Tropes pertaining to the Characters of Combat Devolved.
Rookie (Real name unknown) is the newest recruit of the squad. He has just passed his Spartan training after failing his driving test but passing his "Using the toilet with your armour on training". Despite his all-round ignorance about the way the world works he has become one of the more competent soldiers (Which is not a difficult feat considering who his comrades are.) He wears default black armour which highlights his rank as Rookie. He is arguably The Protagonist of Combat Devolved however as time goes on he becomes just another member of the squad.
Much of Rookie's past is a mystery; no one ever asks and he doesn't tell.
Tropes associated with Rookie:
- Audience Surrogate: For the first few episodes, at least. The story is presented through Rookie's eyes as he attempts to adjust to the weirdness around him.
- Butt-Monkey: 1/2 due to his inexperience, 1/2 due to his character, and 1/2 due to the others personalities, Rookie often gets this treatment verbally.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": His real name is never stated, he protests but seems either too polite or stupid to just tell the others his name.
- Drives Like Crazy: His driving skills have proven to be less than ideal.
- Horrible Judge of Character: While in J.A.K.E.'s simulation in episode 5, rookie asks for help from a guy who's just standing there...menacingly. It goes about as well as you might suspect.
- In Touch with His Feminine Side: Occasionally has shades of this, but rarely strays into Camp territory.
- Naïve Newcomer: Finds himself completely lost in the events of the first few episodes due to his inexperience, a fact not helped by how the rest of his designated group aren't, for the most part, any better.
- New Meat
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In episode 3 he reactivates (and breaks) J.A.K.E. 17. Sniper calls him out on it in the beginning of the next episode
- Only Sane Man: Most of the time, anyway.
- The Watson: For the first two or three episodes, Rookie spends most of his time asking the others to explain how things work.
- Withholding Their Name: Inverted and Played for Laughs; Rookie often tries to tell the others his name, but no one cares so they call him Rookie instead.
Christopher Rodriquez is the squad's pilot. As such, he is the one most often seen driving vehicles or flying aircraft. Pilot was once part of the elite ODST Spartan forces until he was relieved of duty. Through a currently unknown event from his past known only as 'The Accident', Pilot is extremely cynical and has a noticeable speech impediment. The only information known about 'The Accident' is that it occurred when Pilot was still an ODST and it perhaps played a part in his expungement from the special forces.
Pilot spends the most time with Cadaver out of any squad members, and often acts as a sort of lab assistant to the good doctor.
Tropes associated with Pilot:
- Aliens Speaking English: Averted Pilot believes the aliens can do this, but they can't
- Subverted The Aliens speak English backwards, in a Mythology Gag from the original Halo game.
- Captain Crash: Almost every vehicle he drives he has crashed.
- Cluster F-Bomb: Delivers a few.
- Commander Contrarian
- Deadpan Snarker: Pissing people off is one of his specialties.
- Hypocritical Humor: Laughs at Rookie for having studied Art at school. So had he.
- Jerkass.
- Precision F-Strike: Likes to pepper a lot of his sentences with these.
- Real Life Writes the Plot: Pilot's speech impediment was made part of his backstory due to his actor having a similar condition.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran / Noodle Incident: He used to be a good pilot before 'The Accident'.
- Which supposedly left him with a terrible, raspy voice
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Him and Heavy are the only characters who swear so far, although he does it a lot, lot more.
- Snark Knight: He hates everyone, including himself.
- Universal Driver's License: Despite training as a Pilot he is the team's main driver for every vehicle. (He crashes warthogs just as much though.)
- Verbal Tic: Has a habit of snarling at the end of some sentences, especially when angry/ shouting.
- Used within the Bonus Video #3, which includes some of the more unwanted snarls done while voicing lines.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: With Cadaver.
Joseph Turner, also known as Scout, is the team's reconnaissance expert. He is very lazy and seems to be good for very little other than scouting, and even then he often forgets what he was supposed to be reporting back during the return trip to the base. He is not very bright (to say the least) and is easily the slowest member of the squad. It is likely that the team gave him his position to ensure they would spend as little time with him as possible, since Scout has a habit of infuriating those around him (especially Pilot, whom he calls 'Roddy').
While other characters are given Character Development, Scout seems to be getting dumber as the series progresses, to the point that he can barely think for himself without the help of his squadmates.
Tropes associated with Scout:
- Actor Allusion: James (Who plays Scout) is by far the stupidest member of Talking Skullz.
