http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Characters/WithPearlAndRubyGlowingThePalacePartFour
Multiple Stories
The Late Night Show - Morning Path and Path of Ambition (Mac Hedgyhog and Sloppy Joe), Corn Poppy and True Image (Savannah Chetaby and Veri Cute), Hazel and Harmony, Of the Lord (Crushed Ice Chilla), Beautiful (Bella Flamenco), Pleiades (Perky Peacock), ศึก (Mr Yut), Bright Reflection and Wisdom (Manny Mouser and Sonia Siberio)
- Abandon the Disabled: Jo and Aeji were left at an Orphanage of Fear specifically for deaf children, as in most of North Korea disability is considered shameful and sufferers are put out of sight.
- Adaptational Name Change: Bella and Sonia have the same names they do in canon, while everyone else has a more human and culture-appropriate name. Mac and Joe are now Jee-do and Jo-do Go, Savannah Chetaby is Shaghayegh Cheraghi and uses Savannah as her Stage Name, Hazel and Harmony Squirrelson are Ela Belkova and Kuzma Belkov, Crushed Ice Chilla is Cyriaque Barafu, and Perky Peacock is Parveen Patel. "Yut" is more usually a first name in real life, so Mr. Yut becomes Yut Plangklang. Manny still goes by Manny now, but his birth name was Myeongyoung. Ittybit becomes Aecha, and Manny and Sonia's older daughter was unnamed in canon but here was originally named Eun-sae and changed it to Aeji when she was adopted.
- Adoption Is Not an Option: Justified and then reversed with Manny and Sonia. Manny originally hated the idea of adopting a child because he himself was stolen from his perfectly suitable and willing birth mother and adopted by abusive parents who wanted a trophy child and tried to suppress his culture, and feared doing the same to a child. He was happy to adopt Aeji later on because he knew that her parents really were unfit.
- Agony of the Feet: Crushed Ice suffered a Chigoe flea infestation in both feet, which went untreated for months and necessitated amputation.
- Animal Gender-Bender: Referenced; Perky is a female peacock in canon, and a trans woman/hijra here.
- An Arm and a Leg: Crushed Ice had both feet amputated.
- Asbestos-Free Cereal: Bruce Iguana and the Palace don't even try to come up with slogans about how good the service they provide is, just pointing out how dangerous the city is so a personal injury lawyer and a rape survivor support group are likely to be needed by just about everyone sooner or later.
- Bait-and-Switch Lesbians: Savannah was accused of this over her song "Cyra Weaving", a love song to a female subject, since Savannah is straight. She explains that she didn't mean it as romantic love, it was for her daughter, but in her latest album she and both her daughters have made a revamped version which actually is about WLW.
- Bilingual Bonus: Most of Mr. Yut's insults are translated, but he doesn't elaborate on "farang khi nok". Literally it means "bird-shit guava fruit", but colloquially it's an unflattering term for Westerners, especially white people.
- Blackmail Backfire: Someone tries to blackmail Hazel and Harmony to stop their human rights protests by threatening to leak a video of Harmony being gang-raped in prison. Harmony tells them to go ahead, since he did nothing wrong and all it does is prove his point.
- City Shout Outs: Done in a rather unflattering manner in the Palace's and Bruce Iguana's ads, stating the viewer needs them because Calisota is such a Wretched Hive.
- Cope by Creating: Explicitly stated with Savannah's early songs, "Solitary Confinement" and "Cyra Weaving", being about her imprisonment in Cuba and her oldest daughter being taken away. Implied to be a factor for many of the other guests, too: Mac and Joe make movies and TV about North Korea; Bella dances in a handprint-patterned leotard, referencing the symbol of Native American rape survivors; the Squirrelsons have a routine inspired by Harmony's imprisonment; Crushed Ice choreographs his dances to hymns to show his belief that God saved him and loves him.
- Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon: Among other things, Mr. Yut threatens to "kill [your mothers] so I can fuck your wives on their graves".
- Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: Downplayed, but Manny missed his daughter's birth, early milestones because he was being kept prisoner in the north.
- Don't Try This at Home: Some of the commercial spots have strange disclaimers: "Do not use Pizza Planet for sexual purposes."
- Dramatically Missing the Point: Bev thinks Hazel and the ambassador she was seen with looked "cute" together and asks if they're in a relationship, which Hazel denies uncomfortably. The implication is she either seduced him or was blackmailed in order to get political clout to free Harmony.
- Fictional Counterpart: Bev, Savannah, and Trip have some similarities to Ellen Degeneres, Beyonce, and Ali G. As an in-universe example, Mac and Joe are making a bizarro version of Squirrel and Hedgehog showing how terrible North Korea is, with a major character based on their cousin.
- Flowery Insults: Mr. Yut gets pretty creative.
- Formula-Breaking Episode: The chapter takes place on Bev's Talk Show instead of at the Palace and the "movie fragments" are clips and photos being shown on the show.
- Innocent Bigot: Bev is trying to be nice, but she doesn't know the first thing about any of her guests' cultures.
- Insistent Terminology: Bella likes to be called Miccosukee, not "Native American", preferring to be more specific about her culture.
- Inspirationally Disadvantaged: Referenced; Crushed Ice hates this trope, and wants people to use him as an inspiration to help disabled people rather than tell them to work harder.
- Instant Humiliation: Just Add YouTube!: Harmony's blackmailer attempted this on him with a video of his rape, but he didn't consider it humiliating because he wasn't the one who did anything wrong. Manny's less fortunate and a video of his rape is accidentally broadcast on live television, re-traumatising him. Mr. Yut was also filmed cursing out Milo and Oscar's principal and forced to apologise on TV.
- Insult of Endearment: Manny and Sonia call each other "Toxoplasma" and "Hantavirus" affectionately (diseases carried by cats and mice, respectively).
- Lampshade Hanging: The slogan in the ad for personal injury lawyer Bruce Iguana is "It's Calisota. We should be in your speed dial." Similarly, the Palace’s slogan is just “Come on. It’s Calisota.”
