Line #102 Characters/Opal


1	The characters from Music/JackStauber's ''WesternAnimation/{{OPAL}}''
2
3	[[foldercontrol]]
4	[[folder:Opal/[[spoiler:Claire]]]]
5	[[quoteright:185:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lw0noxle.png]]
6	->'''Voiced by:''' Music/JackStauber (screams only)
7	The title character of ''OPAL''. She decides to brave a house that she was warned not to go into to save a crying girl called Claire and faces her miserable family.
8	----
9	* BreakTheCutie: She went through a house full of horribly disturbing people to help someone who was crying in the attic, only to realize that [[spoiler:it was really her crying the whole time, and that the horrible people were her neglecting family members.]]
10	* CowardlyLion: Despite being terrified of Claire's abusive family, Opal keeps going deeper into the house to investigate the crying she heard.
11	* CuteMute: She doesn't speak a line for the whole short and she's oddly adorable.
12	* FreakOut: Has one at the end of the short.
13	* HairOfGoldHeartOfGold: She has blond hair and ventures to the house across the street solely to find and comfort whoever the crying she keeps hearing is coming from. [[spoiler:Granted, the one crying was her, but it's the thought that counts.]]
14	* HeroicMime: Opal doesn't speak a single word during the entire short. Lampshaded by Claire's grandfather who questions why "Claire" isn't answering him when he talks to her.
15	* LivingEmotionalCrutch: Opal is mistaken for one by multiple members of the family using Claire as one. [[spoiler:The ending, which reveals the two are one and the same, further uses imagery to point out that she functions as this for every member of her family: her blind grandfather relies on her to bring him cigarettes and support his unhealthy lifestyle, as his revealed eyes turn into her head, her father needs her to favorably compare himself to, so his mirror becomes her face, and her substance-abusing mother is the most direct example as her pills turn into Claire.]]
16	* NothingButSkinAndBones: Compared to other characters in Jack Stauber's work, she is VERY thin. [[spoiler:Justified, because it's heavily implied that she's probably starving and malnourished.]]
17	* TheScream: She has a ''big'' one at the end when she realizes that [[spoiler:she's actually the abused Claire]].
18	* ThousandYardStare: She has one just moments before her FreakOut over her realization that [[spoiler:she's actually Claire and gets abused regularly]].
19	* VagueAge: Her age is never stated, and her [[spoiler: malnutrition and overall physical condition]] makes it hard to estimate how old she is.
20	* TheVoiceless: Outside of a few screams, she doesn't speak throughout the whole short.
21	* WalkingSpoiler: Good luck trying to talk about her without [[spoiler:exposing the twist of the whole short, along with her true identity as Claire]].
22	[[/folder]]
23
24	[[folder:The Grandfather]]
25	[[quoteright:598:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/f705h3ja.png]]
26	->''"Y'know, it's evil to help people who don't need help [[spoiler:Claire]]."''
27
28	->'''Voiced by:''' Music/JackStauber
29	Claire's grandfather. An unhealthy blind old man with a cigarette addiction.
30	----
31	* BlindPeopleWearSunglasses: [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment He's blind and he wears sunglasses.]]
32	* BloodFromTheMouth: Coughs up blood at one point and wipes it away, while complaining that Claire shouldn't be trying to "help" him by hiding his cigarettes.
33	* EyelessFace: [[spoiler:During Claire's FreakOut, he has Claire's face where his eyes should be, showing that she became her eyes.]]
34	* GruesomeGrandparent: He's blind and a cigarette addict (implied to be suffering from COPD), and he guilt-trips Opal[[spoiler:/Claire]] by telling her that "it's evil to help people who don't need help". [[spoiler:The ending reveals that he fails to recognize his own granddaughter, and reacts to his belief that she isn't Claire by ''trying to chase the poor girl out of the house'']].
35	* {{Irony}}: He complains about Claire hiding his cigarettes from him and insists that it's evil to help people who don't want to be helped as he's coughing up blood, implicitly from the same cigarettes killing him.
36	* NewMediaAreEvil: Downplayed, but in addition to ruining his health with cigarettes, Claire's grandfather spends all day "watching" television despite being blind, which doesn't seem to be helping his wretched health one bit. But while he complains that the salesmen and girls he listens to want his soul, it's heavily indicated he also likes feeling as if they're fighting over him "like dogs".
