History Characters / ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents

* DarkAndTroubledPast: According to Charles, Sir has a terrible childhood.

* TheFaceless: Sir's face is always obscured by cigar smoke. The one time he's seen without a cigar, he's in a sauna and his face still can't be seen. As with Snicket, {{averted|trope}} in the TV series.

* HeelFaceTurn: {{Averted|Trope}}: [[spoiler:When she breaks up with Olaf, Jerome hopes she'll make one. But she makes it quite clear that she won't and still hates the Baudelaries and co., she just now hates Olaf too.]]

* IronicName: She's high-class and impeccably hygienic woman whose last name is "Squalor".

* UnadoptableOrphan: They are basically the epitome of Unlucky Orphans. Whenever they are placed in a home, the cruel Count Olaf comes and does away with their guardian to gain their vast fortune. The only reason why Olaf hasn't been properly dealt with in all of the books is due to [[AdultsAreUseless every other moral adult being too naive, distracted or unhelpful.]]

* PutOnABus: Duncan and Isadora escape the Village of Fowl Devotees on a Self Sustaining Mobile Home.

* TheDragon: For Olaf in ''The Miserable Mill''. Compared to his other associates until that point like his theatre troupe, she holds equal sway and autonomy in the EvilPlan.

* TheBeautifulElite: The Baudelaires are from a vastly wealthy and likely upper-class family, and are described by Lemony Snicket as possessing pleasant facial features.

* HeWhoFightsMonsters: The Baudelaires fear this and even do some morally questionable things later on -- it's actually quoted in the tenth book.

* OnlySaneMan: Pretty much the only sane people who aren't in the V.F.D. in the entire story, outside of the Quagmires. Unfortunately it rarely helps them.

* AlterEgoActing: Daniel Handler and Lemony Snicket -- separate characters in the books themselves.

* StalkerWithACrush: [[Administrivia/NotASubversion Inverted]] -- Lemony's a good guy, but he does [[spoiler:stalk the children of the woman he loved but couldn't have despite it apparently having been reciprocal at one point.]]

The V.F.D. are a shadowy organization that everyone -- from Olaf to the Baudelaires' parents -- is connected to.

The vice principal of Prufrock Prep.

* GiftedlyBad: Nero thinks he's a genius and a skillful violin musician whose talent is woefully unrecognized, but is really a stupid and unpleasant ManChild who cannot play the violin at all. Nevertheless, he forces all of the students to attend six-hour violin concerts with him playing the violin horribly every night.

** During the climactic [[spoiler:fire in the hotel,]] Remora is also among those who took off their [[spoiler:blindfold]] after hearing the Baudelaire's warning.

* SavedByCanon: Remora and Bass are, in their initial introduction, blatantly revealed to have survived past their introduction… long enough for them to be arrested for robbing a bank, that is.
* ShipTease: Remora and Bass are seen together at one of Nero's recitals, and implied to have become an OutlawCouple.

* MoralityPet: For Count Olaf. His one good, and final act is to get her to a safe place to give birth.

* {{Jerkass}}: Between his dreadful treatment of the students under his charge, laughing at the thought of orphans being forced to live in a hovel, and forcing Sunny (a baby) to function as ''his secretary'', it's clear that Nero is a deeply, '''deeply''' nasty guy.
* GiftedlyBad: Nero thinks he's a super genius and expert violin musician, but is really a stupid Jerkass ManChild who can't play the violin at all. Nonetheless, he forces all the students to attend 6 hour violin concerts with him playing the violin horribly every night.

* IronicName: A high-class and impeccably hygienic woman whose last name is "Squalor".

Two dudes in a "partnership"

** Charles is described as Sir's partner when first introduced, and while the children think he means business partner, he is never actually seen doing anything for the business. Sir explains they split 50/50, yet he does not get a say in business decisions. His role is a domestic one, similar to a housewife. He cooks and cleans for him, and Sir builds him a library. It is implied he's actually his romantic partner and the children purely mixed up the terms domestic partner and business partner. Later on, when they both appear again in The Penultimate Peril, their relationship is even more directly queer. They are seen sharing a hotel room in matching pyjamas and bath robes. They are also seen together in a sauna where Sir makes an almost sexual innuendo towards him, saying that he "likes the smell of hot wood."

