History YMMV / StarWarsParanormalitiesTrilogy

** ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'' was launched a few months before ''Paranormalities'' started, but content that came later in the game's life bore some interesting similarities:
*** Emperor Valkor and the Valkoran Empire have become this after the announcement of ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'' expansion "Knights of the Fallen Empire" at E3 2015. Said expansion features an Emperor named Valkor''ion'', a so-called immortal emperor who leads a long-hidden empire operating in the Unknown Regions and supposedly using the Empire of Zakuul for a greater purpose, not unlike Valkor and his empire. However, one of the major differences - aside from their focus stories taking place in different eras - is that while Valkorion seems to be a human AbusiveParent, Valkor doesn't have any known children (unless you count other Forceless symbiotes spawned from him) and he's [[HumanoidAbomination most certainly not human]]. In the end, it turned out Valkorion isn't quite human himself - [[spoiler:he is another avatar of the Sith Emperor, who used to be a human or near so about a thousand years ago, but now is an EldritchAbomination with OmnicidalManiac goals. Even further, both characters use avatars to present themselves and operate in multiple places at once while keeping their true selves in the shadows. Two more differences come in that Valkor is a dead spot in the Force while Valkorion is a Dark Force user (although one sometimes called a ''hole'' in the Force), and then their goals differ: Valkorion is an OmnicidalManiac whereas Valkor wants to [[AssimilationPlot assimilate people]] [[TheEvilsOfFreeWill to maintain order]].]] Similar to Valkorion for [[spoiler: Vitiate]], Episode III's prologue reveals that [[spoiler: Valkor is also just an alias for Yalbdalaoth, albeit one stolen from the real Valkor Vangeli while - according Admon Onae - having his body used as a puppet leader for the Forceless Collective]].
*** A mix of HarsherInHindsight, the Traitor Among the Chiss flashpoint reveals why Force-sensitive Chiss are rare: Force-sensitivity is persecuted among the Chiss and considered a genetic impurity to the point that Chiss who exhibit it either are exiled, forced to suppress it, or executed. In ''Paranormalities'', Grein -- a member of a rare purple-eyed subspecies of Chiss - reveals later in the story why Chiss of her kind are a rare sight: [[spoiler: in what would be over 300 years before the events of ''The Old Republic'', the red-eyed Chiss orchestrated a WitchHunt against Chiss with other eye-colors -- after genetic discoveries of them being more likely to be Force-attuned than they are -- leading to the purple-eyed Chiss being scattered across the galaxy and becoming an EndangeredSpecies (other Chiss eye-colors are now extinct) in the present day. Supplementary material also reveals that some purple-eyed Chiss sided with the Republic when they learned that the Chiss Ascendancy was allied with the Sith Empire, and seeing how in that time period they still persecute Force-sensitivity, they had every right to be worried.]]

** There are quite a few instances throughout the story where it's noted that there are some injuries that [[HealingMagicIsTheHardest the most basic applications of Force Healing]] cannot fix, such as Forceless hosts [[BodyHorror having their internal organs rearranged to be dependent on the symbiote to live]], nor is every Jedi featured a master healer (the most basic form of Force healing is treated like first-aid). The story addressing these facets of Force healing are almost prophetic about the criticisms that would emerge following how ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'' made use of that power.

** Masochus. No one will deny that he's a psychopath. But is he a selfish misanthrope who keeps cooking up [[BlatantLies blatantly hollow]] pretenses as [[ForTheEvulz an excuse to inflict suffering on people]] (after all, [[CardCarryingVillain Sith aren't known for pretenses]])? Or a mentally damaged man who's only being StupidEvil to preserve his own life?
** Emperor Valkor: A WellIntentionedExtremist who's desperately seeking peace by [[TheEvilsOfFreeWill robbing people of their free-will]], [[SanitySlippage but has gone insane from carrying out his goal for so long with no end in sight]]? Or is it just a false pretext for [[DespotismJustifiesTheMeans universal conquest]] and he's merely a sadist?

