Characters / Housepets Tarot

Housepets! by Rick Griffin

Tropes: A to L | M to Z

Main Character Page | Cats | Dogs (Tarot) | Other Animals | Humans | Denizens of Heaven

Due to this character being a Walking Spoiler, all spoilers up to the final page are unmarked.

Tarot (Pomeranian)

I don't like to turn people down! Especially her.

"The hour shall come to pass, your lives will be changed forever, in ways you cannot imagine."

Peanut's girlfriend, and the last member of the main quartet to be introduced. Tarot appeared out of nowhere and quickly began integrating herself within the protagonist's ranks, but it soon became clear there was more to her than met the eye.

It's eventually revealed that Tarot is the 150th avatar of the goddess Spirit Dragon, who serves as a chesspiece to battle her foes and protect Earth from supernatural threats. Due to her ability and intelligence, she's well regarded among mortals and divine beings alike, and considered one of the leading experts on all things Celestial and Demonic.

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#-L

• 10-Minute Retirement: After the Cosmic Game ends in 2014 (During Heaven's Not Enough), her next magic(k)al adventure is Housepets 5000 BC, only a year (in real time) later. She's dragged into a few more adventures before she finally has to join forces with a Celestial again in Heckraiser.
• 11th-Hour Ranger: For Peanut's team in Temple Crashers 2. She joins them just in time for her teammate Mungo to save his life, and becomes their powerhouse in the final fight, as well as a key component to defeating The Forgotten. Averted slightly in that they don't actually travel together for that time; She tries to leave Peanut's team while they're sleeping, and they have to dash to catch up just in time.
• The Ace: She's immensely respected by those who know her for not just her spellcasting ability, but her leadership and strategization skills that come into play time and time again.
• Action Girl: While a lot of her action takes place offscreen or is alluded to, the few times we see her fight she's more than capable. She was raised by Dragon to be a warrior avatar, and was clearly trained well.
• Action Girlfriend: Ditto, and especially against Peanut's Non-Action Guy, which unearths when the two Temple Crash together.
• Action Mom: Promoted to one by the end of the comic.
• Action Pet: Several characters in the comic can be aptly considered cool, but Tarot is notable for not being a wolf, trained police dog, or Celestial, but instead a normal pet. She has powers initially, but even after losing them continues as a Badass Normal.
• Adopt-a-Servant: Claims Dragon raised her to be a savior, which seems more likely than any benevolent reason for a Celestial like her to own/adopt a dog. This in contrast to Pete, who enslaved King when the latter was an adult (since he needed to make up for lost time and couldn't wait to groom someone over the course of their life).
• All Witches Have Cats: Played with. Her apprentice, Sabrina, is a black cat who frequently wears a witch's hat.
• Animal Battle Aura: Dragon's first appearance is marked by a pale green aura around Tarot's body in the shape of Dragon's head, before Tarot is replaced completely by her.
• Armor-Piercing Question: Asks a question to Cerberus that manages to make her realize Kitsune's mistake in Heckraiser.
  Cerberus: Right, some mortals are bound by magic(k) and so we can't move them as easily-
  Tarot: Does that include Pete and Dragon's mortal forms?
• Armor-Piercing Response: When King first meets her, he's rather drunk and tries to sloppily flirt with her. She casually turns him down by letting him know she's aware he used to be human, which sobers him up immediately and throws him into a panic.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Tarot, especially early on, tends to follow dire predictions with more mundane inconveniences.
  Tarot: The truth shall be brought to light, and I fear that day, for all who do not hold love in their hearts shall perish, and their souls will be broken into shards as countless as all the sand on the face of the earth. Plus it's terrible for your complexion.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: With her experience and ability to keep cool under pressure, she manages to score a few victories this way. With barely any explanation from Fox, she's able to figure out that Sasha is under a hex in Real Tales of the K9PD and deduces how to solve it. While in the void only a few hundred feet away from a kaiju battle in Heckraiser, she only needs a few seconds before figuring out how they can help Kitsune defeat Eudoant.
• Babies Ever After: Her casual revelation at the end- she might be pregnant. Followup art confirms this.
• Badass Adorable: Small and fluffy, with adorable floppy ears and a tiny wagging tail. When she fights, she bulks up into a monstrous wolflike form, and can absolutely hold her own.
• Badass and Child Duo: Trio by the end of Heckraiser. The entire party dedicates itself to protecting Draig and Craig until they can get to the Mana Pool, an endeavor that kills off all of them. By the end it's just Tarot, hanging onto a cliff by her teeth and holding the two children. She pulls herself up, takes a running leap, throwing them out of danger while sacrificing herself. Despite their short time together, they fit the archetype decently, with a jaded Determinator protecting two (currently) helpless kits.
• Badass Bookworm: Owns a massive library, and when her friends are grabbed by the demonic Steward, her first instinct is to crack open a book to see how to stop him. In combat, she's a force to be reckoned with as well.
• Badass in Distress: She's trapped in a crushed car on top of a building during Heckraiser, and surprisingly it's Todd who helps her escape (albeit somewhat accidentally).
• Badass Normal: After losing her powers, her experience and knowledge remain, which becomes especially clear in Heckraiser.
• Beneath the Mask: Beneath her calm and cool exterior, she's a bundle of nerves prone to anger and terror, especially in the rare cases when things aren't going well for her. She's calmest around Peanut, but even he's failed to get her emotions under wraps during times like in Pete's temple.
• The Berserker: Combat is one of the few times she shows intense emotion. She's absolutely livid at Keene when she fights him, and when fighting Bailey (Someone she doesn't even hold a grudge against), she sports a massive Slasher Smile while charging her.
• Beware the Mind Reader: King, Keene, and a few other characters note how grating it can be to have a conversation with someone who already knows exactly what's going to be said. It doesn't make her particularly untrustworthy, but it does create a few tense relationships with other cast members.
• Bizarre Alien Senses: She alludes to being able to 'see in four dimensions', which is part of why losing her powers is so weird for her.
• Black Magician Girl: A female user of mostly offensive magic(k). While not as hotheaded as most examples, she has her moments of anger, especially when fighting.
• Bookworm: When we finally see her house in Heckraiser, we learn she has a massive library full of books. She promptly throws herself into them for aid.
• Breaking Out the Boss: After all she went through under the Cosmic Game, she ends up being the one to ultimately free Pete and Dragon from their mortal reincarnated lives during her Heroic Sacrifice.
• Broken Ace: Despite all of her power and respect, she never had a great time under Dragon, and once she cuts ties with her continues to be racked with issues related to insecurities and her own hero complex. She spends a lot of Heckraiser stressed out due to the multiple Outside Context Problems being faced, and eventually breaks down as a result.