- Amusing Injuries: Scout is killed when an alien falls on his head.
- Butt-Monkey: Dies a lot and is subject to much torment from Cadaver's "Tests."
- They Killed Kenny Again: When you come back from the dead multiple times this is a given. Justified as he can respawn.
- Cannot Convey Sarcasm: The text annotation in episode 3 Lampshaded this.
- Chaotic Stupid
- Cloudcuckoolander: Post Flanderization he seems to miss the point of everything anyone says.
- The Ditz
- Flanderization: After the first two or three episodes he goes from being arrogant to a complete idiot.
- Genius Ditz: For all his idiocy, Scout does have his rare moments of brilliance.
- Major Injury Underreaction: Even when faced with life-threatening injuries, Scout's most common response is simply "Ow."
- Talkative Loon: Averted. Out of all the characters Scout has the shortest and least lines of dialogue.
- Too Dumb to Live: Scout is very stupid. Scout also dies. Frequently.
Dr. Cadaver (Full name Dr. Jason Alto Heironymous Cadaver) is the designated Medic of the squad. Failed his Spartan training due to being unable to differentiate friend from foe. Despite what his position and white/red armour would suggest, Cadaver is a seriously deranged individual who provides more danger to his squadmates than assistance. It is unknown how Cadaver became what he is, or why he is qualified to practice medicine, but one thing is for certain: If you're injured in combat, Cadaver is the last person you want to see.
The good doctor often relays old stories of his previous exploits to his fellow Spartans, mainly what he has learned from the questionable experiments he has performed in the past.
Tropes associated with Dr. Cadaver:
- Absent-Minded Professor
- Ambiguously Evil: Played for Laughs. The tests he conducts are in a very grey moral area, to say the least.
- Ax-Crazy
- Bad Samaritan: Averted. See Well-Intentioned Extremist below.
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander
- Combat Medic: Subverted - Cadaver always tries to get out of fighting anything, often by proclaiming his supposed role of medic.
- Deadly Doctor: Unfortunately for his teammates, he often uses his medical knowledge to hurt them, rather than SAVE them.
- Funny Background Event: You can often see him doing something weird in the background, or hear some weird barrage of non-sequiturs during sections with lots of characters speaking at once (such as the one below).
- Horrible Judgeof Character
- Insane Troll Logic: A lot of his medical knowledge is based on this.
- Funny Background Event: In the beginning of episode 4 if you listen carefully you can hear his Insane Troll Logic as to how chasing a floating ball is a lot like brain surgery (see Metaphorgotten below).
- Light Is Not Good: He wears mostly white and heals people for a living. He also happens to be a team-killing psychopath.
- Mad Scientist: A rare heroic example. Probably.
- Meaningful Name: A cadaver is a corpse used for medical science.
- Jason means "healer", Making his name doubly ironic.
- Metaphorgotten:"Just remember chasing after a floating orb is a lot like brain surgery. You have to be really precise with the scalpel and cut away from yourself, otherwise the blood is really hard to clean up. I have no idea where this metaphor is going anymore, I suppose the moral of the story is never attempt brain surgery with a screw driver."
- Morally Ambiguous Doctorate
- Mysterious Past: It is unknown how Cadaver became what he is now. The few hints we're given are his past experiments, which in themselves are
Moral Event Horizons. - Nom de Guerre: Averted. He is the only one of the main characters to be consistently called his real name.
- Lampshaded by Sniper, when he introduces the team's names and call-signs, he has a pause to say "Er.." before saying Cadaver's callsign.
- "Shaggy Frog" Story: Cadaver's advice or anecdotes often quickly devolve into this.
- Talkative Loon: While Scout is Averted, Cadaver is easily played straight; he sure does like to ramble on, at any and all (inopportune or not) moments - particularly in the aforementioned Funny Background Events.
- As an Easter Egg, Cadaver's voice actor puts long rants at the end of recording sessions that often make it into the episode.
- The Medic: His official role is medic, but he does not seem to have grasped the concept of saving others.
- Token Evil Teammate
- Vitriolic Best Buds: With Pilot.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Cadaver does (at times) genuinely want to help his teammates. It's just the 'helping' part he doesn't get right.
- Worst Aid: How Cadaver treats most injuries, Lampshaded by himself."If you shoot a dying man, he respawns with full health!"