* IronWoobie:
** Despite the hell Zolph Vaelor has gone through, he still manages to push forward, [[spoiler: even after being nearly suicidal.]]
** Grein. [[spoiler: Not only did she lose her younger sister to the Forceless Collective, she left her husband and [[WhoWantsToLiveForever prolonged her lifespan by several thousand years, even outliving some of the people from her generation.]] She didn't even get to see her child and their children grow up until she met Zolph. All this to see that the Collective is defeated and her sister, [[AndIMustScream who has been possessed for several thousand years now]], is freed. And then she watches her husband get executed in plain sight.]]
** Gahmah Raan is a surprisingly cheerful guy ([[StepfordSmiler most of the time]]) for someone who was exposed to a madness-inducing EldritchAbomination as a child, is struggling to make enough money from bounty hunting ([[HitmanWithAHeart because he refuses to do the uglier jobs that bounty hunters are usually associated with]]) to get his people traveling the stars and [[spoiler: coping with the murder of one of his spouses]].
* JerkassWoobie: [[spoiler: [[PsychoForHire Gestroma]]. The only reason he's a psychopath bent on wiping out humanity in the first place was that the Empire abducted him from his family, [[BodyHorror mutated him]] and made him insane, and then destroyed them with the [[KillSat Death Star]].]]

** Emperor Valkor [[spoiler: (AKA Yalbdalaoth)]] has two candidates for his crossing, both tied to the same plan of tormenting Zolph to the DespairEventHorizon and possibly [[DrivenToSuicide drive him to suicide]].
*** Having the Forceless arm grafted on Dynn [[spoiler: and then gruesomely mutating and possessing her so that Zolph would be forced to kill her or be killed by her. This is then followed by a wave of PTSD and Valkor trying to lure Zolph into places strong in the Dark Side to use said PTSD against him]].
*** [[spoiler: The massacre of Christophsis]] is considered this InUniverse. [[spoiler: He had Mortaqa LifeDrain almost every living thing on the planet except for Zolph and the Valkoran forces, only sparing the former initially [[ForTheEvulz just so he would know how he was going to die and make him feel the psychic backlash of multiple people dying at once]]. The in-universe part kicks in when not only are a good number of the Valkoran forces on Christophsis horrified by this, [[RealityEnsues half of the Valkoran Empire defects under Maesterus's leadership in protest within one month]]]].
* OneSceneWonder: Doctor Thilid, a crazy Quarren scientist and interrogator with the Valkoran that likes to [[BrainFood eat people's brains]]. [[InTheBack Zolph kills her]] shortly after she is introduced when she tries to pull Menbar's brain out through his nose.
* ParanoiaFuel: Sleeper symbiotes. The ability of Forceless symbiotes to possess living creatures is already scary on its own, but sleeper symbiotes can be placed inside them without their knowledge, lay dormant inside them for a long time -- being able to even mask their presence from even [[SensorCharacter Force users]] -- and then suddenly possess them on a whim. As the last chapters of Episode II show, [[spoiler: a good number of people Valkoran Empire have had a sleeper symbiote placed inside them, whether they were loyal to Valkor or not]].
* TheWoobie:
** Zolph Vaelor. Not only did he lose both his parents when he was 13, [[spoiler: but he was forced to kill Dynn Manthis - his love interest - after [[AndIMustScream she was hijacked by her replacement arm]], and he's been suffering a huge amount of psychological trauma as a result of this incident.]]
** Neur. Not only was she abused by the matriarchal Nightsisters for [[FantasticRacism being half-Twi'lek]], she had both of her lekku cut off at the roots as a child, effectively lobotomizing her and causing her brain damage. After being adopted by Machinus, he replaced her lost lekku to restore some of her lost neural functions. However, [[ManChild she acts like a child despite being an adult]] and feigns optimism to emotionally compensate for her lost childhood. And every now then, her lekku malfunctions/breaks and she becomes violently insane before all the pain she's felt in her life kicks in. And it's implied that [[MadScientist Masochus]] often sabotages her lekku or threatens her to blackmail Machinus.
** Balos Oiren, AKA Armogeist is a textbook example of why [[TrainingFromHell training]] [[BeingEvilSucks to be a Sith isn't as awesome as it sounds]]. For starters, he was apprenticed to [[TheCaligula Masochus]]. Masochus did all sorts of nasty things to Balos, such as forcing him to flay his own parents alive. When the Dark Council decided to exile Masochus because he was too much even for them, Balos was also exiled under [[InsaneTrollLogic the pretense of being the crazy guy's apprentice and therefore inheriting his insanity]]. During exile, Masochus still wouldn't let him get away from him, destroyed his body, and [[AndIMustScream trapped his life-force to a wooden figurine]]. Armogeist did get some freedom when he and his master came to the Valkoran Empire and Maesterus [[spoiler: and Grein]] gave him a more mobile body in a [[AnimatedArmor suit of armor]], but [[ICannotSelfTerminate Valkor still wouldn't let him die on his own volition]] or [[KarmicDeath kill Masochus]] for payback. He avoids being a JerkassWoobie on the grounds of both being an affable AntiVillain and not being as dangerously insane as the average Force user trained in the ways of the Dark Side.