• Brought Down to Badass: Losing Dragon as her Super-Empowering buddy does a number on her magic(k)al capabilities. Even after this, Kitsune respects her enough to let her help him quell an attempted demonic invasion of Earth, and she proves physically capable enough to elude Steward even as he punches through a building to reach her.
• Brought Down to Normal: After Dragon and Pete lose The Game, and she loses her powers in the process, she attempts to live a normal life as a dog with her boyfriend. It doesn't last long.
• Brutal Honesty: A trait of hers early on. When she first meets King, he attempts to flirt with her and she bluntly tells him she's not into humans before leaving. The reveal immediately sobers him up and sends him into paranoia.
• Byronic Hero: A classic, albeit female, example. Tarot is highly skilled and intelligent but emotionally detached. She keeps to herself, as even the reader is allowed only sparse details about her inner life and past, and holds no close friends or acquaintances outside Peanut, Sabrina, and possibly Karishad. She's world-weary from all the conflict she's handled, expects a lot from herself particularly in regards to her Dragon-appointed savior role, and is implied to heavily suppress her frustration, although she's evolved healthily from creepy Emotionless Girl to plain Deadpan Snarker over time. She doesn't get along well with others outside the aforementioned social circle, as shown when she's dropped into a new crew in Heckraiser and tends to bicker and snipe at them. But at the end of the day she's firmly morally white, and holds only good intentions in her actions, choosing kindness far more often than cruelty.
• Calling the Old Woman Out: A few instances against the Celestials in her life, usually for how they carelessly handle mortal matters.
  • First to Dragon when they meet in Australia. She and Sabrina take turns chewing her out with an itemized list of her transgressions.
  • Second to Kitsune, pointing out how his inability to take the negative impacts of The Game seriously. He actually listens to her, but circumstances force them to put it aside for the moment.
• Canis Major: Her Hulking Out form makes her twice as large as Peanut, and muscular to boot.
• Can't Stay Normal: After the fiasco with the cosmic lantern ended The Game chapter of her life, she gets a while of peace and a quiet life with Peanut. Cracks begin to show quickly, though, as she's dragged into a time travel adventure and the K9PD come to her with a supernatural case, before she's finally forced right back to work in Heckraiser and even briefly regains her powers.
• Carbuncle Creature: Her Temple Crashing getup includes a gold gem embedded into her forehead, befitting her magic(k)al status.
• Casual Danger Dialogue: Having Seen It All, she's prone to speaking extremely calmly while fighting, such as in battle with Bailey at the end of Heaven's Not Enough. However, she subverts this in Temple Crashers 2, where she begs Peanut to have their relationship argument when she's not in the middle of a fight.
• Cathartic Crying: The first time she ever cries is in Heckraiser, opening up about how Dragon's raising her has left her with a serious hero complex. Explaining this becomes harder and harder for her until she breaks down and needs to be comforted by Steward, the very person who she was recently fighting, who reminds her It's Okay to Cry.
• Character Development: From bizarre, mysterious drop-in to respected psychic warrior to normal-dog-in-training to finally balancing all of them into becoming a healthier girlfriend and person. Notably, her speech pattern changes to reflect this, first talking in stilted sentences ("This would be ideal compared to most futures I have seen") before slowly adopting a more normal prose.
• Chessmaster Sidekick: During the Cosmic Game, she works loyally for Dragon as an avatar carrying out her work and fighting Pete's own. However, she's depicted as being far smarter, craftier, and more capable than the often immature Dragon. When the Hidden Disdain Reveal moment occurs, Dragon is caught off guard and shocked that Tarot could have been planning machinations like this under her nose.
• The Chosen One: Naturally, being Dragon's 150th avatar. While the bulk of her job is to serve Dragon, she was also brought up to protect the Earth from demonic interference. Deconstructed, since the comic's Slice of Life elements shows us how this drastically effects her personality and interactions with normal people, and eventually puts her in a crisis of purpose once she stops needing to be the chosen one.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Jumped at the chance to save Earth from demonic interference, and fought hard the entire arc to stay in the limelight even once Kitsune decided he wanted to handle it alone. Deconstructed to a degree, as other characters take notice and Marion even points out that she feels the need to save the day yet again.
• Civilized Animal: Tarot expresses far less Furry Reminders than most other pets, doesn't appear to have an owner (yet lives in a house), and generally acts more human than other dog characters, especially in contrast to Peanut. Makes sense; She wasn't raised as a dog, but as a person, by another Funny Animal.
• Claimed by the Supernatural: How 'claimed' she is by Dragon is unclear, but while utilizing magic, Dragon's Eye of Ra symbol is burnt into her chest with green magic.
• Clap Your Hands If You Believe: Tarot's powers when souped up by Dragon include the ability to manifest her thoughts, which is helpful during her first Imaginate session.
• Classical Antihero: She faces more than a few magic(k)al enemies and crises, but her ultimate recurring conflict is the internal one that results in both I Just Want to Be Normal and Heroic Wannabe at different parts of the story.
• Color-Coded Wizardry: Gets two colors throughout the series. While using Dragon's power, its green, including her Hulking Out form and her eyes during possession. When she taps into this power in Heckraiser, its gold, either signifying her coming into her own or using Kitsune's power (While both have gold fur, Kitsune's thematic color is usually Red.)
• Color Motifs: Gold and Green, to go along with her Color-Coded Wizardry. She exhibits green coloring when under Dragon's control, and gold when operating independently.
• The Comically Serious: She rarely smiles, usually keeping a deadpan frown unless she's with Peanut. This comes across well when needs to exposit something ridiculous.
• Conditional Powers: After losing Dragon's influence, she gains her power back situationally on two separate occasions; In Temple Crashers 2, while in Pete's temple, and in Heckraiser, while in Dragon's temple. This is only due to the small portions of their power they stored there previously, before The Game ended.
• Crystal Ball: Uses a standard crystal ball for the first few years of the comic, but after losing her powers she gets forced to upgrade to a crystal tablet.
• Curtains Match the Window: Her eyes and fur are both gold, except when channeling Dragon, which turns her eyes green.
• Cute Bruiser: Overlapping with Badass Adorable, her fighting style frequently only uses magic(k) for the Hulking Out. The rest of her power comes from pounces and punches, relying on brute strength to take down her enemies.
• Cute Witch: Especially given her Witch Classic outfit mentioned below, she carries elements of this. She's certainly regarded as fairly attractive, as King tries to flirt with her when they first meet.
• Deadpan Snarker: Being the Only Sane Man, she has her moments. The deadpan comes on the part of her professionalism, which means she usually never smiles or emotes as much as the ones around her, but she still lives in a World of Weirdness and makes more than a few passing cracks at the strangeness of a given situation.
• Death Glare: Her Perpetual Frowning mutates into one of these during certain situations, such as in The Gallifrax Protocol when Peanut makes mention of her turning 'normal'.