Harry Stone, also known as Sniper despite never actually sniping anything, is the self-proclaimed leader of the squad. After Corporal Thompson's death, Sniper almost immediately took charge despite being ill-suited to leading or inspiring his troops. Sniper is arguably the worst human being in the series, without the excuse of being insane like Cadaver or cynical like Pilot. He is treated with contempt by many of his squadmates, and is all too happy to return the favour.
Despite being called Sniper and carrying a sniper rifle (looted from Corporal Thompson's dead body), Sniper hardly ever participates in combat, preferring to remain behind and watch his colleagues die or be horribly injured with the poor excuse that he doesn't want to reveal his position to the enemy.
Tropes associated with Sniper:
- Ambition Is Evil: While he is not technically evil, he is the biggest asshole, and he is the only one who wants to be the leader.
- Batman Grabs a Gun: When Sniper actually fires his gun, shit's about to go down.
- Catchphrase: Some variation on "I don't want to give away our position!"
- Cold Sniper: Played with. Yes he hates all his comrades and is a sniper, however he does not come across as anti-social. Neither is he any good at using his sniper rifle.
- Dirty Coward: Will not fight unless forced to, even if he could save someone's life.
- Early-Bird Cameo: In episode 1 he has a voice only cameo.
- Expy: Sniper has a lot of striking similarities with another self-proclaimed leader who loves to have the Sniper rifle but doesn't use it efficiently who put themselves in charge after the old leader died. At least, before Character Development sends him in a different direction.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Inverted Rookie, Cadaver and Heavy act friendly towards Sniper, but he hates them and wishes they didn't act so friendly.
- If You Die, I Call Your Stuff: Call's Thompson's sniper rifle as soon as he is diagnosed dead.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: He seems genuinely sad at Heavy's "death" but just a few seconds later he tells Rookie that he never really liked him anyway.
- The Leader: Thinks of himself as such.
- Manipulative Bastard
- The Millstone: A lot of the problems that the group faced could easily be averted if Sniper wasn't such a Dirty Coward.
- The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: "Have you ever even fired that gun?"
- His role as Science Officer is largely ignored for most of the series.
- The Starscream: After Thompson dies, he is quick to assert himself as the de-facto leader.
Winston "Heavy" Jones
- Actor Allusion: Likewise, Matt Norriss is probably the most kind and generous member of Talking Skullz.
- Apologetic Attacker: His first line is apologizing for killing an alien.
- Deuteragonist: Due to his role as the Straight Man he often becomes this, this means that while he rarely gets an episode devoted to himself he has an important role in many episodes.
- Genius Bruiser: Despite Heavy's status as The Big Guy, he is very eloquent and well-spoken, not to mention a good deal smarter than a few of his teammates.
- Gentleman Snarker: He is friendly and polite with a gentlemanly air, but he knows when to snark.
- Leeroy Jenkins: In Episode 5 he is the first one to lose a life, by jumping into a minefield.
- Precision F-Strike: Censored out, but at the end of Episode 4 he delivers one of these."Well, f*ck me."
- Sophisticated as Hell
- Straight Man: Mostly plays the Foil to Sniper, but will take this role when paired up with any other character.
- The Heart: He is a genuine Nice Guy and is the only character who appears to be friends with everyone.
- The Nicknamer: "Lil' Guy", "Snipes", "Floating Grifball" to name a few.
Jeremiah Artkocious Kalleigulah Eligh 17th Esq. is a monitor and the only non-human member of the squad. He was built by Sniper as part of a project he has yet to elaborate on. JAKE 17 began as a typical slow-talking, logic-based machine but quickly became a self-proclaimed detective and Quintessential British Gentleman due to a malfunction. He is now a fully-fledged member of the squad, frequently conversing with Rookie and acting as his morally-superior half.When the group end up being cryogenically frozen and wake up in the future, they find themselves with J.A.K.E. 18, a holograhpical simulation of J.A.K.E. 17 with the exact same personality as the latter.
Tropes associated with JAKE 17 (and 18):
- Actor Allusion: His actor's name is Jake.
- Berserk Button: His name is Jeremiah Artkotious Kolligula Eligh the 17th, NOT Jake 17.
- Born in the Wrong Century: Or built in the wrong century.
- Brits Love Tea: While we never actually see any of it (for understandable reasons), JAKE does enjoy the occasional cup of tea with his crumpets.
- Clueless Detective: Attempts to solve a murder mystery. Hilarity Ensues.
