chapter is dedicated to a younger Marzel's in which he almost drowns once Pleasure Island is done with him.
• White Sheep: Downplayed, here Marisa is the daughter of a former loan shark and is clear that her parents were at least good to her, but she's still the most social of her family and the only one actively involved in charity.

The reporter (Clark Kent)

• The Baby Trap: Strange variation: Luthor paid off a doctor to steal Clark's sperm sample, with which Luthor impregnated his assistant, in order to get access to kids who looked like Clark when he couldn't abuse the real Clark anymore.
• Did They or Didn't They?: A dark version. Whether or not Luthor assaulted him is left up in the air, though it seems fairly likely.
• Disappeared Dad: To Superboy and Match, first due to Lex not telling him they existed and later due to them freaking him out.
• Meaningful Name: Averted. He's not a group member, so he doesn't have an official title. "Reporter" is never capitalised in-story, to show this.
• Slipping a Mickey: Luthor uses Rohypnol to get to Clark.

The Iron Shamrock (Finnuala O'Thugg) and the Copper Clover (Dez)

• Christianity is Catholic: Averted. Finualla is a staunch Catholic, but Dez is an Irish Protestant. Their culture clash is central to the chapter.
• Daddy's Girl: Finnuala was close to her mother, but now that she's gone, her father has become extremely protective to the point of threatening Dez for 'sleeping with her'.
• Meaningful Name: Shamrocks and clovers are both symbols of Ireland. When tarnished, iron rusts and copper develops verdigris, becoming orange and green, respectively. In Ireland, green is the colour used by Catholics and orange the colour used by Protestants, and Finnuala and Dez's text is written in those colours, but the names' colour associations are reversed, tying into their connection.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Initially. This is thrown out the window after Finnuala assaults Dez, however, and he becomes afraid of her.
• Teen Pregnancy: Finnuala gets pregnant from assaulting Dez, and being Catholic she won't have an abortion. Dez is naturally upset, especially since he fears she might try to make him be involved in the kid's life.

The Singing Shiver - Bullhead (Dad), Hammerhead (Mom), Basking (TomTom), Leopard (YoYo), and Thresher (J.J.)

• Adaptational Name Change: "J.J.", "TomTom", and "YoYo" aren't the kids' actual names here, just nicknames they use online.
• Cyberbullying: People online made comments accusing the parents of abusing their kids and profiting off of them.
• Mistaken for Cheating: Commenters believe the mom had an affair because the kids don't look much like either parent and have lighter hair. The mom points out that genetics can be weird and blond hair can get darker later, and even if that wasn't the case, they could've been adopted or stepchildren, and people shouldn't assume a worst-case scenario.
• Stage Mom: Online viewers accuse the parents of being this and forcing the kids to make the videos, even though it's the kids' idea.
• Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: The kids use nicknames online, but the boys' sound like actual names, so people think the parents actually named their daughter YoYo.

The Two Bears - Baby Bear (Boog) and Mama Bear (Beth)

• Child by Rape: Shaw raped Beth, which resulted in Boog.
• The Dog Bites Back: After Shaw shoots Elliot, Boog gets a good look at their shadows and realizes that he's bigger than Shaw is. All Boog says is that he didn't kill Shaw, but made sure he wouldn't come back.
• The Kindnapper: Beth takes Boog across state lines to keep him safe.
• Knight Templar Parent: Subverted. From a legal standpoint, Beth is a kidnapper, as she took Boog across state lines without his other parent's permission. From a moral standpoint, however, she protected her son from his rapist father and her fears were well justified.
• Mama Bear: Beth. It's in the name.
• Meaningful Name: "Mama Bear" took her son across state lines to protect him from his father and "Baby Bear" used his size to his advantage by defending himself against his dad when he kidnapped him.
• Related in the Adaptation: Beth is Boog's mother here.
• Shout-Out: Beth asks Boog about the song she used to sing to him when he was little, to which he replies, "today’s the day the teddy bears have their picnic," which is from the song "Teddy Bear Picnic". The bold text also makes out a verse from the song.
• Teen Pregnancy: Beth was a teenager when she had Boog.
• You Will Be Spared: The Dirty Cops don't touch Beth because they view her actions as heroic.

The Belle of Big Bucks Bloodbath (Pacifica Northwest)

• The Bully: In the past. It's implied she regrets it.
• Conditioned to Accept Horror: She admits that she struggles to sleep now due to having gotten so used to the noises she'd been hearing.
• Gaslighting: The victim, as her parents tried to convince her that the noises she was hearing at night were just in her head. The ending of her story implies Bill is now as well.
• Meaningful Name: "The Belle of Big Bucks Bloodbath" is a popular, rich girl whose parents had a secret torture chamber in the house.
• Related in the Adaptation: Bill's her second cousin.
• Sanity Slippage: She's not sure just how sane she is anymore.
• Torture Cellar: The source of the noises she'd been hearing.

The Caged Magician and the illusion (Hansel and Gretel)

• All Just a Dream: How he's able to have a conversation with the child version of his sister. The entire chapter has him sleeping until the very end.
• Bestiality Is Depraved: It's implied in side stories that Jake's abuse involved shoving live snakes inside Hansel.
• Disowned Sibling: Gretel stopped responding to Hansel's calls over him selling new age products and forging a scholarship letter for her because it was dishonest. She felt guilty and took him back after she found out Hansel was sex trafficked, which she originally thought was a lie until she saw a video of his rape.
• Embarrassing Damp Sheets: He meets Agent Stepdaughter, Gretel's girlfriend, when he comes over to Gretel's place to use her washing machine because he wet the bed during a nightmare.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Subverted. He may be a Snake Oil Salesman in contrast to his sister's government position, but he's also the one who paid for her schooling in the first place.
• Leit Motif: "Little Boy Blue."
• Meaningful Name: Hansel is a literal magician and seller of "magical" cure-alls, who was captured and kept in a cage. The Gretel who appears in the chapter is just a dream.