37	* TheScream: He screams when he falls from his recliner while trying to grab Opal, [[spoiler:whom he does not recognize as Claire,]] and later when chasing her up the stairs.
38	* SmokingIsNotCool: He's a heavy smoker and is an unpleasant man to be around, and that's not even bringing up the health issues he implicitly has from it. His song, titled "Why Does It Sound So Easy to Breathe On TV?", features lots of lung and mouth imagery in addition to his out-of-breath singing. [[spoiler:He also mistakes Claire for someone else because she "smell[s] weird", implying that his smoking has ruined his sense of smell]].
39	* SmokyVoice: It's more on the deep side of this trope than the raspy side.
40	[[/folder]]
41
42	[[folder:The Father]]
43	[[quoteright:185:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/j4vb1t6r_9.png]]
44	[[caption-width-right:185:[[labelnote:Click here for his actual appearance]]\
45	https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/xm1ce77p.png[[/labelnote]]]]
46	->''"Hey! Just gonna walk by without saying hello?"''\
47	'''Voiced by:''' Music/JackStauber
48
49	Claire's father. A {{Narcissist}} that spends most of his time looking at himself in the mirror and "perfecting himself" for the world to see.
50	----
51	* AbusiveParents: He's a childish, narcissistic, and egocentric man who insults and belittles his daughter to make himself feel/look better in comparison, while never even having a two-way conversation with her.
52	* AmbiguousSituation: His song suggests his StartOfDarkness came when "They turned me down." What exactly this means, and whether or not the audience ought to take a twisted narcissist at his word, is left thoroughly unexplained. It's also unclear whether or not the look at his face visible as a FreezeFrameBonus ought to be read literally.
53	* CampStraight: He's a VERY flamboyant man, as far as wearing makeup. But he's married to a woman and other than his flamboyancy, there's no sign of him being anything other than straight.
54	* GlamourFailure: Claire's father's normally very high and soft voice frequently and suddenly turns [[EvilSoundsDeep extremely deep and ominous]] whenever Opal does something that draws his attention, or when he's projecting his own self-loathing onto her, only to instantly switch back to its usual tone split-seconds later.
55	* AGodAmI: If the lyrics to his song are to be believed, he's starting to think this of himself, as he proudly claims that "God is in [his] Skin" and he's "crafting the world its next new savior".
56	* {{Irony}}: He often talks about himself as if he were a child or teenager, something still small and growing, and not a full-grown man with a wife and child. Bonus points for saying these things with a straight face ''to'' a child, [[spoiler:his own neglected child in fact]].
57	* ItsAllAboutMe: He makes most conversations with his daughter about him and his appearance, while constantly passive-aggressively putting hers down.
58	* {{Manchild}}: He refers to himself as a "small, growing thing" to Opal[[spoiler:/Claire]], an ''[[{{Irony}} actual child]]''.
59	* MotorMouth: He talks faster than everybody else, and his song is the most fast-paced.
60	* {{Narcissist}}: His biggest personality trait.
61	* NightmareFace: [[spoiler:He's shown to have one [[FreezeFrameBonus in a split-second shot]], where he looks like a rotten corpse [[EyelessFace who lost both his eyes]]; whether it's supposed to be read literally or metaphorically is ambiguous.]]
62	* OminousMusicBoxTune: His scene has one during the dialogues, plus one that ends his song as a LastNoteNightmare.
63	* SelfHarm: Is heavily implied to do this to himself in the belief that it's "fixing his appearance;" his song features imagery like brushing makeup onto an eyeball and beating his own skin until it begins to spurt blood. [[spoiler:If the NightmareFace shown during Claire's FreakOut is his actual face, this horribly backfired.]]
64	* StepfordSmiler: While he's definitely the cheeriest of the family, he's an shallow narcissist that [[NeverMyFault never takes responsibility for his actions just like the rest of the adults in the family]].