• Death Is Cheap: Subverted, for the most part. Sabrina makes it clear in Temple Crashers 2 that a resurrection spell is one of her limitations she is not capable of casting, if it even exists. However, she's killed in Heckraiser along with most of the cast and respawns outside due to being in Dragon's temple.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: When we first meet her, she's quiet, aloof, and serious, characterized more as Dragon's right hand than an actual character. Over time spent with the incredibly emotive Peanut, she begins loosening up more and expressing herself.
• Delaying Action: The end of Temple Crashers 2. Tarot needs to close the portal to Heck, but agrees to hold it open for only a tiny bit so Keene can slip in and get back out. In the meantime she evacuates everyone else, and brings down the Temple entirely when she's done.
• De-power: Her magic(k) comes from channeling Dragon. After she ends The Game there's no Dragon, No magic(k), and she's back to being a normal dog.
• Determinator: To win the day, she's previously charged through a temple full of traps and monsters, flown halfway across the world to chase someone, run with two children on her back across floating chunks in the void, and held back an Eldritch Abomination with only her own magic(k). It takes quite a bit to slow her down.
• Disaster-Dodging Dog: While she's much more intimately connected to the disaster in question than most examples, her running from Steward as he destroys buildings around her in Heckraiser has elements of this.
• Dogs Are Dumb: One of the few aversions in the comic. Despite most dogs in Babylon Gardens being ditzy at best, Tarot's raising in the hands of an immortal goddess has left her more thoughtful and intelligent than most.
• Dog Stereotype: Her color lends to the classic, golden-furred protagonist dog. Her small size and fluffiness, on the other hand, comes with a few tiny dog stereotypes, but mostly averts them with her only being angry and violent when she needs to be.
• Dying Moment of Awesome: See Self-Destructive Charge. Her final moments in Dragon's temple are spent lugging two children to save the entire team, which she acheives by taking a running leap at the Mana Pool and dying midair.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: A happy future with Peanut is there in sight from the moment they meet. She just needs to fight for it, first by throwing off Dragon's control over her, and then confronting the after-effects of living as a Magical Girl for so long. She does both successfully, and by the end of Heckraiser is rewarded with Babies Ever After.
• Emerald Power: When souped up by Dragon's control, her magic and eyes become an eery glowing green.
• Emotionless Girl: She gets better with time, but her first few years depict her as someone who rarely emotes except around Peanut. This, alongside her precognition abilities, tend to creep out the other people around her and especially puts King off.
• Empowered Badass Normal: After several years (At least implied to be, since Draig and Craig are born and grow into speaking age, but pet lifespans in universe are vague) living as a normal dog, she picks the mantle back up in Dragon's Temple and resumes using magic(k) without missing a beat.
• Establishing Character Moment: Showing up out of the blue, immediately latching onto Peanut, and showing off her psychic abilities casually. Within a few strips, her personality is established and free to be explored.
• Everybody's Dead, Dave: After Marion dies, she and the kits are the last survivors of Eudoant. After her Heroic Sacrifice, she realizes that her fallen teammates simply reincarnated outside rather than getting sent to Heaven.
• Expert Consultant: Very frequently for supernatural affairs. To the ECP, to the K9PD, and at the end of the comic she mentions being hired specifically as a magic(k) consultant by Keene.
• Eye Color Change: As well as Monochromatic Eyes, they turn golden during her Super Mode, and green when being spoken through by Dragon.
• Facial Markings: Tarot has a large band-aid shaped marking over her nose and under her eyes.
• Fantastic Angst: Tarot's insecurities about her ability as a girlfriend and as a helper to others, feeling like she can only do good by being the hero at the center of things, stems from quite literally being the hero at the center of things as The Chosen One for half of her life.
• Fatal Flaw: Her savior complex. She was quite literally raised to be a savior, and when the Game ends, she finds herself purposeless in a domestic life with Peanut. As soon as Heckraiser rolls around she immediately finds Kitsune and demands he put her in a spot where she can help out again, even when he tries to handle things by himself.
• Fake Wizardry: In the aftermath of losing her powers, Tarot insists to Fox that she still has a tiny bit of her future seeing ability, which she demonstrates by opening the door before he knocks. Sasha refutes that she saw her looking out the window, which annoys her. It's unclear who's telling the truth, but given Tarot's insecurity about being a 'normal' dog...
• Fights Like a Normal: Despite the existence of offensive magic(k) (Joey uses Playing with Fire spells during his own stint with power), Tarot only ever uses it to make herself large and muscular. In combat she simply throws punches and kicks, getting her hands dirty rather than resorting to Wizard Duel.
• Final Boss: Serves as one to the second Temple Crashers arc, accosting Joey's 'heroic' group of nerds and serving as their final challenge before they reach the Mana Pool. Of course, when Keene reaches it, she turns out to only be the Disc-One Final Boss.
• First-Episode Twist: Tarot works for a Celestial, is on the opposite side from King, and her 'Dragon form' is actually its own character who she works for. All of these were twists at one point, but later plot points cannot be discussed at all without these being established.
• Foil: To King. Both are the temperamental Only Sane Man, and both are avatars for their respective side of the Cosmic Game. However, King is openly rebellious and contemptuous of Pete, while Tarot stays loyal and hides her resentment for Dragon. King doesn't hesitate to show his frustration and anger, while Tarot tries to remain The Stoic, although isn't always perfect. Tarot understands the rules of Magic(k) and how the Celestials operate, and frequently works under their rules, whereas King learned about The Masquerade far more recently and tends to get annoyed by its needless complexities. All of this and their respective histories have led to a bitter relationship between the two, even despite their teaming up to end The Game initially.
• Foolish Husband, Responsible Wife: Downplayed. Peanut and Tarot are both pretty bright, but Tarot has the advantage of experience, maturity, and precognition.
• Fortune Teller: One of her jobs when not working for Celestials is a fortune telling agency, using her titular cards.
• Friendly Enemy: Zig-Zagged. Her primary opponents on the other side of the Cosmic Game are King and eventually Bailey. When she fights Bailey in Australia, she's polite and cordial to her, as she only considers her a Punch-Clock Villain and likely knows she doesn't want to be here. When it comes to King, she seems to hold the same regard but still avoids him because she knows he doesn't like her. However, this isn't because they're on opposite sides, but rather a combination of personal issues, such as his finding Tarot's crypticism annoying.
• The Friends Who Never Hang: In contrast to Peanut's All-Loving Hero, Tarot rarely spends time alone with the cast unless her boyfriend's making her bring them along. Despite this, she seems to be on good enough terms with Grape to not mind sharing Peanut with her for 'mushy' stuff.
• Furry Reminder: Given her professionalism, she's less prone to this than other pets, but has her moments.