The Costume Jewel (Ruby Gloom)

• Abusive Parents: Her mom was neglectful, would sometimes hit her, and prostituted her out.
• Adopting the Abused: She now lives with Poe Raven and the other kids from the show.
• Driven to Suicide: She tries to hang herself with her pantyhose in the Palace's bathroom because of everything that happened. She ends up saved when Poppy gets a nosebleed and walks in on her.
• Honor Thy Abuser: Ruby knows that her mom wasn't very great, but she was saddened by her murder.
• Interrupted Suicide: The end of her chapter has Poppy O'Hair walking in on her hanging herself in the restroom and saving her.
• It Works Better with Bullets: After the sheriff rapes her, she takes the gun he threatened her with and tries to shoot him with it, but it turns out to not be loaded.
• Leit Motif: "Ruby Jewel Was Here".
• Meaningful Name: "The Costume Jewel" was dressed up by her prostitute mother and her rapist called her "Gem."
• Prison Rape: She was sent to juvie for trying to shoot the sheriff after he molested her, where of course he could get to her again.
• Single Mom Stripper: Ruby's mom was a prostitute.
• Stylistic Suck: Her story that she writes on the wall is rife with misspellings and grammar errors.

The Time Traveller and the Voyager/Voyeurger (Mr. Peabody & Sherman)

• Adaptational Sexuality: Mr. Peabody is gay.
• Atrocious Alias: Mr. Peabody gently steers Sherman away from calling himself the Voyeur, since, while it does technically mean someone who witnesses a sexual act, it has inappropriate connotations Sherman's too young to get.
• Child Prodigy: Mr. Peabody was smart as a child and Sherman is also a smart kid.
• Harmful to Minors: Penny showed Sherman the video of Mr. Peabody getting raped by Bill, which horrified the boy.
• Instant Humiliation Just Add Youtube: Bill videotaped himself raping Peabody, kept the tape, and years later used it to traumatise Sherman by giving it to Penny and getting her to show it to him.
• Intelligence Equals Isolation: Mr. Peabody didn't have friends as a kid because of being a prodigy, and Sherman is the same way.
• Meaningful Name: "The Time Traveler" wishes he could turn back time to prevent his assault from occurring because his son, "The Voyager/Voyeurger", saw a video of him being assaulted.
• Properly Paranoid: When Mr. Peabody sees the letter about Mew's program, he forbids Sherman from going so that Bill won't victimize him. Considering what happened to the other kids who went, he was right to worry. Although most of the kids who went were victimized by Ratigan, Bill has victimized at least one other student.
• The Talk: Mr. Peabody was forced to give Sherman the talk after Sherman saw the video of Bill assaulting him.

The Unsoiled Dove and the Blue Pigeon Flyer (Mrs. Hawkins and Jim)

• Asshole Victim: Leland got bored with family life, turned to drinking, drugs, and gambling, was unfaithful and gave Sarah STDs, then walked out when Jim was eight, leaving Sarah to prostitute herself to keep the inn afloat. Jim still doesn't think he deserved what eventually happened to him.
• Disappeared Dad: Mr. Hawkins walked out when Jim was eight.
• Leit Motif: The Decemberists' "A Cautionary Song" and "The Mariner's Revenge".
• Meaningful Name: In archaic slang, a soiled dove is a prostitute and a blue pigeon flyer is a thief who steals lead from rooftops. Mrs. Hawkins prostituted herself and wants to leave that behind, and Jim climbed on roofs to skateboard illegally.
• The Oldest Profession: Mrs. Hawkins partly kept the inn running via prostituting herself out.
• Out with a Bang: Leland struggled when the crooked cops assaulted him and they bashed his head against the cell bars, accidentally killing him.
• Prison Rape: Happened to both Jim and his dad.
• Shout-Out: Jim mentions an incident at the gorge outside of town and says "I think the ambulance is still there."
• Struggling Single Mother: Mrs. Hawkins was stuck raising Jim and running the inn on her own after her parents passed and her husband walked out.
• Teen Pregnancy: Jim was one, and while Mrs. Hawkins admits she had him too early, she still cares for him. However, it's implied to have been the reason her husband, Jim's dad, walked out.

La Vierge Madeleine (Miss Clavel)

• Blaming the Victim: She only had sex with Leopold to save Madeline, but the clergy is unsympathetic since it wasn't forced.
• Friend to All Children: Worked at a girls school and loved the students like her own daughters, especially Madeline. Her chapter is even structured around the letters she gets from them.
• Meaningful Name: "La Vierge Marie" is the French name for the Virgin Mary; Miss Clavel modifies it with the name of Madeline, the girl she loved like a daughter and lost.
  • This could also be a reference to Mary Magdalene-a follower of Jesus who is widely believed to be a sex-worker despite there being no evidence in the text. "Madeleine" does mean "from Magdala."
• Nun Too Holy: Subverted. Miss Clavel has sex with Leopold, and is consequently kicked out of the church. But she only did it in order to save Madeline.
• Sexual Extortion: Leopold kidnaps Madeline and tells Miss Clavel that he'll give her back if she submits sexually to him.

The Math Wizard and the Unsung Hero (Ian and Barley)

• An Arm and a Leg: In order to escape from Bill, Barley hacked off his own foot.
• Big Brother Instinct: Barley always thought Ratigan was creepy and did his best to protect Ian from him.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: What happened to Barley, who only mentions plently of sharp objects.
• Katanas Are Just Better: Subverted. Barley comes at Ratigan wielding an iaito.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Ian driving Barley into a rage by accusing him of jealousy when he was trying to protect him from Ratigan led to Barley getting kidnapped and tortured.
• Properly Paranoid: Considering what's been shown of him in the series, Barley was completely right to try and keep Ian away from him.
• Torture Cellar: Barley is kept in the Northwest Manor's torture chamber by Bill.
• Villain Team-Up: Ratigan calls Bill in to get Barley out of the way when Barley keeps Ian away from him.
• You're Just Jealous: Ian accused Barley of being jealous over him being a math wiz when the latter tried to keep him away from Ratigan.

