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Elida
Eldaya "Elida" Al-Feyr
Portrayed by: Adriyan Rae
- Achilles in His Tent: After breaking up the team, Elida goes off on her own and sulks.
- Action Girl: Elida is proficient with weapons, ships, and one-liners alike. She's also a competent leader, even when attempting to resist that role.
- Adaptational Heroism: In the original comic book, Elida's only real motivation is keeping far away from the Republic, and Isaac's only real motivation is going home, and they're both prepared to exploit each other for their own ends. The TV series turns Elida into a born leader who is denying her destiny, while Isaac deludes himself into believing that he can help Elida and help himself at the same time.
- Affectionate Nickname: Isaac and Amae call her "El."
- Berserk Button: Don't call her "Eldaya," try to get her to reclaim her throne, or talk about her mother too much.
- Butch Lesbian: Downplayed. Elida is a short-haired tomboy who's an action girl good with a gun (or unarmed), always has masculine attire in the present and experiences mutual attraction for Amae, another lesbian.
- The Chains of Commanding: One major reason why Elida has no interest in returning to Arriopa is because being Queen would mean having to make a lot of hard decisions. In addition, when she was queen, she found that she had very little power to actually help people.
- The Chosen One: Among the Loyalists, Elida is seen as a messianic figure who will overthrow The Republic and restore Arriopa to the way things used to be. While she does represent the last of the monarchy, Hath fosters this view more because he needs her royal blood to get to the Sterzaad.
- Deadpan Snarker: In the pilot, she practices her Pre-Mortem One-Liner on some unfortunate criminals who attempt to ambush her. She also always has a snap-back for anything Isaac says, even when he's not trying to bug her.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Elida starts out as a cool, reserved and sarcastic person due to her years of tough living while surviving on her own. Over time however with Isaac and Amae she reveals she's got a good heart, caring for them both genuinely (in Amae's case, returning her romantic feelings).
- Delirious Misidentification: After being poisoned she hallucinates that Isaac is Lazaro. Fortunately, she's too out of it to really hurt him.
- Disappeared Dad: Elida's father, King Albor, was killed by her mother Xevelyn so she could take the throne (which Elida actually had no desire for).
- Do Not Call Me "Paul": Elida hates being called by her birth name.
- Don't Call Me "Sir": She strongly dislikes the Loyalists calling her by her royal title.
- Forced to Watch: Elida's mother was shot right in front of her. She was stuck in an escape pod and could only watch helplessly as it happened.
- Hallucinations: Elida suffers from them after being poisoned with Clabwrok venom. They're severe, with her delirious and not recognizing Isaac (who she attacks, believing that he's an insectoid monster). Gradually she recovers however.
- Hidden Weapons: Elida has weapons stashed all over the ship, just in case.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: Elida has absolutely no interest in becoming the Queen of Arriopa.
- I Never Told You My Name: In the past while trapped inside of an escape pod, Elida realized a man she'd been talking with on the comm wasn't just some passing cargo ship pilot when he addressed her by name (not having used it with him). He's revealed to be with The Republic, hunting her down.
- I Work Alone:
- Her mentality for years. She temporarily works with Isaac until he learns her identity, then goes back to working alone until she's forced by circumstance to reunite with Isaac and bring Amae along.
- This seems to be her default mindset due to her mother (and later the universe) constantly reminding her not to trust anyone. Whenever she's betrayed in some way, she tries to isolate herself to keep it from happening again.
- As of the end of Sunshine Express Yourself she's trying to get out of this mindset.
- Loyal Phlebotinum: Elida speculates that having royal blood makes her immune to the Sterzaad, though she has no way to be sure. Fortunately, this pans out.
- Naturalized Name: Elida was born Eldaya. She changed her name to try and avoid being found by The Republic. Everyone else points out how obvious her alias is.
- No Man Should Have This Power: Elida decides that no one is responsible enough to handle the Sterzaad's power without being corrupted and intends to destroy it. Sadly, her mother refuses to accept this logic and steals it to rebuild the empire.
- Oblivious to Love: She doesn't seem to notice Amae's incredibly obvious attraction to her, and seems to reciprocate it only after observing Amae's involvement with other women.
- Pre-Mortem One-Liner: She keeps trying to pull these, but she's not as good at them as she'd like.
- Pretend to Be Brainwashed: When Lazaro tries to force her to kill herself. She follows his first commands to get him closer, then when he tells her to cut her throat she stabs the Sterzaad out of his armor.
- Promoted to Scapegoat: She was stuck on the throne of Arriopa during a particularly rough patch for the empire, and was forced to take the blame for the cruel economic policies her family put in place to keep their empire from falling apart.
- Psychic-Assisted Suicide: Subverted. Lazaro tries this to get her to cut her own throat. Turns out royalty is immune.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: She gives one to Isaac after Lazaro uses him to get the Sterzaad. While she's only really lashing out in anger, this does make Isaac have a Heel Realization.
- Rebellious Princess: Elida never wanted her royal position, even while she was a child, and disliked anything involved with this. The idea of succeeding her father and becoming queen never interested her.