- Meaningful Name: The names the narration uses for most of the characters are the meanings of their real names, or something similar.
- Mistaken for Cheating: In "Cat Out of the Bag", when Yut tries to explain his Prison Rape to Milo and Oscar, Oscar accuses him of betraying their mom and says he should have died instead of her. It's only after seeing how upset Yut is that he realizes he didn't do it willingly.
- Mistaken for Terrorist: Savannah was taken to Guantanamo Bay for interrogation after 9/11 because she's Muslim and Middle-Eastern.
- Orphanage of Fear: The Brothers' Home and the school for Deaf children serve as this in practice. There are actual schools for teaching the disabled in North Korea
, but very few, and Jo and Aeji weren't lucky enough to end up in one. - Orphan's Ordeal: Manny may not actually be an orphan, but he was given to abusive adoptive parents.
- Papa Wolf: Mr. Yut was understandably very pissed that the school resource officer pointed a gun at Milo and Oscar and that the principal tried to suspend them for the rest of the semester.
- Pizza Boy Special Delivery: Implied in the Pizza Planet ad, which ends with a disclaimer about not using Pizza Planet for sex.
- Prison Rape: Happened to Savannah in Guantanamo Bay, Harmony in a prison in Kyrgyzstan, and Mr. Yut in Klong Prem, and is effectively what happened to Manny when he was enslaved in North Korea.
- Related in the Adaptation: Mac and Joe are the cousins of Goseumdochi. Mr. Yut is the father of Milo and Oscar. Savannah is the mother of Catra, via an incident with Shere Khan, and her other daughter is Veri Cute. Manny and Sonia are the birth parents of Ittybit and adopted Geumsaegi's sister.
- Resolved Noodle Incident: Mr. Baldwin's chapter mentioned a "unicycle incident" which resulted in Milo and Oscar's father ending up on TV. As revealed here, Milo was caught riding a unicycle around the school gym while livestreaming it; the resource officer overreacted and pointed a loaded gun at both him and Oscar, and the police got involved. Mr. Yut naturally was displeased and creatively cursed out the resource officer and the principal, and another student filmed the incident and put it online. Mr. Yut is the announcer for Bev's show and was forced to make a public apology on air.
- Revenge via Storytelling: Mac and Joe's show has a lead character based on the staunchly loyalist cousin who betrayed the family to the authorities and is all about him and his friends learning how wrong they are.
- Sarcasm Mode: Pretty much all of Mr. Yut's dialogue is heavily sarcastic.
- Scarpia Ultimatum: Implied; Hazel is photographed with the North Korean ambassador who helped get Harmony freed, with his hand on her hip and bite marks on her neck, and she doesn't want to talk about it.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Mr. Yut has a very dirty mouth. He called the resource officer a "stupid son of a whore", a "fucking idiot" and a "farang khi nok" (literally "bird-shit guava fruit", colloquially along the lines of "white trash") for pointing a gun at his sons. He also called the school secretary a bitch for calling the cops.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: The commercial for the Largest Ever Pet Shop ends with a disclaimer that the store is not involved in animal trafficking.
- The Talk Show with Host Name: The theme of the chapter (Bev is the 'host' of said story and presents herself as such).
- Trauma Conga Line: Manny in particular; he was taken from his mother and kept in Busan's infamous Brothers' Home, adopted by Western parents who forced him to act white and used him as a status symbol, then imprisoned in North Korea and forced to make movies for them, then raped when trying to escape, then the video of said rape was accidentally broadcast on the live television talk show he was appearing on.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Crushed Ice's village genuinely believed his Chigoe flea infestation was a sign he was possessed, and tried to cure him by beating the devil out of him, then raping him when that didn't work. He's obviously upset that it happened, but wants to be forgiving because they really didn't know it wouldn't help.
- You're Not My Father: Manny cut contact with his adoptive parents as soon as he could.
The Wayfarin' Strangers (The Daltons)
- Ass Shove: Jake put his gun in Luke's rectum and fired it.
- Even Evil Has Standards: The Daltons weren't too fond of Luke and were okay with robbing/vandalizing churches for Jake, but they were horrified when Jake attacked and raped Luke to get revenge for them.
- How We Got Here: The Daltons explain what happen prior to bringing a critically injured Luke to the front of the Palace.
- Meaningful Name: Their names come from the western theme of their original series.
- Not What It Looks Like: The Daltons had to explain to Skipper's crew what really happened to Luke.
- What a Drag: Jake tied Luke to the back of his car and dragged him for a while before raping him.
- Action Survivor: The Sins are all this after the beat down they experienced (exempting Nuka and possibly Wallace, who was shot, and Wilbur who is in a coma). Extra points to Coraline who jumps from an upper story window to get out of a burning house.
- Affably Evil: The professor may be a rape apologist, defending the murders of innocent people due to being a religious zealot... but he's awfully nice about it. Unlike Ratigan and Bill, nothing indicates that his demeanor is a facade.
- Arranged Marriage: Violet is only eight and is being married off to an older man. Even worse is that she sees nothing wrong with it due to her upbringing.
- Burn Baby Burn: The cultist who kidnapped Riley set fire to their house while Coraline was still inside.
- Children Are Innocent: The Owlegories kids don't understand why GWF is in the wrong, due to being taught that they were in the right, and pray for Judge Hopkins as he was sent to jail. Even more horrifying, Violet - who is clearly a young child - is going to get married soon. She sees no issue with this.
- Corporal Punishment: The professor believes that all children deserve a good spanking whenever they misbehave.
- Crippling Castration: GWF destroyed Riley's uterus.
- Death of a Child: Nuka dies from the injuries given to him by GWF.
- Dramatic Irony: The cult charge Riley with having an abortion and destroy their uterus for it, when we know from Calisota Healthcare that they were never even pregnant.