The Growth Cycle - the Seed (Rosemary), the Sprout (Fennel), the Bud (Chicory), and the Bloom (Lavender)

For Lavender by herself, look at With Pearl And Ruby Glowing Antagonists

• Archnemesis Dad: Lavender is an Ark member, under the name Ms. Spittlebug (an insect which parasitises lavender plants).
• Cordon Bleugh Chef: Chicory's recipe contains some... interesting elements.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Lavender watches over her kids from afar, and does not take it well when she finds out Chicory was the Ark's latest victim.
• Good Girls Avoid Abortion: Averted, as Rosemary wants one, but doesn't want Fennel to find out, so she calls Chicory to bring her some herbal abortifacients.
• Human Trafficking: Lavender works for the Ark.
• Leit Motif: Jimmie Rogers' "English Country Garden" and Immortal Technique's "Dance with the Devil".
• Luke, I Am Your Father: Neither Chicory nor Lavender realised who the other was until after she'd already supervised and participated in his gang-rape.
• Meaningful Name: Their code names relate to plants (youngest child Rosemary is the Seed, older brother Chicory is the Bud).
• Moral Myopia: Lavender willingly participates in Human Trafficking and gang rape, but becomes incesed when she realizes her son is the latest victim. She turns around and shoots her accomplices.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Lavender wouldn't care about anyone else, but is horrified to realise her victim is her son.
• Parental Incest: Lavender is the first one to rape Chicory.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Lavender shoots Chicory's other assailants on the spot.
• Sex as a Rite-of-Passage: Participating in a gang-rape is the initiation ritual for working with the Ark.
• Teen Pregnancy: Rosemary gets pregnant from Aster.

The Wight Rabbit (Ruby) and the White Rabbit (Max)

• Adaptational Sexuality: Max is gay and married to Sam. (This is implied to be canon or at least a Running Gag with Sam and Max, but Ruby's Max is only four and doesn't have a known canon sexuality.)
• Ambiguous Situation: The story is set up so that the reader doesn't know which of the two is telling the story and which of the two is dead until they recognise Max.
• An Arm and a Leg: Ruby's corpse was found because a coyote pulled one of her arms out of the grave, and decades later Max dug up her remains to make a knife from the bones of her other arm.
• Animal Motifs: Rabbits, appropriately. Their Leitmotif is "White Rabbit," Ruby was buried in a rabbit burrow and had her remains spread by the animals, and one of the most prominent things Max has left of his sister is a stuffed rabbit she owned.
• Bad with the Bone: Max dug up Ruby's corpse and made a knife out of the bones of her remaining arm with which to inflict a Karmic Death on her killer.
• Berserk Button: Ruby has become this for Max. Sam touching her things is enough for his husband to shove him away and have a minor Freak Out.
• Big Sister Instinct: Ruby tried to keep Max safe. It didn't end well for her.
• Composite Character: The Max from Sam and Max is the one from Max and Ruby as an adult.
• Empathy Doll Shot: Empathy Doll Scene at least, in "Cat Out of the Bag" Sam's discovery of Ruby's stuffed animal is played for horror as it's the first time he realizes how young she was when she died.
• Eye Scream: Lorne accidentally put his thumb through Ruby's eye when picking up her severed head.
• Happily Adopted: Sam and Max adopted Darla Gugenheek.
• Harmful to Minors: Max was only four when he saw Ruby's horribly mutilated body. It's not surprising that he has a lot of issues currently.
• If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him!: The knife doesn't go in all the way when Max tries to stab Lorne, and Ruby's spirit tells Max she's protecting him from himself, implying she used minor Poltergeist powers to prevent her little brother from becoming a murderer.
• Innocence Lost: Max outright says that he stopped being an innocent four year old the moment he saw Ruby's body.
• Knight Templar Big Brother: Little brother in this case. Max tracks down Ruby's killer as an adult and tries to behead him for what he did to his sister.
• Leit Motif: Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit".
• A Love to Dismember: Max dug up Ruby's corpse and made a knife out of her arm bones.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Presumably averted; Ruby seems to be sufficiently real to control Max's knife.
• Meaningful Name: The names are deliberately similar, to make it unclear who's talking. Max is the White Rabbit in a reference to the Leit Motif and his "chasing rabbits", seeking a way to get rid of the pain of losing Ruby. Ruby is the Wight Rabbit, a wight being a type of undead being or spirit, in reference to her status as a ghost.
• Morality Pet: Sam, Darla, and Ruby are Max's, since they're also implied to be just about the only people he cares about.
  • Morality Chain: Ruby, arguably. Max was nowhere near as Ax-Crazy before she died.
• Off with His Head!: Lorne cut Ruby's head off and Max makes an attempt to do the same to Lorne.
• Our Ghosts Are Different: Ruby is able to control Max's knife hand, confirming she's really there.
• Parental Neglect: Ruby was forced to raise Max because their parents were almost never around. The foster homes that Max got sent to after Ruby's murder weren't much better.
• Promotion to Parent: Deconstructed. Ruby wasn't very good at dealing with Max or his implied neurodivergence. She's shown shaking and yelling at him and is implied to have drugged him to keep him asleep. Max himself points out how this wasn't her fault because a seven year old girl should never have been put in that situation to begin with.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: The entire chapter is Max ranting to Lorne about how his murder of Ruby ruined Max's life.
• Scary Teeth: Max got his front teeth filed to points.
• Shout-Out: There are a few subtle references to the SCP Foundation entries SCP-1903 and SCP-2999.
• Slashed Throat: How Ruby was killed.
• Slasher Smile: Max gives a scary one to Ruby's killer shortly before he takes his revenge. Or at least tries to.
• Survivor Guilt: Max has some serious guilt on how he never went looking for Ruby or the fact that Lorne killed her to get at him.
• Teens Are Monsters: Lorne is described as an "older boy" in the flashback, not an adult.
• Trouser Space: Disturbing version; Max hides his knife inside a cut in his own leg.

