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Human Protagonists
The Pennykettles
- Alliterative Family: Liz and Lucy.
- The Chosen Many: Liz and Lucy are not the only Pennykettles out there.
- Family Business: The making of clay dragons that come to life.
- Gratuitous Princess: They're all dragon royalty descendants. Technicalities. What can ya do?
David Rain
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Despite seeing the dragons alive in the first book, he's back to doubting their existence in the second. Thankfully, he grows out of it.
Lucy Pennykettle/Penny
A young girl with an abundance of attitude, Lucy is Elizabeth Pennykettle's daughter and serves as an Annoying Younger Sibling for David to viciously defend. She loves dragons and harbors a wildlife fetish that essentially fuels the plot of The Fire Within. She is stubborn and strong-willed in the face of danger, often dragging David with her into such situations. Lucy has a reputation as a chatterbox with a vivid imagination. In later books, she is angsty and defiant, refusing to believe that David is dead. Her own dragon is Gwendolen, who aids Lucy in her escapades.- Alice Allusion: Sort of. When David reads her an alternate universe version of Alice in Wonderland, Penny imagines up an image of a dragon child as Alice.
- Ascended Fangirl: Totally. Give her a chance to talk about any topic related to dragons (or squirrels) and she'll harp on for hours.
- Berserk Button: Harming animals or her beloved clay dragons will set her off like crazy. Suggesting, at any point in the series, that David is actually dead will earn you a one-way trip to the ER. Her crush on Tam can also make her explode if someone (Zanna) patronizes her on the topic. Also, Zanna herself isn't one of Lucy's favorite people in The Fire Eternal.
- Disappeared Dad: Although it turns out that her father is actually a dragon. It Makes Sense in Context.
- Heroic BSoD: She was abducted by an evil witch and lived on mushrooms in the Arctic for a few months. When she was eleven. What's one to expect?
- Loving a Shadow: Her crush on Tam can be seen as this, considering that she ended up with said crush through email correspondence with him.
- Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: When Liz starts to explain all about Arthur, the first conclusion is that he is Lucy's father. Wrong. Liz quickens an egg, it hatches, Arthur comes home and she's nursing a newborn. His conclusion? She cheated.
- Show Some Leg: She tries this on Tam, but Zanna calls her out on it: "Why are you wearing a skirt?"
Liz (Elizabeth) Pennykettle/Eliza Merriman
Elizabeth Pennykettle is the mother of Lucy Pennykettle, and David Rain's landlady. Liz is a potter, specializing in the creation of clay dragons that come to life. She is the resident Team Mom of the series and if anyone has a problem, you can bet she'll be the one to help them solve it. A Proper Lady, she holds the Morality Chain of many a character and is most probably the kindest person in the Last Dragon Chronicles.- Mandatory Motherhood: It's revealed in Fire Star that she didn't plan on having children. But she did, and she's the best at her job.
- Parental Substitute: For David. Later, it turns out that she actually is his mother in an parallel universe. She even acts as a mother to Zanna at times.
Zanna (Suzanna) Martindale/Rosanna
Zanna Martindale is introduced as a Perky Goth and quickly becomes The Hero's love interest.- Cool Big Sis: Although they rarely get along, she comes through as this for Lucy in times of trouble.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Rosa gives her life to ensure Ix!Zanna returns to normal Zanna. Well, if normal is a word that can be used to describe Zanna... Doubles as a
Tear Jerker.
- Parental Abandonment: As Rosa in Fire World, her parents dump her at the librarium.
Arthur Merriman
Alexa Martindale/Rain
- Goo-Goo-Godlike: She dreamed up her own parents.
Tam
- The Dragon: To Lucy, when infected by the Shadow. Of course, his main allegiance is to Voss. However, this doesn't stop him from doing everything Lucy tells him to do.
Guinevere
- Incorruptible Pure Pureness: From what we know from the legend, this seems to stand. Pretty much confirmed as of her appearance in The Fire Ascending.
Agawin/Alexa
- Came Back Strong: In The Fire Ascending after he absorbs Galen's tear. And again, when he 'dies' and becomes Alexa. Yes. Alexa.
- Determinator: He will save Grella. God help anyone who gets in his way.
- Took a Level in Badass: First by absorbing Galen's tear. Then by becoming Alexa.
- The Quest: Essentially, how his story begins: a pilgrimage to see a dragon leads to a quest to save a girl.
Grella
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Horribly Averted. After being horribly and continuously abused by Griss and Stygg, she doesn't get better.
Joseph Henry
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: His goal in life is to set right the muddled up Universe.
Dragons
Galen
- Let's Get Dangerous!: When attempting to fight Gwilanna, he tries to make his human host grow wings. It doesn't end well. It ends with a lot of bloody, gory muscles on show.
Dragons of Wayward Crescent
- Our Dragons Are Different: They're clay figurines, for starters.
Gruffen
- Declaration of Protection: In Dragons of Wayward Crescent, it is revealed that he was created to protect Lucy. However, by the time of The Fire Within, he's become the household protector in general.
Antagonists
Gwilanna
- Freudian Excuse: Her mother was a Jerkass. Her father was evil.
Stygg & Griss
- Ax-Crazy: Stygg. He kills lots of families, just to replenish Grella's sewing supplies. He gets worse after ingesting dilute Ix.
- Licking the Blade: Stygg does this after he cuts Gwilanna. This doesn't end well for him...