* CounterpartComparison: Being a [[DeadpanSnarker snarky]] and [[CloudCuckoolander eccentric]] mercenary that wields [[DualWielding two blades]] and [[GunsAkimbo two guns]], has [[HealingFactor rapid regeneration]], and implied [[FourthWallObserver fourth wall awareness]], Gahmah Raan has been compared to {{SelfDemonstrating/Deadpool}} by readers.

*** Emperor Valkor and the Valkoran Empire have become this after the announcement of ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'' expansion "Knights of the Fallen Empire" at E3 2015. Said expansion features an Emperor named Valkor''ion'', a so-called immortal emperor who leads a long-hidden empire operating in the Unknown Regions and supposedly using the Empire of Zakuul for a greater purpose, not unlike Valkor and his empire. However, one of the major differences - aside from their focus stories taking place in different eras - is that while Valkorion seems to be a human AbusiveParent, Valkor doesn't have any known children (unless you count other Forceless symbiotes spawned from him) and he's [[HumanoidAbomination most certainly not human]]. In the end, it turned out Valkorion isn't quite human himself - [[spoiler:he is another avatar of the [[BiggerBad Sith Emperor]], who used to be a human or near so about a thousand years ago, but now is an EldritchAbomination with OmnicidalManiac goals. Even further, both characters use avatars to present themselves and operate in multiple places at once while keeping their true selves in the shadows. Two more differences come in that Valkor is a dead spot in the Force while Valkorion is a Dark Force user (although one sometimes called a ''hole'' in the Force), and then their goals differ: Valkorion is an OmnicidalManiac whereas Valkor wants to [[AssimilationPlot assimilate people]] [[TheEvilsOfFreeWill to maintain order]].]] Similar to Valkorion for [[spoiler: Vitiate]], Episode III's prologue reveals that [[spoiler: Valkor is also just an alias for Yalbdalaoth, albeit one stolen from the real Valkor Vangeli while - according Admon Onae - having his body used as a puppet leader for the Forceless Collective]].

* HilariousInHindsight:

** Emperor Valkor and the Valkoran Empire have become this after the announcement of ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'' expansion "Knights of the Fallen Empire" at E3 2015. Said expansion features an Emperor named Valkor''ion'', a so-called immortal emperor who leads a long-hidden empire operating in the Unknown Regions and supposedly using the Empire of Zakull for a greater purpose, not unlike Valkor and his empire. However, one of the major differences - aside from their focus stories taking place in different eras - is that while Valkorion seems to be a human AbusiveParent, Valkor doesn't have any known children (unless you count other Forceless symbiotes spawned from him) and he's [[HumanoidAbomination most certainly not human]]. In the end, it turned out Valkorion isn't quite human himself - [[spoiler:he is another avatar of the [[BiggerBad Sith Emperor]], who used to be a human or near so about a thousand years ago, but now is an EldritchAbomination with OmnicidalManiac goals. Even further, both characters use avatars to present themselves and operate in multiple places at once while keeping their true selves in the shadows. Two more differences come in that Valkor is a dead spot in the Force while Valkorion is a Dark Force user (although one sometimes called a ''hole'' in the Force), and then their goals differ: Valkorion is an OmnicidalManiac whereas Valkor wants to [[AssimilationPlot assimilate people]] [[TheEvilsOfFreeWill to maintain order]].]] Similar to Valkorion for [[spoiler: Vitiate]], Episode III's prologue reveals that [[spoiler: Valkor is also just an alias for Yalbdalaoth, albeit one stolen from the real Valkor Vangeli while - according Admon Onae - having his body used as a puppet leader for the Forceless Collective]].