- Fingore: It's revealed in "Somebody That I Used To Know" that Vitani bit several of Wiggins' fingers off.
- Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: When getting his forensic exam, Gromit questions just why Ratigan goes out of his way to ruin peoples' lives.
- Insane Troll Logic: The professor claims that the cult doesn't actually kill anyone, despite inflicting mortal injuries, because God ultimately decides whether they live or die. He also expresses some absolutely absurd opinions about the "Living Sins" such as claiming that Wilbur must have wanted to have sex with Ratigan and Goob because he, a skinny 13-year-old, couldn't fight off two grown men while they were holding him at gunpoint and he had a broken arm and insinuating that Riley deserved to be permanently maimed and likely long-term (leaning towards permanently) disabled because they supposedly had an abortion.
- Meaningful Name: The story is told by a church meeting, who are supporters of GWF. The "Dying Virtues" are the remaining members of GWF after the first police bust, and the "Living Sins" are the last people they went after before they were arrested.
- Never My Fault: The professor claims that the cult don't kill anyone because it's God's will whether anyone lives or dies, even when the cult hang them or set them on fire.
- Old Man Marrying a Child: Implied, as Judge Hopkins was going to conduct Violet's wedding ceremony.
- Super Window Jump: When GWF set Riley's house on fire with Coraline inside, Coraline jumped out the window to get out, but she ended up breaking all of her teeth.
- The Tooth Hurts: Coraline broke all of her teeth when trying to escape from Riley's burning house.
- Trapped in Villainy: Wiggins doesn't seem at all happy about what the cult does.
- Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: The kids are well-intentioned and curious, but some of the things they say are downright awful. One repeatedly uses slurs and all of them engage in victim blaming, though they seem a little unsure of themselves at times. Most likely, they're just parroting the things the adults in their lives have said.
- Uncertain Doom: Wallace was shot and Wilbur was left in a coma, but it's not confirmed if either are dead. Difficult Conversations reveal that Wallace survived the shot, but has to stay in the hospital for a month due to hitting one of his lungs.
- Would Hurt a Child: The "Dying Virtues" leave Wilbur in a coma after assaulting him, try to burn Coraline alive in Riley's house (and only go that route because they can't transport both her and Riley, the latter being their intended target), permanently mutilate Riley, clearly intended to, at minimum, severely injure Gromit and Vitani (as well as potentially orphan the former) and outright murder Nuka.
Shades of Gray - Gray (Marshall), Grey (Dakota), and Black'n White (Cowlarado Kid)
- Corporal Punishment: Both Dakota and Cowlarado's parents believed in hitting their kids to keep them in line. When his aunt and uncle died, Dakota took it upon himself to continue this, smacking Cowlarado for coming home late (because the Mayor had been abusing him) and preparing to hit him with a belt for knocking over a port-a-potty with someone inside and getting expelled. Deconstructed in followup chapters, as not only did hitting him cover bruises from the assault that could have otherwise been used in court, but the beatings themselves were traumatic and led to Cowlarado not telling him about his sexual abuse.
- Don't Make Me Take My Belt Off!: Dakota whipped Cowlarado Kid with a belt whenever he misbehaved. He almost does it again after the incident at the 4H fair, but Kid thought he was going to rape him, resulting in him finding out what Mayor Bulloney did.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Dakota brought his cousin up the way he thought was best and he's horrified when he realizes that his parenting style might have been harmful.
- Overturned Outhouse: Cowlarado Kid kicked over some portable toilets in his school gym while drunk on moonshine. The last one was occupied and he got expelled for it.
- Promotion to Parent: Implied. Dakota seems to be Cowlarado's legal guardian, but he's his cousin and not his father.
- Run for the Border: After Mayor Bulloney gets them accused of cattle theft, they decide to flee to Mexico for the time being to let everything blow over, only to end up turning around when Durland and Blubbs mistake them for some of Rattlesnake Jake's accomplices and interrogate them.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Done twice. The group flee Utah when Mayor Bulloney gets them accused of cattle theft to distract the public from the accusations against him, and then flee back to Utah when they're confronted and questioned by Calisota cops during an obvious disaster they don't know the details of.
- Toilet Humor: Cowlarado Kid and his friends kick over portapotties as a joke, which rapidly becomes unfunny when they realise someone was still in the last one.
- Adaptational Nationality: Bastion, Claire, Vince and Beau were all presumably going to be the same race as their canon counterparts. Here they are specifically Thai and the floating lantern festival is them celebrating Yi Peng.
- All Girls Like Ponies: Sunflower is a rider who quit her old riding school after she was assaulted by a white boy and shunned by the girls there, and now she rides/volunteers at a group specifically for black kids, with several other female characters and a couple of boys.
- Child by Rape: Bruno was forced to impregnate Beatriz multiple times at the Ark, producing the five younger kids.
- Death of a Child: Maria is drowned in the pond, implied to have been murdered by Miss Brown and Mr. Hater, and Angel dies of leukemia.
- Feuding Families: Angel's parents' families only buried the hatchet because Angel was born, and turned against each other again after she died.
- Huge Schoolgirl: Taken to extremes with Inma, a prepubescent girl with gigantism who's seven feet tall.
- Human Trafficking: Yzma sold some of Kuzco's friends to the Ark, and also sold the less attractive ones to the Schnee Dust Company.
- Meaningful Name: "The Loneliest People" are comprised of characters who were scrapped, and left the group for whatever reason.
- Parental Substitute: Jack adopts Inma. Miss Brown has custody of Maria, but Miss Noakes is her primary carer and mother figure.
- Pedophile Priest: Mr. Hater is a vicar and pays Miss Brown for the chance to molest Maria.
- Properly Paranoid: Sunflower was very right in not trusting Chip Whistler.
- Put on a Bus: The chapter's theme is Palace members who left the group for whatever reason.
