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The Main "Protagonists"
Manolo Mendoza
The titular protagonist, a socially anxious and recently unemployed man whose life takes a dark turn when he finds his wife, Ximena, hung from the front balcony of their home.
- Brainwashed: Like all of the other former students of Alma Academy, the brainwashing Mendoza underwent when he was a child never really went away, as Aloysius can still order him around, and Nadia exploits this every chance she gets once she and Mendoza finally meet.
- Last of His Kind: After the destruction of Alma Academy and the deaths of all those affiliated with it, Manolo Mendoza's story ends with him being both the only surviving victim of the Sirius Project, and the only surviving member of the Manolo family (that is, if Magdalena was just bluffing about jumping off the top of the clock tower).
- My Greatest Failure: Not being at home to stop Ximena from getting killed, naturally. He changes it to "marrying Ximena" when he finds out her lynching was staged and Ximena, who's Aloysius Abaddon's daughter, has been spying on Mendoza for her father all along.
Norman
A bespectacled Bookworm of a boy and Mendoza's Kid Sidekick, and the first "friendly face" Mendoza meets (and, unfortunately for Mendoza, the only one that is friendly).
"Friendly Faces"
In General
People Mendoza and Norman bump into who want nothing but to be nice and friendly to them. A little too nice and friendly, in fact...
- Beware the Nice Ones: They're the nicest people you'll ever meet... so long as you aren't on their hit lists.
- Brainwashed: The reason they want to kill Mendoza so badly is because they were brainwashed by Aloysius into wanting to. It is hinted, however, that they do harbor some animosity for Mendoza due to him being so exceptional back when they all attended school together, and that that may be what's also driving them.
- Carnival of Killers: What they ultimately are, with Aloysius being their ringleader and his son, Alberto, being his number two.
- The Reveal: They're five graduates (and one dropout) from Alma Academy who, through the brainwashing they received from Debra Dollywood when they were students, want nothing but to kill Mendoza. The only one who wants to kill him but isn't brainwashed into wanting to, however, is Alberto Abbadon, as he's Aloysius's son.
Henry Swallows
An unemployed man with dozens of cats who recently lost his job and witnessed Ximena's murder from the attic of his home.
- Bestiality Is Depraved: He has sex with his cats because he likes how much they "hug" him.
- Crazy Cat Man: Has dozens of cats in his house and would rather spend his time having sex with them than go out and find a job so he can actually take care of them.
- Eye Scream: When he corners Norman in the attic after Norman figures out what he is, Norman hits him in the face with his crowbar. Right in the left eye. Which causes his eye to fly out of its socket.
- Flat Character: Appears for only two chapters (and is barely in either of them) and doesn't do or say anything that furthers the story at large.
- Karmic Death: The man who fornicates with cats dies via bleeding to death from getting his penis chopped off.
- Killed Off for Real: Mendoza chops off his penis, then dies from the blood loss.
- The Load: Does nothing to help further Aloysius's scheme and ultimately dies and is forgotten like the loser he is.
- Starter Villain: The first antagonist Mendoza's pitted against, and bar none the least competent and formidable.
- Warm-Up Boss: The most pathetic out of Aloysius's Carnival of Killers, being a jobless loser who fornicates with animals all day. Alberto even says later on he had Henry go after Mendoza first because he wanted Henry out of the way and knew Mendoza would have no trouble with him.
- Would Hurt a Child: Was going to assault (and possibly rape) Norman when he cornered him in the attic, but Norman makes him eat crowbar before he could've done so.
Julie Juliet Julienne
A mentally ill novelist with three first names who wants to write a biography on Mendoza.
- Alliterative Name: All three of her names start with "Ju-", and she's very proud of it.
- Hey, You!: To go with her Letter Motif, she says "Jay, You!" whenever she wants to get Mendoza or Norman's attention, and always refers to them as "big guy" and "little guy", respectively. This is meant to hint how little she actually thinks of them and is fully prepared to forget them once she murders them.
- Killed Off for Real: She slips on her own manuscript and falls head-first on the spade Norman planted in the ground near her, stabbing her in the skull and killing her immediately.
- Letter Motif: She's heavily associated the prefix "Ju-"; all three of her names start with "ju-", all her dialogue consists of words that start with "ju-", she says "Jay, You!" instead of "Hey, You!", mentions at one point she was born in "either June or July" (she can't remember which), and reveals once she shows her true colors that she practices jujutsu. It's more than likely invoked since she apparently loves her own name.
- The Load: Not as much as Henry, but she'd still rather write her incomprehensible novels all day than actually help her fellow Graduates out. That said, she's dead set on killing Mendoza and Norman and comes pretty close to doing so.
- Two First Names: She's got three, actually. And yes, as stated above, she's very proud of it.
The Mendozas
In General
Manuel Mendoza
The father of Manolo and Mateo, the ex-husband of Mangledela, the current husband of Delilah, and one of the two founders of Alma Academy, with the other being Aloysuis Abbadon.
Mangledela Mendoza
Manuel's first wife and Manolo and Mateo's mother.
Mateo Mendoza
The late brother of Manolo, whose death serves as the catalyst for pretty much the entire story.