* CounterpartComparison: Being a [[DeadpanSnarker snarky]], CloudCuckoolander mercenary that wields [[DualWielding two blades]] and [[GunsAkimbo two guns]], has [[HealingFactor rapid regeneration]], and implied [[FourthWallObserver fourth wall awareness], Gahmah Raan has been compared to SelfDemonstrating/Deadpool by readers.

** Some of [[TheyKilledKennyAgain Will Helms']] deaths fall into this territory. On one instance, [[KillerRabbit R9-C4]] tore out his spinal cord and beat him to death with it, and he was still alive to experience it. Under normal circumstances, [[CruelAndUnusualDeath being alive after having your spine torn out would be horrifying.]] But since the possibility of it (and that of death by astromech droid) is so ridiculous, it ends up being funny instead.

** Episode II - Chapter 12 had Zolph encounter Rakan the Devourer, a cannibalistic Karkarodon serial killer who claimed that [[CannibalismSuperpower if he ate Zolph and his midichlorians, he'd become a Force user]]. Zolph, knowing [[InsaneTrollLogic how stupid that sounds]], responds "For the love of.... the Force does not work that way!" In ''Film/TheForceAwakens'', when Finn comes up with an obviously half-assed plan to destroy Starkiller Base by "using the Force" to figure it out, a world-weary Han Solo replies "That's not how the Force works!" That line became a MemeticMutation in regards to common misconceptions out-of-universe not long after the film came out.

** Gahmah Raan is surprisingly cheerful guy ([[StepfordSmiler most of the time]]) for someone who was exposed to a madness-inducing EldritchAbomination as a child, is struggling to make enough money from bounty hunting ([[HitmanWithAHeart because he refuses to do the uglier jobs that bounty hunters are usually associated with]]) to get his people traveling the stars and [[spoiler: coping with the murder of one of his spouses]].

*** Having the Forceless arm grafted on Dynn [[spoiler: and then gruesomely mutating and possessing her so that Zolph would be forced to kill her and be killed by her. This is then followed by a wave of PTSD and Valkor trying to lure Zolph into places strong in the Dark Side to use said PTSD against him]].
*** [[spoiler: The massacre of Christophsis]] is considered this InUniverse. [[spoiler: He had Mortaqa LifeDrain almost every living thing on the planet except for Zolph and the Valkoran forces, only sparing the former initially [[ForTheEvulz just so he would know how he was going to die and make him feel the psychic backlash of multiple people dying at once]]. The in-universe part kicks in when not only are good number of the Valkoran forces on Christophsis horrified by this, [[RealityEnsues half of the Valkoran Empire defects under Maesterus's leadership in protest within one month]]]].

** Balos Oiren, AKA Armogeist is a textbook example of why [[TrainingFromHell training]] [[BeingEvilSucks to be a Sith isn't as awesome as it sounds]]. For starters, he was apprenticed to [[TheCaligula Masochus]]. Masochus did all sorts of nasty things to Balos, such as forcing him to flay his own parents alive. When the Dark Council decided to exile Masochus because he was too much even for them, Balos was also exiled under [[InsaneTrollLogic the pretense of being the crazy guy's apprentice and therefore inheriting his insanity]]. During exile, Masochus still wouldn't let him get away from him, destroyed his body, and [[AndIMustScream trapped his life-force to a wooden figurine]]. Armogeist did get some freedom when he and his master came to the Valkoran Empire and Maesterus [[spoiler: and Grein]] gave him a more mobile body in a [[AnimatedArmor suit of armor]], but [[DeathSeeker Valkor still wouldn't let him die on his own volition]] or [[KarmicDeath kill Masochus]] for payback. He avoids being a JerkassWoobie on the grounds of both being an AntiVillain and not being as dangerously insane as the average Force user trained in the ways of the Dark Side.

** While Masochus is one of the most morally repulsive characters in the series, creating an ArmyOfTheDead by killing Lieutenant Helms over and over again and using his corpses is hilariously over-the-top.