** When they are last seen together, [[spoiler:before their implied death]] they are seen holding each others hands to stay together.

* BadBoss: Sir pays his employees in coupons and feeds them only gum.
* CigarChomper: Sir is rarely seen without a cigar in his mouth, and his preferred brand emits so much smoke that it obscures his face. In the TV series, he claims that he hates cigars, but HAS to smoke them because he's the boss.

* ExtremeDoormat: Charles. As seen under AmbiguouslyGay, possibly actually a HenpeckedHusband.
* TheFaceless: Sir's face is always obscured by cigar smoke. The one time he's seen without a cigar, he's in a sauna and his face still can't be seen. As with Snicket, averted in the TV series.

Esme's husband. He's kind of a wimp.

* BadBoss: She is quite condescending towards the Bald Man with the Long Nose, pointing out that she and Olaf are the true villains and that he's merely the minion.
* BitchInSheepsClothing: Makes a point that "you catch more flies with honey than vinegar" and at first comes across as a polite, professional woman, very far removed from the likes of Count Olaf's henchmen. Her true colours are quickly revealed though.

* BookDumb: She once bragged about not reading Anna Karenina. She believes "being well read won't get you anywhere in the world".

* ImpossiblyCoolClothes: Her dress that looks like a fire. Lemony describes it as hideous, but really...
* ImpossiblyTackyClothes: She has a lot of... odd outfits, including ''literal'' stiletto heels and a bikini made of lettuce leaves, among others.

* ShoutOut: Her name is one to the Creator/JDSalinger story "For Esmé -- With Love and Squalor".

* BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy: The narrator and his comrades imply that V.F.D. dates back to UsefulNotes/AncientGreece, that Martin Luther King, Edith Wharton, and Thomas Malthus were involved with it -- although Malthus was on the evil side of the schism -- and that Shakespeare may be alive. However, these may be the result of revisionism in accordance with V.F.D.'s own views.

* GreyAndGreyMorality: Initially implied to be an organization fighting ''against'' people like Olaf[[spoiler:, it's later suggested they aren't so different. Both sides regularly kidnap children to recruit them for their own purposes. Olaf's parents might have even been killed by them.]]

* MilkmanConspiracy: A secret conspiracy that many characters are involved in in some way, makes liberal use of secret codes, has been going on for centuries and was subject to a schism long ago... based on the Volunteer Fire Department.

* ImperiledInPregnancy: She's this by the time she gives birth -- after being attacked by the Great Unknown, she washes up hurt on the island, and is infected by the spores of the Medusoid Mycelium.

* AdultsAreUseless: There are ''many'' useless adults in the series (and that's an understatement!), but Mr. Poe is, by far, the [[PerfectlyCromulentWord uselessest]] one of all -- and we're ''including'' Olaf, Aunt Josephine and Jerome in that; they, at least, have ''reasons'' for their uselessness -- Poe is just an outright idiot with no redeeming qualities, except possibly for the fact that he does genuinely want what's best for the kids despite being ''really'' bad at getting that for them.

* ThePollyanna: Excruciatingly optimistic, to the point where losing his leg doesn't bother him that much.

* DeanBitterman: He is the vice principal and he is very nasty and cruel.

* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Mr. Remora and Ms. Bass are... rather odd sorts of teachers. In Remora's class, one listens to Remora tell bizarre three-sentence-long stories with no particular point; in Bass's class, one simply measures assorted objects (with the metric system!). Quizzes and tests involve remembering the details of the stories and measured objects.

* SavedByCanon: Remora and Bass are, in their initial introduction, blatantly revealed to have survived past their introduction... long enough for them to be arrested for robbing a bank, that is.

* VagueAge: While the other orphans are given exact ages, Sunny is just known as a baby. This is probably to keep her antics from being too unbelievable by tying it to an age.