  • When she first encounters Satau, the two sniff each other as they talk.
  • She sees no problem yelling across the neighborhood to talk with Peanut, evoking dogs barking at each other from their houses.
• Gadgeteer Genius: Implied. It's not clear where she got her Aurascope from, but she laments not being able to patent it, implying she might have invented it.
• Genius Bruiser: Resident expert in mythology, demonology, The Multiverse, and time travel. Can absolutely beat on the brat when needed.
• Gleeful and Grumpy Pairing: With Peanut and Kitsune most frequently. The difference is that Peanut's joy endears her to him, while Kitsune's inability to take anything seriously pisses her off.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: Her eyes light up when she's in her Hulking Out form or possessed by Dragon. Even without magic(k), she occasionally turns on the headlights when she's angry.
• Golden Super Mode: Her fur is already dirty blonde, but when souped up with magic(k) (but not under Dragon's control), the marks across her body and her eyes glow with intense gold power.
• Good Is Not Nice: Particularly by King, Tarot is regarded as frustrating and even mean at times. Slightly justified as she was on the opposite side of The Game as him, but taken to ridiculous lengths when she refuses to help him get away from Duchess and forced him to fight back in self defense. Long after The Game has ended, the two still interact as little as possible.
  • There is the unspoken implication that she enjoyed fighting other avatars during The Game, despite hating Dragon. Had Tarot chosen to talk to Bailey when the two met each other in Heaven's Not Enough, they probably could have resolved to Sheathe Your Sword earlier than it happened in canon, especially since Bailey is innocent and the two have no beef with each other. Tarot not only chose to fight Bailey, but utilized underhanded methods (calling a break and then letting Sabrina kick Bailey in the head while she's recovering) and seems to have taken pleasure in it if her Slasher Smile is any indication. Tarot still chose to do the right thing, but much later than she probably needed to.
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!: In Temple Crashers 2, when The Forgotten grows in power, she quietly repeats 'Oh Dear' to herself. It's the closest thing she can get to 'Oh shit Oh shit...' given the comic's rating.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Played with. Her fur is a dirty blonde, not quite the bright yellow the trope is associated with, and likewise she's a jaded and somewhat grumpy heroine who still tries to do what's right.
• Heroic Dog: Not just of her own accord, but raised as one. Tarot insists she was brought up to be 'the savior of the universe', but Dragon's actual intents were likely more selfish than that.
• Heroic Resolve: At the end of Heckraiser. Bruised, carrying two children, and hanging above the void by her teeth, she finds the strength to pull herself up, leap towards the Mana Pool, and throw the kids into it just before dying.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Throwing Craig and Draig through the void mid-jump towards the Mana Pool, and being vaporized by Eudoant just after. Subverted slightly in that Death Is Cheap, and she reincarnates outside.
• Heroic Wannabe: One of the problems Tarot develops after losing her powers is her need to be a hero, to the point that Kitsune observes she only wants to save the world so she can personally save the world. This tendency of hers is eventually deconstructed to a degree. After Kitsune leaves the group in the forest animals’ treehouse to take on Eudonant in Egypt alone, Tarot still insists on going after him in case he fails. Marion asks her outright whether her insistence to follow the demigod isn’t just because she wants to satiate her own ego… At which point she launches into a furious rant where she admits that, yes, she wants to be a hero, because she’s literally been raised by Spirit Dragon to fill that role. She angrily points out that she knows that it doesn’t matter who saves the universe, that people think she’s spoiled and selfish and mock her for her unreasonable expectations of herself, and concluding that she might as well give up. It turns out that feeling unable to live up to the role that she’s been raised to fulfil has given her some rather deep-seated self-loathing issues and a desperate need to save the day somehow.
• Hidden Disdain Reveal: During her entire time under Dragon, she detested the goddess' control over her life, but kept quiet and stayed loyal the whole time. When she finds out that Pete forced Bailey to be his avatar, she agrees with King that enough is enough. Tarot and Dragon meet face to face at a diner in Australia, and upon realizing what's happening, Dragon seems genuinely shocked and clueless as to what she did wrong.
• Hold Your Hippogriffs: At one point in an Imaginate, she swears 'The Dragon Help Us!'. Its not clear if this is normal for her or part of her Kayfabe at the time.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Tiny Girl to Peanut's Huge Guy in their romantic relationship, as a result of their breed differences.
• Hulking Out: During Heaven's Not Enough, Temple Crashers 2, and Heckraiser, she can grow into a larger, more muscular version of herself. It's implied to be an ability of her "class" as Spirit Dragon's avatar and in the dungeon crawl.
• Humanizing Tears: Her tears in Heckraiser serve to add depth to her character and show how Dragon's influence sticks with her.
• Humble Goal: At the end of Heckraiser, she turns down a chance to have one wish fulfilled by Cerberus, then turns around and gets what she really wanted from the adventure; a chance to taunt Kitsune to his face.
• Hunter of Monsters: She's not seen doing it often, but its heavily implied offscreen. While trying to find her in another realm, Sabrina assumes she must be doing battle with frost giants.
• Hyper-Competent Sidekick: As mentioned under Chessmaster Sidekick. Tarot was taught by Dragon, but far surpasses her in every way.
• Indy Ploy: Her plans in Temple Crashers 2 (Sign up as an entrant for Keene's LARP to get closer to him), Real Tales of the K9PD (Break the curse on Sasha by beating her over the head), and Heckraiser (Reincarnate Pete and Dragon by throwing their mortal forms into the Mana Pool) are all plans she came up with on the spot, and often needed reworking under pressure. Nonetheless, she pulled off all of them flawlessly.
• Ignored Expert: Tarot tells Keene (Through Sabrina) in no unclear terms that trying to use a mana wish to achieve equality for all species is a terrible idea. He goes ahead with it anyway, which culminates in the two of them battling it out at the end of Temple Crashers 2.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: After realizing the negative influence Dragon has had on her life and defrosting a bit with Peanut's influence, she grows to resent The Game and enlists Kitsune's help in ending it. Unfortunately, this reverses very quickly once she actually is normal.
• I Just Want to Be Special: Once she loses her magic(k) power, she's right back to wanting it, and throws herself into situations where she can use magic(k) and be the hero as frequently as possible.
• Imagination-Based Superpower: Her mental projection that shows up early, allowing her to create a projected reality controlled entirely by her imagination.
• Insecure Protagonist, Arrogant Antagonist: The insecure to Steward and Eudoant's arrogance. The latter two spend their time on-screen gloating and taunting, the former to Tarot herself while she's trapped on the rooftop. In contrast, Tarot has a quiet scene in the same arc where she breaks down recounting her insecurity in her own ability and how it affects her actions.
• Intergenerational Friendship: She's surprised when Sabrina alludes that she's Older Than She Looks, but the two remain friends for the entire comic's run.