** Emperor Valkor and the Valkoran Empire have become this after the announcement of ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'' expansion "Knights of the Fallen Empire" at E3 2015. Said expansion features an Emperor named Valkor''ion'', a so-called immortal emperor who leads a long-hidden empire operating in the Unknown Regions and supposedly using the Empire of Zakull for a greater purpose, not unlike Valkor and his empire. However, one of the major differences - aside from their focus stories taking place in different eras - is that while Valkorion seems to be a human AbusiveParent, Valkor doesn't have any known children (unless you count other Forceless symbiotes spawned from him) and he's [[HumanoidAbomination most certainly not human]]. In the end, it turned out Valkorion isn't quite human himself - [[spoiler:he is another avatar of the [[BiggerBad Sith Emperor]], who used to be a human or near so about a thousand years ago, but now is an EldritchAbomination with OmnicidalManiac goals. Even further, both characters use avatars to present themselves and operate in multiple places at once while keeping their true selves in the shadows. Two more differences come in that Valkor is a dead spot in the Force while Valkorion is a Dark Force user (although one sometimes called a ''hole'' in the Force), and then their goals differ: Valkorion is an OmnicidalManiac whereas Valkor wants to [[AssimilationPlot assimilate people]] [[TheEvilsOfFreeWill to maintain order]].]] Similar to Valkorion for [[spoiler: Viate]], Episode III's prologue reveals that [[spoiler: Valkor is also just an alias for Yalbdalaoth, albeit one stolen from the real Valkor Vangeli while - according Admon Onae - having his body used as a puppet leader for the Forceless Collective]].

** Emperor Valkor and the Valkoran Empire have become this after the announcement of ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'' expansion "Knights of the Fallen Empire" at E3 2015. Said expansion features an Emperor named Valkor''ion'', a so-called immortal emperor who leads a long-hidden empire operating in the Unknown Regions and supposedly using the Empire of Zakull for a greater purpose, not unlike Valkor and his empire. However, one of the major differences - aside from their focus stories taking place in different eras - is that while Valkorion seems to be a human AbusiveParent, Valkor doesn't have any known children and he's [[HumanoidAbomination most certainly not human]]. In the end, it turned out Valkorion isn't quite human himself - [[spoiler:he is another avatar of the [[BiggerBad Sith Emperor]], who used to be a human or near so about a thousand years ago, but now is an EldritchAbomination with OmnicidalManiac goals. Even further, both characters use avatars to present themselves and operate in multiple places at once while keeping their true selves in the shadows. Two more differences come in that Valkor is a dead spot in the Force while Valkorion is a Dark Force user (although one sometimes called a ''hole'' in the Force), and then their goals differ: Valkorion is an OmnicidalManiac whereas Valkor wants to [[AssimilationPlot assimilate people]] [[TheEvilsOfFreeWill to maintain order]].]]

* TheWoobie: Zolph Vaelor. Not only did he lose both his parents when he was 13, [[spoiler: but he was forced to kill Dynn Manthis - his love interest - after [[AndIMustScream she was hijacked by her replacement arm]], and he's been suffering a huge amount of psychological trauma as a result of this incident.]]

** Emperor Valkor and the Valkoran Empire have become this after the announcement of ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'' expansion "Knights of the Fallen Empire" at E3 2015. Said expansion features an Emperor named Valkor''ion'', a so-called immortal emperor who leads a long-hidden empire operating in the Unknown Regions and supposedly using the Empire of Zakull for a greater purpose, not unlike Valkor and his empire. However, one of the major differences - aside from their focus stories taking place in different eras - is that while Valkorion seems to be a human AbusiveParent, Valkor doesn't have any known children and he's [[HumanoidAbomination most certainly not human]]. In the end, it turned out Valkorion isn't quite human himself - [[spoiler:he is another avatar of the [[BiggerBad Sith Emperor]], who used to be a human or near so about a thousand years ago, but now is an EldritchAbomination with OmnicidalManiac goals. Even further, both characters use avatars to present themselves and operate in multiple places at once while keeping their true selves in the shadows. Two more differences come in that Valkorion is a Dark Force user while Valkor is a dead spot in the Force, and then their goals differ: Valkorion is an OmnicidalManiac whereas Valkor wants to [[AssimilationPlot assimilate people]] [[TheEvilsOfFreeWill to maintain order]].]]