The Freshies - the annoying one (Oscar), the annoying female one (Bea), the REALLY annoying one (Milo), sexual harassment clam (Clamantha), the one that bit him (Pirahnica), the short orange one (Finberley), the one that stole his credit cards (Shellsea), the one with crabs (Randy), the one whose mother won't approve an IEP (Jocktopus), the big orange one (Koi), the one with anemia (Albert), the one with the duck (Bo), Steve Jackson - and Mr. Seahorse (Mr. Baldwin)

• Abuse Mistake: The students think that Mr. Baldwin's pregnancy was caused by him being raped. In actuality, he wanted to get pregnant and it was in vitro.
• Adaptational Name Change: Oscar and Milo call each other Aat and Sakchai when they get angry. It's common for Asian people in America to have both an Asian name and a Western name, which seems to be what's going on here.
• Adaptational Nationality: Oscar and Milo use a few Thai words/phrases when they start arguing, in reference to them allegedly being Siamese fighting fish in canon.
• Big "SHUT UP!": Steve Jackson has to yell at everyone to shut up so Mr. Baldwin can speak.
• Deconstructive Parody: Their chapter serves as one to mpreg fic. Mr. Baldwin gets pregnant because he's trans, but his giving birth has a major impact on his students which leads to an assumption that he must have been forced to carry the children to term. This is (unlike other chapters) all played for laughs.
• Extremely Protective Child: Milo to counter Yut's Papa Wolf. When he and Oscar devolve into bickering, he throws around several lines about his brother hurting their dad's feelings.
• Maternity Crisis: Mr. Baldwin went into labor on a field trip. This was made worse by the fact he was carrying eight babies and it could have killed him, with that being the reason he was originally scheduled for a c-section, but he and his kids thankfully pulled through.
• Meaningful Name: "Mr. Seahorse" is a trans man who was pregnant. His students (except Steve Jackson) are given demeaning nicknames based on how he views them.
• Mister Seahorse: Trans man Mr. Baldwin got pregnant through IVF, and he's even called "Mr. Seahorse" in the narration.
• Missing Mom: Milo and Oscar's mom died from an illness while their dad, Mr. Yut, was in Klong Prem.
• Noodle Incident: Milo and Oscar mention a "unicycle incident" which resulted in their father ending up on TV, which becomes a Resolved Noodle Incident in Part 4's "Stories from the Late Night Show". There's been no elaboration yet on the incidents which led to Mr. Baldwin thinking of Pirahnica and Shellsea as "the one that bit him" and "the one that stole his credit cards", though.
• Parental Incest: Jocktopus and Pirahnica mention that their respective dads abused them both, and Pirahnica claims her mother killed her father over it.
• Punny Name: The "Freshies" are the freshman class, and in canon they're freshwater fish.
• Prison Rape: Heavily implied, and later confirmed in Part 4, to have happened to Milo and Oscar's father.
• Rape as Backstory: Some of the students have this going on and that's why they jumped to conclusions.
• Rapid-Fire Interrupting: The students keep interrupting Mr. Baldwin when he tries to explain that he wasn't raped and got pregnant of his own volition.
• Too Many Babies: All eight of Mr. Baldwin's embryos implanted and survived.
• Unwanted Assistance: Mr. Baldwin really doesn't appreciate the kids trying to help him recover from a rape that never happened.

The Bitch (Ace Yu) and the Cur (Elliot)

• Actor/Role Confusion: Ace is mistaken for a real detective because he's still in his costume from playing one on TV.
• Creative Differencesinvoked: In-Universe. Ace wanted an episode of Dog City to touch upon his character's Mongolian heritage, but Elliot didn't want that because he thought it would be too "controversial". The two argued about it until Ace attacked Elliot and was assaulted in jail, leading to Elliot changing his mind.
• Decomposite Character: Ace Yu (Ace's name from the Muppets special) is a real person in-universe, while Ace Hart (his name from the semi-animated TV show) is the character Ace Yu plays.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Ace asks to title the episode of Dog City based on his experiences as "Bitch". Elliot thinks it's a bit extreme, implying it's not a typical episode name for the show, but Ace has his reasons, so Elliot goes with it.
• Interchangeable Asian Cultures: A pet peeve of Ace and, according to Spiffy in his own chapter, a criticism levelled at Dog City, the show Ace stars in. Elliot was concerned about alienating mainstream audiences and didn't do anything with Ace's obvious Asian race in the show, but regrets it after their fight and Ace's resulting assault, and asks Ace to help him with an episode about the character having the same Mongolian heritage the real Ace does.
• It Belongs in a Museum: Referenced; according to Ace, it really doesn't.
  ACE: Sure is quiet… Why’d it have to be a museum? Fucking hate museums… Stolen shit… Put up for a bunch of white people to gawk at… No one ever asks how we feel about it.
• Meaningful Name: Ace and Elliot aren't Palace members, but the narration calls them the Bitch and the Cur, both crass terms relating to dogs, after Ace was made a "prison bitch". Ace's birth name, Muunokhoi, is a Mongolian name meaning "vicious dog"; Ace refers to the Mongolian custom of naming children after frightening or ugly things to scare away death and misfortune from them.
• Pariah Prisoner: Ace is mistaken for a real detective when he's put in the holding cell and the other arrestees are angry at the police, resulting in them attacking him.
• Prison Rape: Ace is arrested after a fistfight with Elliot and put in a cell with several people who don't recognise his fairly obscure TV show and have reason to hate the local police, while he's still in costume as a detective.
• Related in the Adaptation: Ace and Elliot are half-brothers on their mother's side.
• Revenge via Storytelling: Elliot writes an "annoying twink" based on complaining neighbour Oegwipali into the show.
• Script Fic: The chapter's written with the memory fragments intertwined with a half-finished episode script Elliot's writing.
• Stage Name: "Ace Yu", the actor playing Ace Hart, is actually named Muunokhoi Yuugur, and went with something more Western, probably at Elliot's request.