- Explosive Overclocking: Doesn't occur often with J.A.K.E., mostly because he shrugs off any peculiar thoughts, questions or circumstances rather than trying to analyze or understand, after the result of the one time he did in Episode 6.
- Expy: Of GLaDOS in episodes 4 and 5
- Fun with Acronyms
- I Am Very British: Played With. While all of Talking Skullz are British, JAKE 17 is very exaggerated and stereotypical.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: What JAKE (technically) wants to become - he converses with Rookie for good parts on Series 1 (from 6 onwards) as to how to become human-like.
- In-Series Nickname: "Jake" (Much to his annoyance.)
- Know-Nothing Know-It-All
- Legacy Character: He is the 17th JAKE.
- Logic Bomb:"Therefore, if killing is wrong, you are wrong which means killing is right which means that you must be right, which means that killing is wrong... *garbled speech* DOES NOT COMPUTE BINARY BINARY BINARY BINARY"
- Machine Monotone: Averted.
- Punk in the Trunk: How the squad take JAKE back to Valhalla.
- Quintessential British Gentleman
- Robo Cam: In episode 5 when the camera goes from JAKE's point of view.
- Robot Buddy
- Stiff Upper Lip: Despite being in a war zone, JAKE 17 never loses his polite, sophisticated British nature.
- Stock British Phrases: Uses nearly every single one in existence at one point or another, as part of him being a Quintessential British Gentleman.
- Team Pet
-
The Danza: See 'Actor Allusion' above. - The Millstone: Unlike Sniper, JAKE sets up a lot of the problems to begin with and creates quite a few plot points.
- Token Non-Human: Of all the main cast, he is the only non-human.
- Trademark Favorite Food: He sure is fond of tea and crumpets.
- Wicked Cultured: In his more villainous moments.
Corporal Thompson was once the squad's leader until an unfortunate accident occurred involving a land mine. He was in possession of the team's only sniper rifle before his death, at which point it was quickly looted from his corpse by Sniper.
It turns out Thompson wasn't actually dead (Or rather he was, but he had an extra life) and returned only to be run over by Rookie and to have his few words of advice heatedly ignored by his squadmates. He perished soon afterwards, but with the way death works in this series, it's unlikely he's gone for good.
Tropes associated with Thompson:
- Back for the Dead: Returns in Episode 4 only to die immediately.
- The whole of the Sniper, Heavy and Rookie section of the episode was just a simulation, so he was never Back from the Dead to begin with.
- Bad "Bad Acting"
- Death by Origin Story: His death is shown by flashback.
- Due to the Dead: After he dies from being run over by Rookie during J.A.K.E.s "tests", Rookie, Sniper and Heavy decide to pay their respects... for all of 2 seconds.
- Dull Surprise: His reaction to getting run over is a little... subdued.
- General Failure: Not a general, but you get the idea.
- The Neidermeyer: He isn't a horrible person, just a completely incompetent leader who is hated by his men.
- Pointy-Haired Boss: It's clear this whole 'leadership' thing isn't Thompson's forté.
- Stylistic Suck: All voice acting and machinimating related to him is done purposefully badly.
- You Monster!:Aw you sick bastard.
Pete is the A.I. for the UNSC [Mr. Blakely's Spare Unmarked Van].
Tropes associated with Pete:
- Early-Bird Cameo: First appears as a drawing in one of the bonus videos.
- Expy: Of Holly from Red Dwarf.
Rhydian Johnson, the great-great-great-great... -great grandson of Sergeant Avery Johnson, encounters the group aboard the Halo installation that the group visit after waking up in the future, trying to continue his ancestor's work and legacy.
Tropes associated with Ryhdian:
- Heroic Sacrifice: Averted. He survives his Last Stand against the Covenant, at least until Sniper kills him.
- Killed Off for Real
- Undignified Death: Sniper shoots down his ship by accident, killing him instantly.
(Somehow) picked up from the remains of Rhydian's squad, Spartans 1 and 2 are far from your ideal humans, let alone Spartans. After joining the group from their (mis)adventures on the Halo ring, the two Spartans tagged along and try to help out when they can. Emphasis on the try.
Tropes associated with Spartans 1 and 2:
- Early-Bird Cameo: Get an offscreen written cameo in the same drawing bonus as Pete up above. However, Spartan 2 does appear in a later bonus video.
- Those Two Guys.