- Small Role, Big Impact: He was apparently quite milquetoast an individual and wasn't at all remarkable in school, but his death is the cause of the war between the Manolos and Abaddons, Alma Academy turning into a training camp for Child Soldiers, and the Starts of Darkness of many characters.
- Posthumous Character: Dies long before the story proper, but him getting killed during the shootout at the academy is what sets off the entire series.
The Abaddons
In General
Aloysius Abaddon
The chief antagonist of Mendoza. The patriarch of the Abaddons and the founder of Alma Academy, Aloysius is a madman obsessed with spreading his influence beyong Alma Falls, and will do anything to make that happen.
- Big Bad Ensemble: As the ringleader of the Graduates and the patriarch of the Abaddon family, Aloysius serves as one of the biggest threats in the story. And since he ultimately outlives Nadia, he also serves as its Final Boss.
- Final Boss: He serves as the story's last antagonist once all six of the Graduates and Nadia die, and Ximena and the Star Pupils are freed from their brainwashing. He's the one who had the army of Star Pupils formed in the first place, and the last person preventing Mendoza from fulfilling Manuel's promise.
- Flat Character: Played for Drama. Aloysius is a generic megalomaniac of a man whose only characterization comes from the effect his actions have had on other characters; the Graduates he's brainwashed to specifically do his bidding, his own family which he's destroyed for the sake of his Evil Plan, the faculty of Alma Academy which is in shambles, and Manolo, who is forced into a moral dilemma over killing him since there was no chance to make Aloysius see the error of his ways.
Alberto Abaddon
He has the honor of being the one who sets the story proper in motion, being the one who hung Ximena from the front balcony of Mendoza's house. But there's far, far more to his motives and actions than one might think...
- Disc-One Final Boss: He's the one who lynched Ximena and is the overarching Big Bad for the first half of the story, but once he's out of the picture for good, there's still a lot of things that don't add up regarding his motives and actions. So, Mendoza decides to pay his old school a visit...
Ximena Abaddon
The Dollywood Triplets
In General
Delilah Dollywood
The eldest of the Dollywood triplets, the "shadow mistress" of Alma Academy, and Manuel Mendoza's second wife, which makes her Manolo Mendoza's stepmother.
- Always a Bigger Fish: She puts Nadia in her place almost instantly.
- Bait-and-Switch: With her being the eldest of the Dollywood triplets and academy's true headmistress, the narrative spends quite a while building her up to be the one behind everything. But then things take a surprising turn once Delilah, in her dying breath, tells Mendoza that Ximena's still alive...
- The Mistress Behind the Headmistress: The true headmistress of Alma Academy, and the one making sure Nadia doesn't go too out of control with her Evil Plan.
- Wicked Stepmother: Averted. She loves Manolo dearly and is bar none his most invaluable ally.
- The Worf Effect: One Norman tells her about Nadia's Evil Plan involving the time capsule (which is actually a bomb in disguise), Delilah goes to not only dismantle the bomb, but outright kill Nadia and get the Brainwashed student body under her control.
Debra Dollywood
The middle sibling of the Dollywood triplets, a psychologist and the creator of the Sirius Project.
- Driven to Suicide: Once she realized how terrible a mistake she made when she started brainwashing the students to get them to listen, she cut her own jugular vein.
Deanna Dollywood
Alma Academy
Faculty and Staff
Headmistress Nadia
The current headmistress of Alma Academy... except she's actually just a figurehead Delilah installed so she can lead the academy from the shadows. She's completely off her rocker and wants to bomb Alma Falls to oblivion... for some reason.
- Always a Bigger Fish: She's the only person Mendoza couldn't defeat; he goes toe to toe with her three times, and he's beaten to a pulp and is left for dead every time. Delilah ultimately kills her, but Mendoza still never formally defeated her.
- Climax Boss: She serves this role as the final major threat from Alma Academy. When she dies to Delilah, the academy's threat to the city dies with her and the final antagonists for Mendoza and Norman becomes the Abaddon family.
- Diabolus ex Nihilo: She has no backstory, and nobody even knows when she enrolled in the academy; as far as everyone in-universe is concerned, she just showed up one day and worked her way up to being headmistress. Her only motivation is to gather the Star Pupils to slaughter people in Alma Falls en masse, then drop a bomb on the entire place (while the Star Pupils are still there, mind you), leaving no evidence.
- Flat Character: She's more of a force of nature than a character, serving as the representation of the kind of monsters Alma Academy produces when allowed to reach their true potential, and her death marking the end of Alma Academy's threat to Alma Falls and the world in general.
- Generic Doomsday Villain: There's nothing but evil to her and her goals boil down to wanting to blow up the entire city just because she can.
- Lone Wolf Boss: The only Arc Villain who, despite being affiliated with Alma Academy, isn't one of Aloysuis's Graduates and doesn't have anything to do with his scheme or the overall feud between the Mendozas and the Abaddons.
- Plot-Irrelevant Villain: As she's a figurehead Delilah appointed to trick Mendoza into thinking she masterminded everything, Nadia's got nothing to do with the bigger picture, as she's completely unaware of Aloysius's scheme, Mendoza's goals, or the history their families share. Her Evil Plan to destroy Alma Falls using the Star Pupils was also her own doing and is dealt with by Delilah before it gets any farther than the destruction of the AFPD.