Gambling Midnight (Top Cat) and Midnight's Gamblers - Tracy (Jelly!Fancy-Fancy), Jesse James (Spooky), Easy Eight (Jelly!Brain), Big Red (Jelly!Choo-Choo), Snake Eyes (Jelly!Benny), Jimmie Hicks (TC!Choo-Choo), Little Joe (TC!Benny), Yo-Leven (Spooks), Dos Equis (TC!Fancy-Fancy), Fever (TC!Brain)
- Composite Character: In this world, Sawyer is Top Cat's never-seen sister Myra, with Sawyer being her middle name.
- Decomposite Character: The original series gang and the Jellystone gang are different people. TC grew up in New York with the original cast, then fled to Calisota after he got out of prison and took up with the Jellystone group.
- Fixing the Game: TC's gang made money by selling loaded dice to gamblers at the Rockaway Boulevard casino.
- Juvenile Hell: TC met the New York gang in Snyder's Refuge.
- Parental Substitute: Despite their conflicts, Dibble has a certain protective attitude towards TC and shouts at his birth parents for neglecting him.
- Person as Verb: Spooks says that everyone thought Top Cat jumped off the Queensboro Bridge and calls it "pulling a Chooch" because Choo-Choo attempted to do this in the past.
- Race Lift: Top Cat is Latino in this continuity (as a reference to the popularity of Top Cat in Latin America).
- Replacement Goldfish: TC gives his new gang the same nicknames as the old gang because he misses them so much.
- We Used to Be Friends: Back in TC's childhood, Smartass mentored him, but it's implied and later confirmed that he was involved in framing TC for robbing the orphanage.
The Groom of Gadgets (Wallace)
- Hello, Sailor!: Had plenty of sexual encounters with his comrades in the Navy.
- Meaningful Name: His name matches up with his wife Wilhelmina's name "the Bride" and he's an engineer.
- The Reveal: Riley supposedly having an abortion wasn't the only reason that GWF went after them — they're also in love with Coraline.
- Shout-Out: The song Psycho gives Vitani to play at Nuka's funeral is Hollywood Undead's "Lion".
- What Did I Do Last Night?: Ratigan spiked Wallace's drink in a bar to assault him and Wallace had no idea what had occurred until years later when the cops found his picture in Ratigan's scrapbook.
See
With Pearl And Ruby Glowing Antagonists.
The Parishioner Redeemed (Zidgel)
- As the Good Book Says...: Jake forced him to quote a passage from the Book of Common Prayers while raping him.
- Auto Erotica: Jake raped him on the hood of his car.
- Meaningful Name: He goes to church and blames himself for his assault because he's gay and conceited.
The federales - Charlie Dibble and Eddie Valiant; Exhibits A (Psycho), B (Wheezy), C (Greasy), D (Stupid), and K (Smartass)
See
With Pearl And Ruby Glowing The Palace Part One for Psycho's appearance at the Palace.
- Ass Shove: It's implied one of the Ark goons shoved Stupid's baseball bat into Smartass' rectum.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: Shan Yu has this inflicted on Smartass as revenge for the kneecapping, made worse by giving him meth and Naloxone, which means he stayed awake the whole time and couldn't block out the pain.
- Excrement Statement: Shan Yu urinates on Smartass.
- Forced to Watch: The Weasels are made to watch what happens to Smartass under threat of having it happen to them if they look away.
- Good Versus Good: Both Dibble and Valiant have good intentions. Dibble doesn't approve of the Palace civilians plotting against the Ark themselves and wants to arrest the Weasels for their severe prior crimes, including betraying TC and working for Doom, who killed Teddy. Valiant thinks they've suffered enough and are now trying to do good, and allows himself to be arrested rather than betray the Palace group.
- Hairpin Lockpick: Wheezy picks his chain locks with a pin hidden in his mouth.
- The Reveal: This chapter reveals how Lizzy escaped the Ark. Shan Yu captured the Weasels in order to get revenge for them for Knee-capping him, they ended up in the same warehouse as her, Robin, and Basil, they all tried to escape together, but Robin and Basil had to stay behind in order to help Lizzy and the Weasels get away.
- Uncertain Doom: Smartass is clearly badly injured, and it's unclear if he's still alive or for how much longer he will be.
- Unspoken Plan Guarantee: In Darkest Hours, Frosting Flowers, the Toon Patrol discussed with Skipper and his team how they were going record themselves selling drugs to the Ark so they can anonymously turn it in to the police. Naturally, it didn't go well, with them getting captured and Smartass being tortured.
- Adaptation Name Change: Cuphead is Majer "Max", Mugman is David "Davie", and their last name is Kettle.
- Age Lift: The devs have confirmed the original Cuphead and Mugman to be "kidults", or adults who act like kids because they're cartoon characters. Here, they're actually kids, aged eleven.
- Bring My Brown Pants: In "Difficult Conversations", Cuphead freaks out when Elder Kettle tries to get close to him and he wets himself.
- Embarrassing Damp Sheets: Cuphead wet the bed a few times in prison due to Prison Rape.
- Emotional Regression: After getting abused in prison, Cuphead starts to suck his thumb, cry like a younger child would, and wet the bed. Mugman is implied to also be having problems, albeit less severely.
- Held Back in School: Discussed. Aeji says that they were in prison for so long that they might have to repeat 5th grade.
- It's All My Fault: Mugman blames himself for Cuphead getting abused in prison.
- Kiddie Kid: Cuphead more than Mugman, but even other child characters remark that he acts much younger than he actually is. Justified given that it's a trauma response to being abused in prison.
- Miscarriage of Justice: Easily among the worst in the series so far. To wit, the duo supposedly broke into an abandoned factory (which would be a rather light sentence, especially since it was their first crime, if even at all since the place was abandoned), yet were not only tried as adults, they were given a long sentence, thrown into a maximum security prison, and when Cuphead kept acting out, he was locked in a cell with known child abusers. Even worse? The duo wasn't released until after Hopkins (the judge of their case) had been arrested himself.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: After finding a dead body in the cookie factory, the duo attempted to report it to the cops, only for the officer they spoke to instead charge them with crimes and have them arrested.