• I Thought Everyone Could Do That: She tends to forget others don't have the psychic powers she does, and can't look at situations in the same way she does.
• Jumped at the Call: She didn't even wait to be summoned to Kitsune's side in Heckraiser; As soon as she clues in that all of Babylon Gardens has been moved offworld, she makes a beeline straight to him to demand he let her help.
• Kung-Fu Wizard: Skilled in both magic(k) and physical prowess, and frequently combines them in a fight.
• Knight in Sour Armour: Her work involves a lot of red tape, magic(k)al or otherwise, and going through numerous less-than-helpful individuals. Add this to having the course of her life pre-determined to groom her into what is essentially a Dungeons and Dragons PC, its only natural then that she's generally cynical and jaded despite her heart nearly always being in the right place.
• Lack of Imagination: Ironically, despite the fantastic and wondrous things she grew up seeing on a regular basis, she apparently has a hard time imagining things. She needs the concept of an Imaginate explained to her by Peanut, and in Temple Crashers 2 when she has the option to be anything, she takes a form that resembles her normal souped-up Dragon form. Sabrina points this out in the same arc. Later, in Heckraiser, when she gets another chance at the Paper Bag of Anything Power, she just writes down 'Me But More Powerful'.
• Lady of Black Magic: Flip-flops between this and Black Magician Girl. She's usually calm and level-headed, but when she gets into fights she's just as quick to blow her top, such as with Keene during Temple Crashers 2.
• The Leader: For most main arcs she serves as the leader for the cast as she is the most experienced, laying out the plans and preparing everyone for what's to come on the adventure. When she leaves them briefly to join a new crew in Heckraiser, she takes on the role since she's the most familiar with magic(k). This becomes most obvious when they face off against Eudoant, where she first identifies how to defeat him, and then takes charge while everyone else is in shock over Todd's death.
• Legacy of the Chosen: Dragon's 150th avatar in the Cosmic Game. In Housepets 5000 BC, she gets to meet Satau, her second avatar. She's also the last one, as she ends up being the one to end The Game entirely.
• Let's Split Up, Gang!: Only shortly after joining Peanut's team in Temple Crashers 2, she forcibly splits them so she can go ahead in front of everyone else and get to the Mana Pool first. Then again when her crew arrives back on Earth in Heckraiser, she takes it upon herself to demand the group split into teams to cover more ground, leaving herself to encounter Steward first. Both of these allude to her goal in general during any crisis of being the first one to solve it, tying into her need to be the hero.
• Living Toys: Supplementary art◊ by Rick depicts a plush version of Tarot, ostensibly created by her and labelled as a 'Homunculus' on Facebook.
• Love at First Sight: She shows up to Peanut and immediately declares herself his girlfriend, which he's happy to reciprocate. Slightly deconstructed later, as she implies she only went along with it because Dragon made her, but grew to genuinely fall in love as she got to know him.
• Lovely Angels: One half of a pair with Sabrina. While their fighting together is alluded to throughout the comic, we eventually see them tag-team Bailey when she briefly becomes Pete's avatar. The two are shown to be a hard battle for her, even with her armour and sword, helped in part by their usage of magic(k) and close coordination.

M-Y

• Magical Girl Genre Deconstruction: Peanut and others are frequently impressed by Tarot's abilities, and comment on how cool it must be to be her. She's initially ambivalent to this, but as the comic continues, we begin to see the effect being raised by a goddess to be a warrior has on her; she's forced into a relationship with a dog she doesn't know, and when she comes to enjoy that Dragon changes her mind and suddenly tries to take him on a whim. She's dim on social cues and relies on magic(k) and her foresight for nearly every element of her life, and once she loses it she becomes a Heroic Wannabe who's desperate to help save the world because it's all she knows.
• Magical Girlfriend: Tarot is a mystic who happens to be a dog. She's also Peanut's girlfriend.
• Magical Girl Warrior: Her powered transformations, implied monster fighting, and patron Goddess all evoke the classical Magical Girl, but she more frequently uses physical force than magic(k) to fight.
• Magic Is Feminine: The most prominent magic(k) user in the story, alongside her female witch-in-training Sabrina.
• Marked Change: Both of her Hulking Out forms come with glowing tattoos and a large Eye of Ra/Tarot Card symbol on her chest.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: The Masculine Girl to Peanut's Feminine Boy. She shows very little interest in anything traditionally feminine, and loves Peanut for his sensitive nature.
• Master-Apprentice Chain: The goddess Dragon trained the dog Tarot trained the cat Sabrina. Without Tarot being able to use her magic anymore, the future of said apprenticeship is uncertain, but Sabrina still runs odd jobs for her and often serves as her Mouth of Sauron when Tarot can't be bothered to show up.
• Mean Character, Nice Actor: She plays a murderer in an Imaginate of And Then There Were None and one of the assassins in Macbeth.
• Meaningful Appearance: Her first collar is an Eye of Ra, representing her connection to Dragon, who is closely tied to the symbol. When she sheds Dragon's control over her, she trades it for a Tarot card, a slightly more obvious piece of symbolism.
• Meaningful Name: Tarot, relating to her magic(k)al origins and Mysterious Past. It's also because she reads tarot cards.
• Merlin and Nimue: As a result of the Master-Apprentice Chain, she's been on both ends of teaching magic(k).
  • The Merlin to Sabrina's Nimue, in a rare cross with Lovely Angels. She spends much of the comic teaching Sabrina, who becomes her trusted confidante and relayer of information.
  • Before that, she was the Nimue to Dragon's Merlin; and much like in that story, she ends up betraying her mentor.
• Ms. Exposition: Most frequently the source of infodumps in regards to how Heaven or Magic(k) works, due to her immense arcanic knowledge.
• Muggle–Mage Romance: With Peanut, who never gains power of any kind throughout the comic's run.
• Muggle with a Degree in Magic: Briefly becomes one during her De-Powering after losing access to Dragon's powers. Due to her expertise, she remains on hand as a magic(k)al consultant to Keene and the ECP.
• Muscles Are Meaningful: Her magic(k)al soup-up comes with hulking muscles and a massive size upgrade to avert Waif-Fu.
• Mundane Utility: Tarot has used her powers for finding the remote, running a clairvoyancy business, helping her friends roleplay their favorite book series, and the like.
• My Girl Is a Slut: An interesting gender-inversion. Tarot is in a very committed relationship with Peanut, but recognizes his romantic interest in Grape. She's shown to explicitly not mind this, even when they kiss in front of her, and even asks for details of their 'being mushy'.
• Mysterious Past: What she did prior to meeting Peanut is completely unknown, other than being raised by Dragon. She seems to have no human owner, and may be completely self-sufficient despite owning a collar.