* FoeYay: Maesterus seems quite obsessed with Zolph. [[spoiler: May have to do with the fact that he's actually Zolph's distant ancestor.]]

* NightmareFuel: [[NightmareFuel/StarWarsParanormalitiesTrilogy Has it's own page.]]

** Masochus. No one will deny that he's a psychopath. But is he a selfish misanthrope who keeps cooking up [[BlatantLies blatantly hollow]] pretenses as [[ForTheEvulz an excuse to inflict suffering on people]]? Or a mentally damaged man who's only being StupidEvil to preserve his own life?

* AssPull: Lampshaded by Zolph in the epilogue of Episode I, [[spoiler: when Maesterus reveals that [[LukeIAmYourFather he is a distant ancestor of his]]. Maesterus points out that he would have told him sooner had Zolph just cooperated with him.]] This is also an aversion at the same time, as this was hinted at several points throughout the story, even justifying a bit of the FoeYay going on between him and Maesterus.

** While Masochus is usually an abhorrent monster prone to experimenting on people, creating an ArmyOfTheDead by killing Lieutenant Helms over and over again and using his corpses is too brilliant to be disgusted at.

** There's also a bit of this between Zolph and Neur.

** Episode II introduced R9-C4 - a homicidal astromech droid with ComedicSociopathy tendencies - in early 2013 as a recurring character. A year and a half later, ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'' introduced Chopper, another astromech droid that was later revealed to have some ComedicSociopathy tendencies and [[MemeticPsychopath suspected to be a former assassin droid]], and in 2015, ''ComicBook/StarWarsDarthVader'' introduced an assassin droid disguised as an astromech droid who was decommissioned for being too homicidal.
** Emperor Valkor and the Valkoran Empire have become this after the announcement of ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'' expansion "Knights of the Fallen Empire" at E3 2015. Said expansion features an Emperor named Valkor''ion'', a so-called immortal emperor who leads a long-hidden empire operating in the Unknown Regions and supposedly using the Empire of Zakull for a greater purpose, not unlike Valkor and his empire. However, one of the major differences - aside from their focus stories taking place in different eras - is that while Valkorion seems to be a human AbusiveParent, Valkor doesn't have any known children and he's [[HumanoidAbomination most certainly not human]].
*** In the end, it turned out Valkorion isn't quite human himself - [[spoiler:he is another avatar of the [[BiggerBad Sith Emperor]], who used to be a human or near so about a thousand years ago, but now is an EldritchAbomination with OmnicidalManiac goals]]

** Emperor Valkor and the Valkoran Empire have become this after the announcement of ''VideoGame/TheOldRepublic'' expansion "Knights of the Fallen Empire" at E3 2015. Said expansion features an Emperor named Valkor''ion'', a so-called immortal emperor who leads a long-hidden empire operating in the Unknown Regions and supposedly using the Empire of Zakull for a greater purpose, not unlike Valkor and his empire. However, one of the major differences - aside from their focus stories taking place in different eras - is that while Valkorion seems to be a human AbusiveParent, Valkor doesn't have any known children and he's [[HumanoidAbomination most certainly not human]].

* CrossesTheLineTwice: Grein describing one of her part-time jobs on Sleheyron to Hiriss, and [[BrainBleach Zolph's reaction to it]].

* HilariousInHindsight: Episode II introduced R9-C4 - a homicidal astromech droid with ComedicSociopathy tendencies - in early 2013 as a recurring character. A year and a half later, ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'' introduced Chopper, another astromech droid that was later revealed to have some ComedicSociopathy tendencies and [[MemeticPsychopath suspected to be a former assassin droid]], and in 2015, ''ComicBook/StarWarsDarthVader'' introduced an assassin droid disguised as an astromech droid who was decommissioned for being too homicidal.

** Some of [[TheyKilledKennyAgain Will Helms']] deaths fall into this territory. On one instance, [[KillerRabbit R9-C4]] tore out his spinal cord and beat him to death with it, and he was still alive to experience it. Under normal circumstances, [[CruelAndUnusualDeath being alive after having your spine torn our would be horrifying.]] But since the possibility of it (and that of death by astromech droid) is so ridiculous, it ends up being funny instead.