The Opposing Pairs^{For full list, click here}Jacob and Esau (Silver/Chase and Elaine), Ebb and Flow and Bianca (Latios, Latias, and Bianca), Kiss and Cry (Prima and Lorelei), Oil and Water (May and Max), Smoke and Mirrors (Jimmy and Marina), Gall and Wormwood (Alain and Mairin), Fits and Starts (Risa and Rick), Hammer and Sickle (Umbreon and Espeon), Yako and Zenko (Eevee and Sylveon), Annual and Perennial (Fennel and Amanita/Sharon), Flesh and Blood (Lillie and Gladion), Tooth and Claw (Paul and Reggie), Hound and Hare (Yamper and Chloe), Rags and Riches (Peony and Chairman Rose), Rack and Ruin (Marnie and Piers), Lion and Lamb (Leon and Hop), Harmony and Melody (Victor and Gloria), Pins, Needles, Thread, and Thrum (Tsubomi, Shoko, Anna, and Rikuo), Steam and Diesel (Emmet and Ingo), Time and Tide (Cynthia and Verity), Cradle and Grave (Nate/Rosa and Hilbert/Hilda), Penny-Wise and Pound-Foolish and the Visionary (Ditto and Roger and Howard Clifford), Shock and Awe (Clemont and Bonnie), Straightedge and Hardline (Anthea and Concordia), Peaches and Cream (Fantina and the ghost girl), Safe and Sound (Bidoof and the Trainer), Hot and Cold (kids from the GOTCHA! music video), Snowmelt and Rainfall (Alec and Zorua), Toil and Trouble (Avery and Bede), Fire-Burn and Cauldron-Bubble (Marnie again and Klara), Sicily and Naples (Giovanni and Leandro/Nanu), Ephraim and Menashe (Leaf and Green)