• Mysterious Waif: Unlike most pets, she appears to have no owner, and we later find out she was raised by Dragon. When we first meet her we know none of this, only that she's psychic and knew to come to Peanut. Over time we learn more of her importance, but still know nothing of her living situation. Heckraiser reveals she has a house, but it's unclear who owns it.
• Mysterious Woman: Ditto. Over time more and more mysteries about her are cleared up, but by the end more than a few still remain, such as her life before meeting Peanut.
• The Napoleon: Tarot is short. By far the shortest member of the cast, discluding the mice, and she's also often the Only Sane Man. It's no wonder than that she's quick to annoyance or even anger, for as much as she tries to remain The Stoic.
• Nerves of Steel: Her unflappable calmness only wavers in a select few, very concerning moments. The other times, even when faced with a demonic entity being summoned in front of her or while being threatened by a massive kaiju rampaging down the street, she's calm enough to begin formulating a plan on the spot.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: Her early appearances tended to make up anything that could create interesting comedy for her powers, pulling telepathy, precognition, and the ability to manifest her thoughts as physical objects out of nowhere. After "Heaven's Not Enough" she lost most of her powers, becoming barely able to use precognition with a Crystal Ball.
• Not So Above It All: After a somewhat rocky start, she quickly comes to enjoy participating in Imaginates and playing characters with significantly more emotion than she normally shows.
• Obstructive Code of Conduct: During The Game, Tarot refuses to a ridiculous extent to interfere in King's life. This extends to not helping him get away from Duchess when she wants revenge on him. Of course, she's very wishy washy on this, and ends up helping him end The Game anyway by the end, which only sours her further in his eyes.
• Occult Detective: Downplayed. When a supernatural matter needs to be investigated, like Pete's Temple or the Haunted House in Scaredy Cats she usually sends Sabrina instead of investigating it herself. There are one or two cases where she's forcibly brought into the fray, like the K9PD coming to her directly in Real Tales to enlist her help in figuring out the reason behind Sasha's mind control.
• Odd Friendship: With Karishad, the resident Cloudcuckoolander of the cast. While it's rarely explored in the comic, supplemental art shows them frequently interacting amicably, and he celebrates her returning from Australia with a hug in Heaven's Not Enough... despite the fact that he was also there with her. In Heckraiser, he even kisses her hand before seeing her off. How they get along so well despite her short temper and his... being Karishad is left unsaid.
• Official Couple: Her relationship with Peanut, alongside King and Bailey's relationship, are the most frequent subjects of romantic comedy arcs.
• Oh, My Gods!: Swears by Dragon's name, on the rare occasion we see her swear at all.
• One-Woman Army: Temple Crashers 2 sees Tarot taking on all four members of Joey's group and Keene by herself, holding her own well until Keene pulls a few underhanded tricks to get her out of the fight, like tickling her nose with his tail.
• Only One Name: Most main characters are given last names that correspond with their owners', like Sandwich or Arbelt. Tarot's ownership status is completely unknown, so she only has the one.
• Only Sane Man: Tied with Grape for the most frequent example of this, especially when surrounded by people like Keene, Todd, or the Celestials.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The few moments she ceases to be either simmering with restrained anger or The Stoic.
  • When things begin to get drastic in Temple Crashers 2, she visibly gets nervous and begins to rapidly swear under her breath.
  • Shortly after, when Res powers up to take on The Forgotten by himself, she's stunned into silence.
  • When Kitsune leaves her in Babylon Gardens in Heckraiser, she ends up breaking into tears at the slightest prod and needs Steward to comfort her.
• Open Secret: She very casually talks about her magic(k) and psychic abilities to anyone who will listen. Presumably, humans don't bother to listen to what a dog has to say about it, because Heaven still considers The Masquerade important to uphold until Heckraiser.
• Orcus on His Throne: A heroic example. She frequently uses Sabrina as her Mouth of Sauron, particularly when Keene is involved. In the first Temple Crashers, this lack of interference on her part leads to him disregarding her advice entirely. When she finds out he's going to try to do something even worse in the followup arc, she finally makes a move to stop him, traversing into Pete's temple herself alongside a team of pets she rounded up.
• Ouija Board: One of her many tools of the trade, alongside a Crystal Ball and her namesake, and one she seems to share frequently with Sabrina.
• Our Mages Are Different: Tarot is one of the scholar sort, as is fellow mage Sabrina. She's shown to have a large library and extensive knowledge of magic, although she cannot on her own practice it; she needs power from Spirit Dragon or a nearby Mana Pool in order to wield it.
• Perpetual Frowner: Of the focused and serious variety. She can smile, usually when she's around Peanut, but when it comes to work she's always either stone-faced or annoyed. Despite this seeming seriousness, she still gets her jabs in.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Tarot is indisputably the most powerful mortal in the Housepets universe, immensely respected by Kitsune despite how much he loves to tease her. It's hard for her to be taken seriously by those who don't know this, given her short stature.
• Playing Card Motifs: One piece of art◊ by Rick associates her with The Ace (Of a paw suit), smugness included, for rather obvious reasons.
• Police Psychic: Having a few ties through friends of friends, she has on occasion aided the K9PD, particularly in more supernatural cases.
• Post-Modern Magik: After losing her powers, she trades out her crystal ball for an iPad-esque crystal slab, with all of the tech malfunctions and difficulties that comes with. She occasionally alludes to a magic-based internet she uses to consult other users.
• Power Floats: When Dragon emerges from her body, she rises into the air and dramatically crosses her arms.
• Power Loss Makes You Strong: Even after presumably years without Dragon's power to aid her, she's able to help Kitsune take down Steward and Eudoant. Even in Dragon's temple when she regains her power, it's clear that her ability is only slightly aided by magic(k), since her role is staying alive rather than fighting.
• Powering Villain Realization: Played with. Tarot knew Dragon's power would be meaningless if Tarot wasn't there to enact her demands according to the rules of The Game; it was Dragon who was too short-sighted to see how disastrous mistreating that power-supplier would be. Tarot put up with so much during her career with Dragon, the goddess never thought for a moment Tarot would turn against her, or even disliked her. When Dragon realizes what's happening, she asks Tarot in shock "What did I ever do to hurt you?". As soon as Tarot and King have time to talk without being spied on by their respective gods, the two agree to put their weapons down and cease combat entirely, which ends The Game.
• Pragmatic Hero: Will do even unkind things to save the day. In Temple Crashers 2, she abandons her boyfriend in the Temple while he's sleeping so her team can reach the Mana Pool first, although she apologizes when they meet again. Said team is also comprised of individuals she's implied to have intimidated into joining her to meet the four member requirement, Mungo in particular.
• Prescience Is Predictable: Averted, although discussed. Tarot enjoys her foresight and is genuinely dismayed when she loses it after The Game, but Sabrina or Peanut occasionally point out how boring life must be when you constantly know what's going to happen.