65	[[/folder]]
66
67	[[folder:The Mother]]
68	[[quoteright:112:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/4o75whix.png]]
69	->''"Our adversaries are in denial..."''\
70	'''Voiced by:''' Music/JackStauber
71
72	Claire's mother. A neglectful drunk who uses Claire as a way to make herself feel better as a person.
73	----
74	* AbusiveParents: She grabs Opal's[[spoiler:/Claire's]] ankle, possibly in an attempt to beat her so she could prove her point about Opal[[spoiler:/Claire]] being "powerless". Her song reveals she's a neglectful drunk who only views Claire as a tool to make herself feel better and uses her as a therapist of sorts for herself.
75	* AddledAddict: She's heavily implied to almost always be in a drug and alcohol-induced haze.
76	* TheAlcoholic: She's a really heavy drinker, and washes down whatever pills she's taking with it.
77	* ChildrenRaiseYou: Invoked, but horribly subverted. Claire's mother likes to think of her motherhood as the best thing that ever happened to her and to herself and Claire as kindred spirits, but it's clear to the audience that she's just as abusive as the rest of Claire's family, and her song not only features the imagery of her pulling her daughter close as both of them sink and drown in water, but lyrically makes it clear that she only loves Claire in utilitarian terms and expects her child to take care of ''her'' rather than the other way around.
78	* DarkAndTroubledPast: During her song, there's [[spoiler:[[FreezeFrameBonus a burst of different events occurring for a few seconds, some things that can be made out of it is someone falling, someone yelling, and a hand dialing 9-1-1.]]]]
79	* GenerationXerox: Invoked; she often claims that Claire is like her and going to turn out like her someday. [[spoiler:If she doesn't drink alcohol like her mother, this is already the case.]]
80	* {{Irony}}: She sees herself as a forgiving person who tolerates everything everyone does around her in a "virtuous cycle", but it's clear that she's also the most directly abusive of Claire's relatives.
81	* IronicNurseryTune: Her song is a sinister lullaby about how she needs her daughter to take care of her.
82	* JunkieParent: Does drugs alongside alcohol and is Claire's mother.
83	[[/folder]]
84
85	[[folder:Opal's Family]]
86	[[quoteright:185:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/0yi7u15a_11.png]]
87	[[caption-width-right:185:[[labelnote:Click here for their true appearance]]\
88	https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ojy6okxa_6.png[[/labelnote]]]]
89	->''"We see you Opal, your troubles are miles away.\
90	We see you Opal, and in our eyes you'll stay!"''
91	-->-- Opal's family singing to her at the beginning and end of the short.
92	->'''Voiced by:''' Music/JackStauber (all three of them)
93
94	Opal's family. They adore her and see her for who she is. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, they're all part of a fantasy Claire created to escape her abusive and neglectful family, and only physically exist on a billboard for ''Opal's Burgers'' across the street.]]
95	----
96	* CreepyGood: With how off-putting they are and the way they insist Opal shouldn't pay attention to the crying coming from the house across the street, you might think they have something sinister going on underneath the surface. [[spoiler:They actually are a {{Deconstruction}} of this, as they're Claire's escape mechanism from her horrible home life in the real world, so of course they'd try to keep her happy and safe from the realization that her actual life sucks, but if she actually obeyed them, she wouldn't have any chance to solve her own issues.]]
97	* DysfunctionalFamily: Averted, they're pretty much a run-of-the-mill family. [[spoiler:This aversion is justified, as it's a fantasy created by Claire to escape her abusive family.]]
98	* {{Escapism}}: [[spoiler:Claire created them to be this for her.]]
99	* GoodParents: Opal's mother and father are very loving and kind, always supporting and encouraging their daughter. [[spoiler:In stark contrast to Claire's ''actual'' parents, who view her as someone to vent their frustrations to at best.]]
100	* ScatterbrainedSenior: Opal's grandfather seems to be a bit senile, but still a good man at heart. [[spoiler:As her real grandfather is a blind couch potato who treats her like a servant, Claire can't imagine a more functional idea of a grandparent.]]
101	* ThousandYardStare: Their eyes are always wide open and they stare unflinchingly at Opal as they interact with her. [[spoiler:This might be because the people on the billboard they're based on always have their eyes wide open as well.]]
102	* WalkingSpoiler: While it isn't as bad as Opal[[spoiler:/Claire]], they are still prone to having many spoilers attached to them.
103	[[/folder]]

Context Characters / Opal