• Abusive Offspring: Invoked; Howard Clifford accuses Roger of assaulting him.
• Abusive Parents:
  • Giovanni separated his twins and kept Silver because Elaine was a girl and obviously wasn't of pure Italian heritage.
  • Prima's father kidnapped and sexually abused her.
  • Alain and Mairin's father molested them and killed Mairin's dog.
  • Lusamine was an Education Mama who killed Gladion's pets and raped him when his father died, but she reformed when Lillie was born.
  • Cynthia and Verity's mother neglected Verity because she reminded her of the rape that produced her.
  • Hilda's parents threw her out for being trans, then guiltily adopted Nate and forced him to dress like her.
  • Howard Clifford used his sons as a supply for blood transfusions, then persuaded Ditto to have sex with him to frame Roger for assault.
  • Ghetsis raped N and left him for his sisters to raise, and trained all of them to follow his extremist beliefs.
  • Fantina and the ghost girl were left at home all the time with an abusive guardian by their jetsetting parents.
  • Bidoof's mother didn't let her eat much, hit her, and called her stupid.
  • The GOTCHA! kids' dad had sex with his older daughter to produce them, then when she ran away he sexually abused them too.
  • Avery's parents beat him when he didn't live up to the standard Bede set and eventually kicked him out.
• Adopting the Abused: Tsubomi, Shoko, Anna, and Rikuo were adopted by real families who didn't know Miss Hattie's was a trafficking front, and are now much happier.
• Back to Front: As the narratives for each section play out in order, the movie fragments from the sections opposite of them play instead (ex: "Ephraim and Menashe" have the fragments of "Jacob and Esau" and vice-versa).
• Bad People Abuse Animals: Alain and Mairin's father and Lusamine killed their children's pets, and Giovanni's a confirmed animal smuggler. Paul kicks a cat and injures and abandons a dog, and he's not exactly evil but he's definitely portrayed as a jerk.
• Barefoot Suicide: All that was found of Green were her shoes, which fell off the bridge after her.
• Big Brother Instinct:
  • Red wishes he'd been killed instead of Leaf so the twins would still have each other.
  • Latios lets Latias stand on his shoulders to reach the broken window and escape the flooded basement while he drowns.
  • Cynthia sacrifices her shot at a good college to stay and look after Verity.
  • Fantina is implied to actually be the ghost girl's little sister, but she poisons the butler to protect her. Unfortunately, it backfires when the ghost girl eats the poisoned sugar too.
  • Risa runs fast enough to outrun the bus to the hospital when she thinks Rick is in danger.
  • Ayuka goes back to her abusive father to save her children/siblings.
  • Alain rushes to see Mairin in the hospital after she throws herself off the balcony.
  • Reggie has sex with Vachir in exchange for him letting Paul go.
  • Lucario and the trainer intervene when they catch Bidoof's mother beating her, though they don't know her at the time, and she's now their foster sister.
  • Giovanni ships off Shauntal to the Ark so his brother can have uncontested custody of Acerola and Shauntal won't press charges against him.
• Big, Screwed-Up Family:
  • The Eeveelutions' line is... complicated. Along with multiple members being raped or used as sex slaves during wars, Kagetora is the child of accidental Kissing Cousins and became unknowingly engaged to Valerie who is either his half-sister or his niece (it's not specified).
  • The Ketchum and Oak blended family get in on this too. Delia was impregnated as a teenager by mob boss Giovanni who took Silver and left her with Elaine. She later married the father of Red, Leaf, and Green, who got her pregnant with Ash; no information has yet been given about said father, but when Leaf and Green were preteens Leaf was molested by Bill who groomed Green into killing her. Green disappeared in either a failed or faked suicide and has been living entirely under Bill's thumb for four years, killing more people and planning to kill Elaine. Blue's father Maxie took the fall for Green and has been imprisoned and abused by the crooked cops in her place. Oak treated Blue harshly, fearing he'd grow up to be "like his father", while missing the fact that his other child and their spouse actually were molesting their children Gary and Daisy. Blue feared Oak's reaction and didn't tell him when he fell in with Giovanni's runners, who raped him when they found out he was dating Red. Daisy and Silver, meanwhile, were both taken by the Ark and died by suicide, and the family's only just found out.
• Bilingual Bonus: Eevee and Sylveon's wills are written in Vietnamese and contain useful information.
• A Birthday, Not a Break: Leaf got murdered on Blue's tenth birthday.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Bill convinced Green to murder her sister. He's implied to have talked her into killing other people since then. She's already planning to make Elaine her next victim.
• Brother–Sister Incest: Jimmy and Marina are siblings and are in a relationship.
• Bungled Suicide:
  • Green jumped off of a bridge but survived.
  • Mairin fell from the fourth floor balcony into a pool after Chespie was killed by her father, but she survived.
  • Verity tried to drown herself, but she survived and lies that she accidentally fell off of the pier instead.
• But Not Too Black: Bidoof gets picked on by her siblings because she's the same race as them but her skin is darker, thus considered less attractive.
• Cain and Abel and Seth: "Ebb and Flow" is a story focusing on Latios and Latias. Bianca's existence as their third sibling is an almost awkward side note as Latias is grieving much harder than she is. Similarly, Red fulfills this role with Leaf and Green, being a third wheel to their extremely close relationship. And Klara appears after Marnie and Piers' story has been told, just to throw a wrench into things, revealing herself to be Marnie's twin.
• Call-Back: Readers might remember Lennie mentioning that you have to be pure Italian to be part of the Mafia. This is implied to be why Giovanni didn't want Elaine, because Silver was white-passing so he could pretend he was full Italian, while Elaine wasn't.
• Career-Ending Injury: Lorelei's kidnapper broke her ankle, ruining her chances of being an ice dancer.
• Child by Rape: Acerola, Verity, Umbreon and the GOTCHA! kids are results of their mothers being raped.
• Childhood Brain Damage: Mulmangcho blames Jimmy and Marina's relationship on them being dropped when they were young.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: Basically what's inflicted on Avery and the other test subjects; he suffers starvation, isolation, sleep deprivation, surgery without anaesthetic, sexual violation, poisoning, intentional infection with diseases, and having a piece of his skull cut out.
• Composite Character:
  • Comic or game-only characters are merged with anime characters. Hilda/Hilbert and Nate/Rosa are also merged into single people as opposed to Opposite-Sex Clone pairs.
  • Lusamine is an interesting example, as she is a composite between both versions of her game and anime selves.
• Death by Adaptation: Mohn is dead here, while in canon, he was only sent into another universe before returning sans memory.
• Decomposite Character: Prima, who's the version of Lorelei in the English dub of the first Pokémon anime, is a separate character from the actual Lorelei here, who at one point pretends to be Lorelei after she sees a missing poster with her on it.
• Defiled Forever: Referenced; Bill tells Green that Leaf's body is "ruined" by molestation to persuade Green to kill her.