- Noodle Incident: It's offhandedly mentioned at one point that Cuphead broke a cup over Pacifica's head.
- Parental Abandonment: Their dad died when they were very young, and their mother followed soon after from Broken Heart Syndrome.
- Pariah Prisoner: Invoked by the cops. When Cuphead wouldn't stop acting out while imprisoned, they locked him up with known child abusers, banking on them to abuse him so he would finally stop.
- Raised by Grandparents: They're being raised by their grandfather Elder Kettle.
- Rule of Symbolism: When coloring, the boys are given the three primary colors and the yellow one is broken, symbolizing how the boys view Chalice as the reason they're in this mess in the first place and that, unknown to them, she's already dead.
- Sequel Hook: The story ends with a loud shout coming from outside the courtroom.
- Stress Vomit: Mugman mentions throwing up a lot when imprisoned.
Straight-Lace and Loose-Ends (Normina Normanmeyer and Morticia Addams) and Sturm and Drang (Norman Normanmeyer Jr. and Wednesday Addams)
See
With Pearl And Ruby Glowing Antagonists for Normina.
- Adaptational Villainy: In the show, it's expressed that the Normanmeyers do care about Norman. Here, both of them, Normina especially, have been abusing him in a twisted attempt at "curing" his autism. Additionally, Normina is shown to be transphobic towards her own sister.
- Ass Shove: Normina forced bleach enemas on Norman and Wednesday because she couldn't get them to swallow it and thought it would cure their autism.
- Cain and Abel: Morticia, for all her oddities, is the Abel, being a loving mother and Creepy Good at her worst. Normina, on the other hand, is the Cain, being an abusive mother to Norman who is willing to poison her own son with bleach just to make him "normal".
- Creepy Uncle: Wednesday's uncle Norman molested her.
- Good Parents: In sharp contrast to the Normanmeyers, Morticia and Gomez are shown to be wonderful parents, allowing Wednesday to express her autism with no complaints and the few habits they did want to get rid of were ones that were shown to be harmful (such as her chewing on her hands) and they gave her better alteratives.
- The Kindnapper: For all intends and purposes, Morticia did technically kidnap N.J from his parents. However, considering that his parents were abusive and N.J vastly prefers being with the Addams, Morticia was completely in the right.
- Mama Bear: The moment Morticia realizes what Normina and Norman have been doing to Norman Jr. and Wednesday, she goes on the war path.
- Mr. Seahorse: Both Gomez and Morticia are trans and he's the one who gave birth to their children.
- Nephewism: Morticia's seeking to gain custody of her nephew N.J. due to how his parents treat him.
- "Not Making This Up" Disclaimer: The notes link to an article about how parents really have tried to use bleach enemas to cure their children's autism, among other dangerous and useless practices.
- Obsessively Normal: Normina's willing to do anything to "cure" her autistic son, including poisoning him with bleach and even doing the same to her niece Wednesday.
- Open-Minded Parent: Morticia and Gomez allow Wednesday to express her autistic behaviors freely. The Normanmeyers are the complete opposite, trying to stamp out the same behaviors in N.J.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Normina treats autism as though it's a disease and believes that N.J will never be able to live a normal life because of it even though studies have shown that it is completely possible for autistic people to become fully functioning adults. She's also transphobic towards Morticia and it's implied to be the major reason behind her cutting contact with her sister.
- Sequel Hook: The story ends with the jury having yet to deliver their verdict and someone making a deafening shout, but it's not clear who made it.
- Arranged Marriage: He is Twilight's arranged husband.
- Bring My Brown Pants: Referenced in Kits; he starved himself for three days before his death so he could die with dignity.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: He’s self-centered, spoiled, vain, shallow and not particularly book smart. He’s also the best diplomat Celestia has at her disposal.
- Dressing to Die: Before his execution, he's allowed to bathe, brush his teeth and change into his own clothes. Subverted when Sci-Twi prevents him from being shot.
- Drink-Based Characterization: He's offered the choice between orange juice and grape juice by a doctor hoping to get some sugar into him. He chooses cranberry, a juice with a reputation for being healthier than it actually is.
- Face Death with Dignity: He stops eating so he won't soil himself when he dies and begs to be allowed to shower and dress nicely.
- False Rape Accusation: He was accused of raping Twilight (actually Sci-Twi pretending to be her) and was nearly executed over it.
- Fictional Country: He's the prince of Arisiziat ("horse land", a.k.a. Equestria), a fictional nation in the area of the real-world region of Tatarstan in Russia.
- Foil: To Twilight, his wife. He was born into the current royal family whereas she came in from the outside. She's a sensible and gifted scholar with very few social graces whereas he's a Book Dumb hedonist with a talent for diplomacy. Both are affected by Sci-Twi's scheme, Twilight is abducted and Blueblood is arrested. Both of them are associated with the night sky.
- Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: Celestia apparently has many partners and does not keep track of who fathers which child.
- Massive Numbered Siblings: He's the only son among thirteen sisters.
- Overly Long Name: Vladimir Livius Konnitsa Tulparkhanov-beg.
- Public Execution: He was to be shot to death by the firing squad while the royal family watched. He was only spared because Sci-Twi stopped them and confessed she isn't really Twilight.
- Related Differently in the Adaptation: Celestia is his mother instead of his aunt.
- Shot at Dawn: He was sentenced to death by firing squad at midnight.
- Skewed Priorities: When being treated for shock and sexual assault injuries, he's mad that he only has two doctors attending him, since two attended the fake Twilight so he thinks a real prince merits at least three.
- Take That, Critics!: In "Forensic Kits", when the doctor asks him where Equestria is, he says near Mongolia and asks if that's in Central Asia (which it isn't). This was in reference to an angry reviewer that claimed the writers were racist against Central Asians because they made Shan Yu (who is Mongolian and canonically a villain in his source material) a rapist.