• Proper Lady: She doesn't appear to be much older than any of the other pets, but she acts notably wiser and more responsible than most.
• Prophet Eyes: When she's channeling the source of her power or when Spirit Dragon possesses her outright, her eyes turn from their normal amber to a bright green.
• Protectorate: Of her entire dimension. She claims here that Dragon's intent was always to raise her as 'Savior of the Universe', which seems dubious (given Dragon primarily wanted to win a TTRPG before any actual heroic motivations), but she's nonetheless proven herself to fit this role time and time again, particularly in regards to fighting back the forces of Pandemonium/the Bad Place.
• Psychic Link: Tarot has imprinted on Peanut, allowing her to speak telepathically with him across long distances. Unfortunately, it only got used once before the fight between her and Spirit Dragon over Peanut caused the link to break.
• Rage Against the Heavens: Even aside from the Rage Against the Mentor example below. Despite working with them so much, Tarot does not like Celestials. She tolerates Kitsune and Cerberus because the latter means well and the former is too powerful to speak ill of, but she clearly gets no enjoyment out of interacting with them.
• Rage Against the Mentor: Dragon raised her her entire life, groomed her to be an Avatar, and taught her her extensive knowledge of magic(k). She also interfered in Tarot's love life, repeatedly flip-flopped on what she wanted, and destroyed Tarot's chance of ever being a normal dog. When Pete forces Bailey to be his Avatar, both sides of the conflict agree enough is enough, and Tarot personally chews out Dragon for her actions.
• Rage Breaking Point: Marion's suggesting she only wants to help for her own glory is this in Heckraiser, leading into her Cathartic Crying.
• Raised by the Supernatural: In Heckraiser, Tarot lets slip an interesting fact of her otherwise Mysterious Past during her "The Reason I Suck" Speech, claiming that Spirit Dragon raised and trained her from early childhood. What this entails, whether she was adopted as a puppy, whether she knows her birth family, or if she ever had a human owner is unstated.
• Reality Warper: Under Dragon, she was a very low-tier example of the Clap Your Hands If You Believe type. As she shows in Imaginate Too, she can mentally alter reality to transform people and the world around her, which she does to allow them to roleplay the setting of their favorite book series. She can also facilitate travel between dimensions, through time, and is implied to be able to Ret-Gone people on top of her Psychic Powers.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The calm and crafty avatar to King's passionate, stubborn, and headstrong avatar.
• Refreshingly Normal Life-Choice: Zig-Zagged. After The Game ends, she gets a chance to return to a normal life completely devoid of magic and the supernatural. She genuinely enjoys being with Peanut as a partner and normal canine, but because of her Savior Complex she jumps at the chance to go on more supernatural adventures.
• Rei Ayanami Expy: In her first appearance, she was an strange, emotionally stunted woman with a mysterious past and otherworldly powers. Over time she shed these traits and became more emotive and independent, as well as sharing more of her backstory.
• Renaissance Woman: Skilled combatant, raised from birth as a warrior. Well respected magician. Expert in all things paranormal, celestial, and mythological. An established actress, at least in Imaginate terms. Skilled precognition chessplayer. Mechanical engineer, if she did indeed make her Aurascope. Business owner and fortune teller. Plan oriented forward thinker. All of this while being a loving girlfriend on top.
• Retired Badass: After The Game ends, she becomes one by settling down with Peanut in a mostly adventure-less life. Again after Heckraiser, she's implied to become one since she's a mother now.
• Romantic Fake–Real Turn: She was sent by Dragon to pose as a girlfriend to Tarot so Pete couldn't use Grape as an avatar. She's initially aloof to him and simply following orders, but quickly comes to love him for real, so much so that she does not take Dragon's change of orders lightly. By the time the Cosmic Game ends, they've become the most inseparable and oldest Official Couple in the comic.
• Respected by the Respected: Kitsune, a Physical God with dominion over the entire dimension, knows her and respects her well enough to accept her help (Up to a point) even when she's powerless.
• Rule of Symbolism: Her Significant Wardrobe Shift of collars is never explained, but serves its role well in representing her departure from Dragon.
• Rule of Two: The underling to Spirit Dragon. In a heroic sense, her only student and assistant is Sabrina.
• Running on All Fours: When she's in her Hulking Out form, she runs and pounces on all fours. This is especially strange as no other bipedal animal is show to possess this trait, but it may connect to her more bestial demeanor in combat.
• Secret-Keeper: Of the connection between Joel and King being one and the same. Said secret eventually became open. She also knows the Ship Tease relationship between Peanut and Grape — though much to her amusement this was only a secret to Maxwell.
• Seers: Makes frequent reference to her clairvoyance, mostly to the annoyance of other people around her. She teaches this power to Sabrina, but eventually loses it when Dragon loses The Game.
• Self-Destructive Charge: While fighting Eudoant. She makes a leap towards the Mana Pool and is shot with one of his Eye Beams, literally disintegrating in midair as she throws Craig and Draig into the pool. She gets better.
• Sheathe Your Sword: How she defeats Pete and Dragon. The Game's rules require both avatars to be willing to fight, which Tarot is up until she learns Bailey was forced to work for Pete after he blackmailed her husband. King, Bailey, and Tarot all agree to completely cease fighting, meaning neither side can progress. Kitsune gives each god a few minutes to convince their avatars to keep going, which both fail.
• Shorter Means Smarter: As a pomeranian, Tarot is very used to being a head or two smaller than everyone around her. Despite this, she's by far one of the smartest in the comic.
• Significant Wardrobe Shift: After leaving Dragon's control, she trades in her Eye of Ra collar for a more self-representative Tarot Card collar, starting in The Other Psychic Hotline.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: What sells her on Peanut after initially being forced to get with him is his kindness and genuine care for her.
• Sixth Ranger: To the primary quartet cast. Grape and Peanut were always protagonists, and Max has been around since the strip's early days. Tarot didn't join until after the comic had switched to color, and it took a while to establish her as a recurring cast member.
• The Smart Guy: Despite appearances, she's routinely shown to be an expert in multiple fields. Crosses over with Genius Bruiser when one considers her warrior training.
• Smart People Play Chess: Her and Sabrina both engage in a game of Precognition Chess, playing through an entire round in their minds without touching the board.
• Spotting the Thread: A much quicker example than usual. As soon as Peanut describes their sudden fortune, she heads over to the Wolf House, noting the many good fortunes of its inhabitants as she does. Seeing Kitsune's statue missing only confirms her suspicion that they've been taken to Heaven.
• The Stoic: Defrosted very quickly, but initially appeared as this before she got to know Peanut.