• Delayed Diagnosis: Bidoof didn't know she had SPD because everyone thought she was "stupid" for not understanding people when they talked. She ends up diagnosed after being taken away from her abusive mom.
• Delivery Not Desired: Eevee and Sylveon wrote letters to each other and kept them, not knowing where to send them or whether the other was alive or would want to hear from them.
• A Dick in Name: Ditto is a human named Dick and is willing to help his father perform medical experiments on teenagers and frame his own twin.
• Doppelgänger: Prima passes herself off as Lorelei.
• Draft Dodging: Umbreon's a hippy who protested the Vietnam War. Not technically a draft-dodger, though, as he's not a US citizen.
• Dragged into Drag: To alleviate their guilt about kicking their trans daughter out and getting her killed, Hilda's parents adopt Nate and force him to dress and act how Hilda wanted to.
• Dramatic Irony: Blue and Red talk about how Blue's dad was arrested when he confessed to murdering Red's sister Leaf. He didn't actually do it and took the fall for the real murderer, Green.
• Driven to Suicide:
  • Silver kills himself after shooting Daisy in a Suicide Pact.
  • Green jumped off a bridge. Subverted in that she's actually still alive.
  • Mairin jumped off the fourth floor balcony into the pool when her father killed Chespie, but she survived.
  • Verity tried to drown herself in the ocean after overhearing Cynthia and their mother say they didn't ask to have her. She survived and tells people she fell off the pier.
• Elective Mute: Latias refuses to talk after Latios' death because her voice sounds like his.
• Evil Vegetarian: Ghetsis is an extremist hardline vegan who molested his son and left his daughters to raise him, is implied to have committed statutory rape to produce his kids in the first place and possibly had a hand in their mothers' deaths, and runs PLASMA, an organisation similar to PETA which harms animals more than it helps them, such as by setting pets "free" and keeping a Komodo dragon in his room.
• False Rape Accusation: Howard Clifford frames his son Roger for assaulting him.
• Foil: The theme of this chapter, and not just within the pairs in question; each pair has a story contrasting with another.
• Forced from Their Home: Hilda was kicked out for being trans.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Team Yell raped and murdered Gloria out of jealousy.
• Groin Attack: Bidoof's mother beat her genitals with a belt.
• Happily Married: Eevee escaped captivity and married a fur farmer in Japan, who took Umbreon in as his own child, and the Kimono Girls mention that they were happy. Espeon escaped from her abusive forced marriage and married again willingly.
• Harmful to Minors: Paul witnessed Reggie's co-workers at the kennel assault him.
• Heroic Sacrifice: As the basement they're trapped in floods, Latios and Latias notice a way out, but neither of them can reach it on their own, so Latios decides to give Latias a boost up to save her while he ends up drowning.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Ghetsis is eaten by the wild Komodo dragon he kept captive in his bedroom.
• Human Trafficking: Silver and Ingo were taken by the Ark. Latios and Latias were planned to be trafficked off by Giovanni to the Ark, but he never got to it, but he did ship Shantaul off in order for his brother to have full custody over Acerola.
• Hypocrite: Ghetsis taught his children that all non-procreational sex was wrong, then molested his son.
• Insane Troll Logic: Emmett misunderstands when Ingo's therapist mentions that revisiting the source of a trauma can help bring back repressed memories, and rapes Ingo again in an attempt to bring his memory back.
• Karmic Death: Abusive hardline vegan Ghetsis was eaten by a Komodo dragon.
• The Kindnapper: The GOTCHA! kids' mother kidnaps them from their abusive father.
• Kissing Cousins: Umbreon and Espeon have sex without realising their parents are related.
• Mad Scientist: The Billions twins are both mad scientists, running a torturous experiment on other sets of twins.
• Mafia Princess: Silver is Giovanni's son and the heir to his criminal empire. Downplayed a little since he went missing while his father was still working under Tom's parents.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Latias and Latios are given the human names Carmine and Azzurro, meaning "red" and "blue" in reference to the Pokemon's colours in canon and fitting with them being the triplet siblings of Bianca, whose name means "white". Their Palace nicknames are "Ebb and Flow", and their story involves a flood.
  • "Kiss and Cry" are named after the movie Kiss and Cry, about a terminally ill ice-skater.
  • "Yako and Zenko" were the daughters of a fox-hunting family and are referred to with the names of two types of mythological kitsune. Yako, or "field foxes", also called nogitsune, are less powerful, while zenko, or "good foxes", are powerful and benevolent servants of the gods. Eevee was a cis woman while Sylveon was a trans woman, portrayed in the Kimono Girls' play as being a shapeshifter.
  • "Sicily and Naples" are members of the Italian Mafia.
  • "Safe" was rescued by "Sound", and both of them have problems with their hearing (Sensory Processing Disorder and full deafness).
  • "Toil and Trouble" and "Fire-Burn and Cauldron-Bubble" are two sets of twins, i.e. double doubles, with connecting stories about a scientific study on twins.
• Misplaced Retribution: Paul hates and mistreats animals because Reggie was assaulted by his coworkers at an animal shelter and the animals couldn't protect him.
• Moral Myopia: Giovanni is fine with animal smuggling and shipping people like Shantaul to the Ark, but when he learns his son Silver was taken by the Ark he goes to get revenge with his estranged brother.
• Morality Pet: Other characters mention that Giovanni genuinely did love Silver despite being a mob boss.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Fantina tried to protect her sister by poisoning the butler, but it backfires when the ghost girl eats the poisoned sugar as well.
• Not Me This Time: While Max was at the study, Ratigan never got to him. Instead, Bill manipulate him to assaulting May by convincing him that is a way to deal with big sisters.
• Off with His Head!: Gloria got decapitated.
• Opposites Theme Naming: The pairs are each named after the halves of a typical idiom.
• Our Ghosts Are Different: The ghost girl and Latios are still hanging around their families, and Silver and Daisy manifested to encourage Blue not to give up and die when Team Rocket grunts assaulted him.
• Outliving One's Offspring:
  • All of Eevee's babies from her time as a Sex Slave died except for Umbreon.
  • Silver killed himself after Daisy convinces him to be in a Suicide Pact, while his parents (and twin sister Elaine) are still alive.
  • Espeon suffered eight miscarriages.
• Parental Favoritism:
  • Giovanni took Silver in, but left Elaine with their mother Delia, because Elaine looked less passably Italian.
  • Gary's been favoured by Oak ever since Blue's father supposedly murdered Leaf, as Oak fears Blue turning out like his father.
  • Lusamine only made her Heel–Face Turn and became a good parent after Lillie was born, leaving Gladion trying not to feel bitter.
  • Cynthia's mother was fine with her but neglected Verity because of her origins.
  • Howard Clifford persuaded one of his twin sons to frame the other because the first, Ditto, was more loyal and helpful to him than the second, Roger.
  • Rose mentions he was favoured over Peony as a child because of his chess skill.
  • Bede was favoured by their parents over Avery because of his higher academic skills, and Piers paid more attention to Marnie than Klara because Marnie skipped class and caused more trouble.
• Parental Incest:
  • Howard convinces his son Ditto to have sex with him so he can frame Roger with a False Rape Accusation.