* IronWoobie: Despite the hell Zolph Vaelor has gone through, he still manages to push forward, [[spoiler: even after being nearly suicidal.]]
** [[spoiler: Grein. Not only did she lose her younger sister to the Forceless Collective, she left her husband and [[WhoWantsToLiveForever prolonged her lifespan by several thousand years, even outliving some of the people from her generation.]] She didn't even get to see her child and their children grow up until she met Zolph. All this to see that the Collective is defeated and her sister, [[AndIMustScream who has been possessed for several thousand years now]], is freed.]]

* CompleteMonster:
** While some of the people or creatures serving the Forceless Collective are either PunchClockVillains trying to avoid [[DemonicPossession possession]] or [[AndIMustScream slaves without control of their bodies]], some go above and beyond the call of duty:
*** Dynn Manthis's replacement arm: Yes, a body part qualifies. How? It's actually sentient and capable of intelligent thought. [[spoiler: Over time, it gradually roots itself into Dynn's body, [[BodyHorror slowly turning into something different from a human.]] Once it realizes Dynn refuses to kill Zolph, [[AndIMustScream it completely hijacks her body while she remains conscious and mutates her to the point of becoming dependent on it for survival]]. Aware of the bond between her and Zolph, he continues to [[ColdBloodedTorture torture her]] to torture him as well (he can feel everything she feels, and the parasite goes so far as mutilating her in ways that would typically kill a human). It then forces Zolph into a SadisticChoice (and even gloats about it) when he meets up with her: [[ShootTheDog either free her from the parasite and risk killing her in the process (which ends up happening)]] or backdown, let her kill him and leave her alive, but continuing to suffer. Even when Zolph kills the parasite, it still gets the last laugh as it dies, as Zolph is now a [[BreakTheCutie broken man]] now that he's had a hand in the death of his own love interest.]]
*** Archfiend Belluzub is not only [[AxCrazy incredibly sadistic to the point]] [[TheSociopath of trying to make his victims suffer rather than kill them quickly]], but he reveals that [[spoiler: [[PsychoForHire he simply joined the Collective as an excuse to slaughter more people.]]]] He even views his own larvae as expendable. Even when he's at Zolph's mercy [[spoiler: after gloating about Dynn's death just before killing him, he continues to gloat at him about it to make sure he falls to the Dark Side when he kills him. Zolph refuses to give in (since said event and the same type of thing happened to him the day prior), but instead tries to give him a well-deserved undignified death in the destruction of the space station he's on. He then tries to have Zolph [[CruelAndUnusualDeath digested alive]] when he gets out, only for [[PapaWolf Maesterus]] to fight him off and throw him into the sun.]]

* AssPull: Lampshaded by Zolph in the epilogue of Episode I, [[spoiler: when Maesterus reveals that [[LukeIAmYourFather he is a distant ancestor of his]]. Maesterus points out that he would have told him sooner had Zolph just cooperated with him.]] To be fair though, this was hinted at several points throughout the story, even justifying a bit of the FoeYay going on between him and Maesterus.

** In contrast to most of the [[AntiVillain Valkoran]] [[PunchClockVillain Empire]], the Forceless Collective is a lot more monstrous both literally and figuratively. The [[EldritchAbomination Black Matter's]] motives are ambiguous, but it can be very cruel with how it treats its victims, and is even willing to possess civilians and [[WouldHurtAChild children]] (if not for their combat prowess, either for labor, cannon fodder, or psychological warfare). Nevermind the fact they are willing to subjugate an entire planet just to kill one 18-year old kid [[spoiler: just for being one of the only people in the universe immune to their possession.]]
** While some of the people or creatures serving the Collective are either PunchClockVillains trying to avoid [[DemonicPossession possession]] or [[AndIMustScream slaves without control of their bodies]], some go above and beyond the call of duty:

* FridgeLogic: Invoked early on when Zolph wonders why someone would invent life sign-linked bombs, when he inadvertently puts the ship he's aboard on a collision course after cutting Admiral Gravlek's limbs off.

* OneSceneWonder: Doctor Thilid, a crazy Quarren scientist and interrogator with the Valkoran that likes to [[BrainFood eat people's brains]]. [[InTheBack Zolph kills her]] shortly after she is introduced when she tries to pull Menbar's brain out through his nose.