- Upper-Class Twit: Played with. He's very spoiled and entitled and noted to be particularly Book Dumb... in most subjects. However, he's also noted to be a prodigy in the social and political sciences and can be very charismatic when he wants to be.
Once-Upon-A-Time (Nimona) and Ever-After (Ballister Boldheart)
- Abled in the Adaptation: Ballister's right arm remains intact.
- Double Standard: No one had an issue with Nimona and Gloreth swimming naked together until the former came out as non-binary, at which point it was suddenly a massive problem.
- Miscarriage of Justice: Nimona is put on the sex offender registry for skinny-dipping in front of a child, despite being a child nemself.
- Pronoun Trouble: Nimona uses ne/ner/nem neopronouns, and Ballister has to correct Ambrose when he slips up a couple of times.
- Skinny Dipping: Nimona and Gloreth swam naked together, and no one had a problem with it until Nimona came out as NB.
See
With Pearl And Ruby Glowing Antagonists.
K-9 (Mr Wolf) and the Handler (Diane)
- Black Sheep: Wolf appears to be one within his family, who are shown to be flawed, but overall still good people, if Reggie's mother calling him a bad influence means anything.
- Deadpan Snarker: Wolf still has quite the edge on him, as best shown by this exchange.
Wolf: Those religious wacks you’ve got in here? Better move ‘em to solitary.
Diane: I take it you mean the ones from the Gonzales case. Why? Did something happen?
Wolf: Not yet. But it's going to. Shen’s got his eye on them.
Diane: Jun Shen is almost eighty years old.
Wolf: Oh, I’m sorry, I forgot that old people never kill anyone.
- Desperately Craves Affection: It's made very clear by the end of the chapter that Wolf misses his partners and just wants someone to love him again.
- Driven to Suicide: When Webs, Pepe, Snake, and Lou broke up with him for snitching on prisoners and he was raped by said prisoners, he tried to hang himself.
- May–December Romance: Wolf states that Snake is pushing sixty while the other members of the gang appear to be much younger.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: The entire reason he became a snitch in the first place was to keep the gang safe. Once they found out, they all broke up with him and left him at the mercy of the other prisoners.
- Ship Sinking: Diane acknowledges and returns Wolf's feelings for her, but refuses to act on them because she's his supervising officer.
- The Stool Pigeon: Wolf snitched on other prisoners in exchange for keeping the gang from being hurt in prison. Unfortunately, his partners broke up with him when they found out, and several prisoners raped him.
- Trans Tribulations: In this universe, Ms. Tarantula is a trans woman, which gets her sent to the same prison as the men. Wolf himself notes that the other prisoners would no doubt want to eat her alive because of this.
- Ungrateful Bastard: The other members of the Bad Guys, upon learning about Wolf becoming a prison snitch purely to keep them safe, which he tells them, all ditch him and leave him at the mercy of the other prisoners.
The Gentlemen B-Words - Locke Lamora (Dodger), Father Chains (Fagin), Calo Sanza (Tito), Galdo Sanza (Einstein), Jean Tannen (Francis), Sabetha Belacoros (Rita), Bertilion "Bug" Gadek (Oliver), Nazca Barsavi (Jenny)
- Abusive Parents: Einstein's birth parents beat him, Francis' foster mother forced him to burn a school book about evolution, and Jenny's parents/grandparents are more interested in their jobs than their kids/grandkids even after the multiple family tragedies.
- Atrocious Alias: "Bug" doesn't sound very flattering as a nickname, but it's short for "Bertilion Gadek", a relevant character in The Lies of Locke Lamora.
- Book Burning: Francis' extremely religious foster mother forced him to burn a library book about evolution when he brought it home, prompting him to run away.
- Crisis of Faith: Rita seems to be very conflicted about her Muslim faith after her family were taken from a mosque and killed.
- Death Faked for You: To avoid having to use Oliver in the gang's streetwalking, Fagin told the Ark he had died.
- Did Not Think This Through: Einstein ran away from home because his parents beat him, then realised he didn't know how to survive on the streets and couldn't find his way back. Tito met him just in time to stop him dying from eating dumpster food laced with rat poison.
- Disposable Sex Worker: They never bother reporting the Ark or GWF for what they did because they know no one would care, and at one point a client accidentally injures Einstein and tries to kill him because a dead hooker wouldn't be connected to them but they'd be arrested for hiring one if he reported the injury.
- Does Not Like Men: After being harassed and later assaulted at pageants, Georgette started to hate men, so she got rid of Oliver and kept Jenny.
- Dumpster Dive: Tito saved Einstein from eating from a poisoned dumpster.
- Education Mama: Einstein ran away because his parents beat him for getting bad grades.
- Everyone Has Standards: Fagin was willing to pimp out teenagers, but not a two-year-old, so he and the gang hid Oliver and told the Ark he died.
- Evil Stole My Faith: Rita loses most of her faith in Islam after her family was kidnapped while leaving their mosque and her parents were killed, though she still prays in Arabic sometimes.
- Family of Choice: Most of them are orphans that only really have each other and became a family because of it.
- Foster Kid: Francis was one, and Oliver was for a while after Georgette abandoned him on a long-distance train, until Sykes got hold of him.
- Get into Jail Free: Fagin turns himself in and confesses to prostituting minors so the Ark won't find out Scrooge let him go and he can help the police and the Palace group against them.
- Harmful to Minors: Fagin let the gang members take up prostitution and theft at ages as young as thirteen, but he only did it because the Ark would have done worse to them. When clients or Ark enforcers come around, Oliver is made to hide in a cupboard with headphones on so he won't see or hear anything inappropriate or frightening, but he's still at least somewhat aware of what's going on. Rita and Fagin also read novels with inappropriate language and violence out loud to the gang, including him, as with the real traumas he witnesses they don't think it matters anymore.
- Hooker with a Heart of Gold: All of them except Fagin, Oliver, and Jenny are streetwalkers and thieves and Fagin's the one who taught them to do those things, but they're all really nice and willing to risk their lives when they think their friends are in danger.