  • The GOTCHA! kids' father produced them by having sex with his daughter, and then when she left him, he started to sexually abuse them.
  • Ghetsis raped N before leaving him to his daughters to take care of.
  • Prima's father took her on "vacation" and sexually abused her
  • Lusamine sexually abused Gladion after Mohn died.
  • Alain and Mairin's father molested them.
• Parental Substitute:
  • Cynthia raised Verity because their mother neglected her because of bad memories.
  • Reggie took Paul with him to America and lived with him without their dad for a while. Paul went back to Japan after Reggie's first assault, but is back now.
  • Piers seems to have raised Marnie and Klara.
• Personal Effects Reveal: Implied. Eevee and Sylveon leave the letters they never sent to each other to the same relative in their wills, and the family must have found out because the Kimono Girls turn their story into a play.
• Personality Blood Types: Bidoof mentions that she's the only type-A in her family, which her siblings told her means she's "the boring one."
• Politically Incorrect Hero: Anthea and Concordia are generally nice, but are still hardline vegans and show distaste for homosexuality. Hardline veganism forbids all non-procreative sex or masturbation, for reasons of purity of mind and body.
• Posthumous Character: Gloria, Silver, Hilda, Leaf, Latios, the ghost girl, Eevee, Sylveon, and possibly Umbreon and Espeon are already dead.
• Prison Rape: Umbreon was assaulted when he was arrested for protesting.
• Related in the Adaptation:
  • Silver is a Composite Character of Chase from Let's Go! who's twin is Elaine. Giovanni and Delia are his parents, and Red and Ash are their half-brothers.
  • Latios, Latias and Bianca are triplets.
  • Ditto is Howard's son and Roger's brother.
  • Verity is Cynthia's sister as Verity is a Child by Rape.
  • The Trainer and Lucario are brothers, and Bidoof is their foster sister after she was separated from her mother Staraptor, who abused her.
  • The Eeveelutions and Eevee from Eevee & Friends are all siblings, and Umbreon and Espeon from Pokémon Mystery Dungeon are the kids of Eevee and Sylveon respectively. Kagetora is Umbreon and Espeon's son as they had sex while not realizing they were cousins, and Valerie, the Kimono Girls, the Furisode girls and the Eeveelution brothers are Umbreon's various kids and grandkids, but specifics aren't stated.
  • Klara and Marine are twins, and Piers is their older brother. Avery and Bede, Jimmy and Marina, the GOTCHA! kids and Green and Leaf are also twins.
• Replacement Goldfish: Hilda is thrown out of her home for being trans and killed in the Northwest Manor torture chamber. Guiltily overcompensating, her parents buy all the girls' clothes and pink things they would have given a daughter, then force them on Nate, their adopted cis male child.
• Revenge Porn Blackmail: Ratigan threatened Clemont with sending the inappropriate photos he had Bonnie take of him to all the colleges he applied to unless he let him rape him.
• The Runaway:
  • Jimmy and Marina ran away when their parents planned to separate them.
  • Ayuka ran away from home alone once, then returned and ran away again with her kids in tow.
  • Espeon escaped her abusive husband and remarried.
• Scarpia Ultimatum: Reggie let Vachir rape him in return for dropping charges of animal cruelty against Paul.
• Sibling Rivalry: May and Max have one, which gets even worse when Max assaults her in a fit of rage because Bill told him that it was the way to deal with sisters.
• Sex Slave:
  • Silver was sex trafficked in the Ark with Daisy.
  • Lorelei was kidnapped and kept in a basement by a strange man who abused her.
  • Eevee was made into a comfort woman during WW2, and Espeon was taken for forced marriage during the Vietnam War.
  • Giovanni was planning to pimp out Latios and Latias.
  • Implied to be averted with Shauntal, whom Giovanni had shipped off to the Ark; she's referred to in his email as "Miss Glow-Worm", implying they have her doing something more important than being merchandise, perhaps luring in other victims like Amelia does.
• Shout-Out: Calisota County's last hurricane was in 1978, when the Springfield Hall of Records was mysteriously blown away.
• Show Within a Show: The Kimono Girls perform a metaphorical fantasy play about Eevee and Sylveon's lives, portraying them as kitsune, while the memory fragments show what really happened.
• Suicide Pact: When Silver gets a gun, he strikes a deal with Daisy to kill her and then himself.
• Surprise Incest:
  • Umbreon and Espeon had sex while not realising they were the son of Eevee and the daughter of Sylveon, respectively, and thus cousins, producing Kagetora, whom Espeon raised, never seeing Umbreon again. Later, Kagetora became engaged to Valerie, who's either the daughter or granddaughter of Umbreon.
  • The GOTCHA! kids knew about the incest they were involved directly in with their father, but were surprised to find their father's girlfriend was actually also his daughter (possibly adoptive, though) and their birth mother.
• Taking the Kids:
  • Ayuka went back to her abusive father in order to kidnap/rescue their incest children.
  • Giovanni sent Shauntal to the Ark so his brother could have custody of Acerola.
• Tampering with Food and Drink: Fantina tried to poison the butler with antifreeze crystals in the sugar bowl. Antifreeze is sweet, so he didn't notice.
• Torture Cellar: Hilda died in the Northwests' one. In Pacifica's chapter, one of the backwards lines is signed by Hilda and reads "Tell my father I forgive him".
• Tragic Dream: Lorelei wanted to be an ice dancer and her parents invested a lot of money and time in her lessons, but her kidnapper broke her ankle and kept her till she was too old to start training for the Olympics anyway.
• Tragically Misguided Favor: Emmett thought he could help Ingo regain his memories from before his time at the Ark by raping him again.
• Trauma-Induced Amnesia:
  • Ingo lost his memory during his time at the Ark.
  • Subverted with Chloe; she was nearly assaulted when she was very young, but wasn't badly hurt and didn't understand how serious the situation was, so she almost entirely forgot about it because it didn't seem important at the time.
• Twin Telepathy: Averted. The point of the Billions' experiment was to prove that twin telepathy doesn't exist, and they appear to be right, since Bede had no idea what was going on.
• The Unfavorite: Bidoof's siblings were never hit and got to eat more than her. She attributes this to her disability, weight, and darker skin.
• Teen Genius: Gloria's the youngest player on the chess team and is so good that she's the captain. Victor, Marnie and Bede are also mentioned to be prodigees though not on the same level as her. Avery was kicked out for not being one like Bede.
• True Companions: Silver and Daisy have been together in the Ark since they were twelve years old.
• Villainous Breakdown: Giovanni is still a terrible person and has happily shipped other people off to the Ark, but is truly heartbroken when he finds out what happened to Silver and calls in his estranged brother to help him arrange revenge.
• Waving Signs Around: Umbreon is shot in the arm at a protest and later arrested at another.
• Wanted a Gender-Conforming Child: Hilda's parents threw her out for being trans, then went to the other extreme out of guilt and tried to raise cis boy Nate as a girl.
• Weight Woe: Bidoof is self-conscious about being chubby due to her mom restricting her diet.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Anthea, Concordia, and N really meant well with their hardline practices, but did harmful things such as setting pets free to roam and probably get killed. Ghetsis wasn't quite as well-meaning.