• Straight Man and Wise Guy: She's not devoid of humor, but she's a lot more serious than Peanut or Kitsune, who she's often paired up with. In particular Kitsune's lack of care towards even grave situations really bothers her, and she ends up lashing out at him for it in Heckraiser.
• The Strategist: Frequently this to her team, whatever that may be. In Heckraiser, faced with a completely new situation and two kaiju-sized beings fighting in front of her, she calmly comes up with a plan on the spot to reincarnate Pete and Dragon.
• Stronger Than They Look: Although it's not often seen, she's shown to have some physical prowess even outside her muscular transformation. She tackles Ptah to the ground by leaping twice her height into the air and slamming him backwards, which Peanut comments on.
• Super Mode: Has a much larger, more muscular form she can activate by tapping into her power that she usually pulls out for fights.
• Supernatural Gold Eyes: Tarot's natural eye color is gold, and when she shrugs off Dragon's influence, her magic takes the same color.
• Suppressed Rage: Implied. She's bitter and snarky on a good day, only really cooling off around Peanut and a select few close acquaintances. She gets heated and emotional during combat. She's tipped easily by Marion into her above mentioned Rage Breaking Point, and suppressed her disdain towards Dragon for a long time up until the end of The Game.
• Taking Up the Mantle: The Housepets 5000 BC arc reveals Tarot was actually the 150th avatar of Spirit Dragon, implying the mantle of being the dragon’s avatar has been passed down through generations. The arc deals with the dragon's 2nd avatar having accidentally gotten stuck in the future.
• Technicolor Magic: While using Dragon's power, its green, including her Hulking Out form and her eyes during possession. When she taps into this power using other mana pools, the same transformation uses gold in its place.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork:
  • First and most one-sidedly with Dragon. Tarot eventually cuts this one off, pointing out how Dragon forced her to take a boyfriend she barely knew, and then tried to steal him away when Tarot decided she liked him. Even when she worked for Dragon she was openly critical of her, and bickered frequently.
  • With King when they team up to end The Game, since they both have a strained history as opposing avatars. The fact that their first ever encounter featured him drunkenly trying to hit on her certainly didn't help. This tense relationship persists for quite a few years; When King needs someone to babysit his kids much later, neither he nor Tarot try to volunteer her, despite her being a perfect candidate.
  • And finally with Kitsune, simply because he's The Gadfly and a Smug Super.
• Telepathy: Is one of her many Dragon-granted powers, which she uses to communicate with Peanut after imprinting on him. We don't see it very often, as she usually relies on her clairvoyancy to read people without the need for it.
• Temperate Berserker: Tarot is logically-minded, thoughtful, and intricate in her plan-making, ranking among the most intelligent characters in the comic. In combat, however, she forgoes logic and planning for instead pouring all of her mana into making herself as bulky and strong as possible and then whaling on the problem as hard as she can. Bailey, a similarly strong and normally larger dog, struggles to keep up with her even in armour, and in Temple Crashers 2 a team of four players is needed just to keep her occupied.
• Token Wizard: In nearly every team she joins. Granted, Sabrina also possesses spellcasting abilities, but they were taught to her by Tarot and Sabrina goes on far less adventures.
• Too Clever by Half: The counterpart to Peanut's Too Dumb to Fool. She's much smarter, but more likely to overlook the simple solution, best shown during Temple Crashers 2, when they get to choose their powers and forms in Pete's temple. Tarot chooses to take the form of her Hulking Out body and gets stuck at a puzzle near the endgame, while Peanut waits to see what the best course of action is, eventually taking the form of a loosely defined 'Puzzle Master' so he can just cheat the system.
• Touched by Vorlons: Her powers were granted to her (implied at a very young age) by a supernatural deity. When said deity loses her powers, so does Tarot.
• Transformation of the Possessed: When Dragon takes over her body, she can choose to speak through Tarot's body (which turns her eyes green and allows Dragon control of her) or to transform her entirely. This is what leads Peanut to believe that Tarot is shapeshifting into a dragon, rather than being possessed by a different entity entirely.
• Tsundere: Downplayed. She's sour to most people and sweetens up around Peanut, but has a few moments of exerting dominance over him. She drags him around by the ear at the end of The Gallifrax Protocol for a perceived insult against her, and grows accusatory when Fido shows more interest in Sabrina then Peanut shows for her in I Need A Vacation.
• Unstable Powered Woman: Averted. She keeps a steady mind despite her intense power, emotional repression, and work expected of her. Her biggest emotional breakdown comes after she's lost her powers, negating any potential Angst Nuke.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: Spirit Dragon's final mistake in Tarot's eyes was trying to take her boyfriend. She didn't mean to snub Tarot, and tried to offer Peanut his own choice, but it bothered Tarot enough that she brought it up when the two meet in Australia. This mistake is what finally leads to Tarot sabotaging Dragon and forcing the Celestial to reincarnate as a mortal.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting:
  • She's capable of transforming into a much larger, more monstrous form with the help of Spirit Dragon's powers. After her depowering, she regains this ability twice, both when in proximity of a Mana Pool she taps into to borrow power from.
  • She can also turn into Dragon at the goddess' will (Presumably and hopefully with Tarot's consent, although it seems Tarot can fight her off if she really wants to), which seems to dissipate her normal body until Dragon is done.
• Walking Spoiler: It's hard to discuss her without discussing Dragon, who was a secret for a while, and even once she was known was briefly assumed to be another form of Tarot's.
• Willing Channeler: Initial evidence points to the relationship between her and Spirit Dragon being mutually satisfactory — other than quarreling over Peanut's affection, that is. Later, however, the "willing" aspect comes into question.
• Women Are Wiser: Tarot and Sabrina are far more sensible and intelligent than many of their male cohorts, with the notable exception of King, who infrequently butts heads with Tarot due to their conflicting natures.
• The Worf Effect:
  • In Heckraiser, Tarot is first to be taken out of action, with the Kitsune-summoning being left to Marion and Lois. Subverted slightly in that she's much less powerful than she's used to anyway, but she's still certainly the most capable of the cast.
  • Shortly after, Kitsune refuses to take her to Egypt, demanding he fight Eudoant alone. Unfortunately, she comes anyway, just in the normal, much slower fashion.
• The Worm Guy: The Magic(k) Woman. At first, the only work she put her powers towards were her fortune telling business, which is presumably her only source of income. As soon as Keene realizes that supernatural forces are real, and more importantly his father was involved with them, he begins bringing her in to consult with, and then usually disregards her advice anyway.
• Younger Mentor, Older Disciple: Sabrina is stated to be older than Tarot, but still diligently follows her word when teaching magic(k).
• Your Mind Makes It Real: Tarot's mental projection takes Peanut and Grape's usual pretend playing WAY over the top, ^note in this instance, turning Max into lava and Grape into a deep cavern, though Peanut says that it sometimes gets "out of hand".

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