- House Fire: Francis lost his parents in a house fire.
- The Illegal: Tito's family tried to enter the US and were imprisoned, and his parents may have been sent back or may still be there, while he was dumped in the US because a racist officer thought he'd be better off there than in Mexico even without his family.
- Meaningful Name: All of them take names from characters in the Gentleman Bastard series.
- Locke Lamora is the smart-mouthed leader of the gang and expert thief, in the same role as Dodger.
- Jean Tannen is a bookworm with an interest in theatrical drama, analogous to Francis being the gang's brains and liking Shakespeare, and both of them also lost their parents to house fires. He also calls the assortment of foster siblings he went through his Wicked Sisters, after Jean's double axes.
- Sabetha covers/dyes her red hair to avoid being raped by the Jeremites. Rita is Muslim and GWF raped her for wearing a hijab.
- My God, What Have I Done?: At first, Georgette was happy to be rid of Oliver, but slowly came to regret it, going prematurely gray because of it.
- Mythology Gag: Dodger's real name is Jack Dawkins, which is the real name of Artful Dodger, the character from Oliver Twist Dodger is based on.
- The Oldest Profession: They're streetwalkers, paying most of their income to the Ark.
- Oppressive Immigration Enforcement: The border patrol separated Tito from his parents when he was little, abused him, and abandoned him in the USA with no help and no understanding of English.
- Our Product Sucks: Einstein complains about how confusing flashbacks in fiction are, which is basically what WPARG's memory fragments are.
- Overly Long Name: Tito's full name is Ignazio Alonzo Julio Frederico de Tito.
- Parental Neglect: Mr and Mrs Foxworth stay at their conference and Skype their long-lost grandson and the people who found him instead of immediately flying out to meet him. Jenny prefers to stay in Calisota with the gang as a substitute family.
- Parental Substitute: Fagin apologises to Rita for not being her real dad and does his best to stand in for all of the group.
- Red Baron: Sykes is nicknamed the Gray King and Rosco and DeSoto are nicknamed the Berangias siblings in the narrative, after the primary villain and the gladiator twins in the book.
- The Runaway: Dodger ran away from multiple foster homes and the Refuge, Einstein ran from his bio parents after they beat him, and Francis ran away from his extremely religious foster family.
- Searching for the Lost Relative: Once Georgette confessed what she did, she and Jenny began searching for the latter's missing twin, who turns out to be Oliver, which is why they're in California in the first place.
- Separated at Birth: Georgette kept Jenny and got rid of Oliver, who ended up with Fagin's gang, as an infant because she hated men.
- Shout-Out: Rita describes the characters from the book The Lies of Locke Lamora and explains how the names fit each member of their gang.
- Street Urchin: All the gang spent various amounts of time living on the streets.
- Take Me Instead: Fagin offers to go back to the Ark to be the subject of a snuff film, to buy the rest of the gang more time to pay their built-up debt.
- Teen Pregnancy: Oliver and Jenny are twins, born from Georgette being assaulted as a young teen; the incident led her to hate men and boys, so she abandoned Oliver while keeping Jenny, who was raised as her sister.
- Trauma Button: While Fagin is roleplaying with Rita to prepare her for doing sex work for Mr. Sykes, he tells her to call him "daddy", causing her to flashback to when God's Will First killed her parents.
- Trauma Conga Line: All of Fagin's gang have tragic backstories even before they ended up working with the Ark.
Crocodile Teardrop (Charlie Barkin) and Alligator Blood (Anne-Marie)
- Broken Tears: He breaks down sobbing when Anne-Marie finds out what he (supposedly) did and calls him a bad person.
- Culture Clash: Prison tattoos vary in meaning by location; Charlie doesn't understand why the teardrop tattoo which marked him as a prison bitch in New Orleans gets him admiration in Calisota, but it's because in prisons on the west coast the teardrop marks a murderer.
- Doting Parent: As much as he can be from prison, but he does anything he can to make sure Anne-Marie (here his biological child) knows that he still loves and cares about her.
- Eye Scream: He loses an eye when the infection from his facial tattoo spreads.
- Fixing the Game: Charlie and Carface used Anne-Marie to help them cheat the casino's customers by smuggling cards to them or telling them what cards the other players had.
- Frame-Up: Carface framed him for murdering Anne-Marie's mother, resulting in his arrest.
- Missing Mom: Charlie sued Anne-Marie's mother for full custody when she was really young, and later her mother was killed.
- Mistaken for Badass: Everyone in the Calisota prison assumes Charlie's tattoo means he's a cop killer, which lets him rise to a position of respect, though it backfires when Anne-Marie later thinks the tattoo means Charlie murdered her mother.
- Morality Pet: Anne-Marie was one to Charlie and is responsible for pretty much all of his redeeming qualities.
- Pariah Prisoner: As several characters in his story note, the fact he has a tattoo marking on his face pretty much marks him as a target almost instantly.
- Prison Rape: King Gator rapes Charlie almost as soon as he's locked in and gives him the teardrop tattoo to mark him as a victim.
- Tattooed Crook: He's in prison and has a teardrop tattoo on his face.
- Wager Slave: It's implied sexual favours from preferred victims are offered as wagers in the prison gambling circuit.
The Fashion Fates - Clotho (Avery Styles), Lachesis (Aiden Russel), and Atropos (Ainsley Slater)
Le Carne-val des Animaux - Marche Royal du Lion (Clay Calloway), Poules (Rosita) et Coqs (Gunter), Hemiones (Ryan), Animaux Veloces (Klaus Kickenklober), Tortues (Porsha Crystal), L'Elephant (Meena), Kangorous (Nooshy), Aquarium (Nana Noodleman), Personnages a Longues Oreilles (Suki Lane), Le Coucou au Fond des Bois (Mike), Voliere (Darius), Pianistes (Johnny), Fossiles (the Q-Teez), Le Cygne (Ash)
- Agony of the Feet: Klaus and Ryan's feet were hammered into to wear horseshoes
- Ascended Extra:
- The Q-Teez were gag characters in the film. Here, they have their own flashback sequence.
- Similarly, Ryan had a rather minor role in the second film. He also has a flashback scene.
- Batman Gambit: After sending the message to the authorities of where everyone is being held, Suki fakes typing on her phone so that it looks like she was "caught in the act" and no one gets suspicious and tries to flee. It works like a charm, even if it's implied to have cost her her life.
- Blaming the Victim: When revealing to Ash he's breaking up with her in favor of Becky, Lance tells Ash it's her fault everything bad happened to her because she wanted to go to the auditions in the first place.
- Body Horror: What happened to most of the cast, with many of them having their body parts straight up removed or replaced with pieces of instruments.
- Career-Ending Injury: Ryan, Klaus and Nooshy's dance careers all come to an end after what they endured in the Ark.
- Cassandra Truth: Suki tried to warn everyone what they were getting into, but no one believed her.
- Deal with the Devil: Buster agrees to host a fake singing addition for the Ark in exchange for them giving him the funding to keep the theater open.
- Does Not Like Spam: Clay refuses the spiked tea that he was offered because it has honey in it, which he doesn't like.
- Everyone Has Standards: Clay is still just as much of a shut in as in canon, but when Ash shows up outside his house, begging for help, he lets her in. This only get him caught as well.
- Eye Scream: Darius loses an eye to a bird that Jimmy has attack him.
- Flayed Alive: The Q-Teez have this done to them.
- Glasgow Grin: Meena's mouth is carved wide enough for her organs to be pulled out through it.
- Gorn: The chapter's primary focus.
- Honorary Uncle: Rosita makes Gunter the uncle of her children after they all escape.
- Human Pincushion: Clay has hundreds of pins and needles jabbed into him, and Ash has needle-tipped feathers stuck in her back.
- Innocent Inaccurate: Porsha is told the victims are just wearing really elaborate stage makeup and she has no sense of smell so she can't smell the blood and figure out the truth.
- Interchangeable Asian Cultures: Averted; none of the Q-Teez are of Yamato Japanese descent, instead being from the five nations where red pandas are found in the wild (China, Bhutan, Myanmar, India, and Nepal), and their first hit, "Red Panda", is about the xenophobia they've faced growing up in Japan because their ancestries are different.
- It's All My Fault:
- Meena bailed on the auditions out of fear much like in canon and almost spared herself the torment. Her grandfather was the one who told her to go back and blamed himself when he realized what happened to her.
- Ash blames herself for getting Clay captured, but he tries reassuring her that he doesn't blame her.
- The Mole: It's heavily implied that Suki was the one who helped the SWAT team find where everyone was being held.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Porsha is told by Jimmy that everyone is just wearing very elaborate stage makeup and no one being held dares to tell her the truth out of fear of being tortured worse.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished:
- Clay letting Ash in only resulted in himself getting caught and tortured as well.
- Suki revealing the location of everything gets her shot. On camera no less.
- One Side of the Story: Johnny tries to call Big Daddy after everyone is rescued, but since he bailed on his dad's robbery to attend the "audition", which got his dad arrested, Big Daddy doesn't let him get a word in and hangs up. It's only the next day when Big Daddy finds out the truth from the news and feels guilty for not listening to Johnny.
- Punny Name: As opposed to "Carnaval": "carne" means "flesh".
- Sadistic Choice: When Buster tricks Nana Noodleman into coming to the theater, Jimmy gives her a choice—either she performs for him or he'll make Eddie do it instead. She picks the former choice.
- Shout-Out: Ash being strung up on wires and hooks to dance is a reference to a scene in Sailor Nothing.
- Tarred And Feathered: Rosita and Gunter get put through this, and it's very much not played for laughs given the tar scalds their skin.
- Torture Porn: What they are used for in the Ark.
- Uncertain Doom: Suki doesn't appear in the hospital at the end, heavily implying she died from her gunshot wound, but nothing is confirmed.
- Big Brother Bully: Constance had one who didn't like having to spend time with her and is part of the reason she got taken by the Ark.
- Boomerang Bigot: They're Child Haters, yet are children themselves.
- Disproportionate Retribution: How they believe that the media will frame their murder of Father, using words such as "Premeditated. Excessive. Unnecessary."
- The Dog Bites Back: After they get fed up with Father's abuse, they beat him in the same way he beat them and then lit him on fire.
- Driven to Suicide: Lenny's mother killed herself after being assaulted by the crooked cops.
- Family of Choice: None of them are biologically related, but all come to genuinely consider each other siblings.
- Fright-Induced Bunkmate: In order to cope with Father's abuse, they start sleeping together in each other's beds.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Part of the reason they stick their noses up at the other kids is out of jealously that they're not getting abused and are free to do as they please.
- Hard Head: Averted. Lenny's skull was badly damaged in a childhood car accident and he still has to wear a helmet to protect his head.
- Homophobic Hate Crime: Bruce's original fathers were murdered for being a gay couple.
- Hope Spot: Both David and Constance were picked up by the Ark, but managed to get out before anything bad happened...only for Father to rape both of them anyways.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Once their rage settles and they realize that, as abusive as he was to them, they just murdered a man and that they're most likely going to get arrested for it, the Delightful Children are all utterly horrified by what they just did.
- Kill It with Fire: They dump alcohol on Father and light him up to kill him.
- Police Brutality: Lenny's mother was arrested on trumped-up charges just so the crooked cops could assault her, and she killed herself over it.
- Slipping a Mickey: They drug Father to prevent him from fighting back when they kill him.
- Sympathetic Murderer: While they think that the media won't treat them this way, the narrative is firmly on their side when they decide to murder Father to finally escape.
- Troubled Abuser: After years of abuse from Father, they snap, rape him back, and kill him.