- Refusal of the Call: In the first episode, the Loyalists intervene to save Elida from Lazaro, and pledge to serve her if she retakes the throne. She asks them to go away. Repeatedly.
- Tomboy Princess: Elida is quite the tomboy, being an action girl with a fairly masculine attitude and style, although still a princess through blood. We see that even growing up in the royal palace as a girl she didn't like putting on long dresses for ceremonies (though she didn't come off as very tomboyish then).
- Twofer Token Minority: Elida is a dark-skinned woman (played by African-American Adriyan Rae) from the Arriopan species who's revealed to be into other women when she's attracted by Amae.
Amae
Amae Rali
Portrayed by: Alex McGregor
- Almost Kiss: She has a few of these with Elida in the first four episodes.
- The Anti-Nihilist: Amae's cheerful and upbeat personality isn't born out of any kind of optimism, but because she understands all too well that the universe is largely cold and uncaring, and figures that being bitter and cynical won't do anything to change it.
- Brainwashed: Lazaro uses the Sterzaad to get her to lure Elida into the tunnels and stab her.
- Chick Magnet:
- In the early days of her travels with Elida, Amae seems to have a girl in every port (including her first appearance, in which she is seen finishing up a spicy encounter with a woman in her shop).
- In "Sunshine Express Yourself," she hits it off with a female passenger after about two seconds of speaking to her (they even share an Almost Kiss before Amae breaks it off).
- Corrupt the Cutie: As the first season goes on, Amae becomes increasingly (and hilariously) comfortable with violence and criminality. She even lampshades it when she proposes mugging someone in order to pay off their parking fines."Wow. I've been spending too much time with you guys."
- Gosh Darn It to Heck!: Amae never uses a stronger curse than "schlucky", and she thinks even that is obscene.
- The Heart: She's initially the only member of the crew who understands the importance of working together due to Elida's loner tendencies and Isaac's split loyalties. She helps them overcome their respective issues and work together as a group.
- Hollywood Hacking: Subverted in "In a Sticky Spot", where Amae hacks doors and it ends up taking about as long as you'd expect.
- Longing Look: Amae gives Elida many significant looks, comments and gestures which shows that she's attracted to her before consciously realizing it or ever acting on her feelings.
- Love Epiphany: She realizes how she feels about Elida during her Almost Kiss with someone else on the Sunshine Express.
- Nice Girl: Amae is pretty well defined by her kind, sunny nature. She does grow more comfortable with crime (but mostly nonviolent) while with Elida and Isaac, but is still like this nonetheless.
- The Pollyanna: Amae keeps her optimism no matter how bad things appear.
- Really Gets Around: Amae is introduced right after having casual sex with a woman in her shop, and seems to have lovers all over the place. She's also shown casually picking up another woman after the briefest conversation.
- Will They or Won't They?: She has this with Elida from the very first episode. They eventually kiss in the second to last episode of the season.
- Wrench Wench: She's the head mechanic at her own shop, and proficient in a myriad of mechanical-related skills.
Isaac
Isaac Stelling
Portrayed by: Tim Rozon
- The Atoner: He tries his best to make up for his transgressions against Elida.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Isaac's primary goal is to return to Earth, and despite caring for Elida, he's not above making deals with shady characters behind her back (or shooting her). His backstabbing is frequently the result of thinking he's found a way to help Elida and get back home. He gets better about this after giving up on his plans to get back to Earth.
- Conflicting Loyalty: One of his main flaws is that he really wants to help Elida but he also really wants to get back to his family. This leads to him trying to do both and accomplishing neither.
- Duct Tape for Everything: Isaac's preferred form of maintenance, which is probably why the Winnipeg is in such bad shape when Amae takes a look at it.
- Heel Realization: After ending up on the receiving end of Elida's "Reason You Suck" Speech he realizes that after going missing for five years his family's probably moved on, and him reappearing would cause more problems than it would fix. This leads him to give up trying to get back to Earth and prioritize his new friends instead.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Isaac makes a deal with Lazaro to try to help everyone and get back home. Instead it lets Lazaro steal the Sterzaad and use it to take over the Republic.
- Token Human: Isaac is not only the only Terran in the main cast, he is apparently the only Terran in the galaxy. Almost nobody in the main cast has even heard of Earth (they do know of the Milky Way Galaxy, but call it the "Scadbury Galaxy" instead).
- You Can't Go Home Again:
- The galaxy Isaac's stranded in is aware of Earth's existence, but a war destroyed their means to travel to other galaxies. His only way back would be through a deal with the Republic or a lot of money; he eventually gives up on both.
- Zig-zagged at the end of the season. First Amae realizes that using the Sterzaad ship to send Isaac to Earth could also destroy the Sterzaad. Then Xevelyn hijacks the ship, meaning Elida and Isaac need to get to Earth but have no obvious means to do so.
Antagonists
Lazaro
Commander Ori Lazaro
Portrayed by: Paul du Toit
- Adaptational Self-Defense: In the original comic, Lazaro turns against the Admiralty because he's a power-hungry lunatic. The show gives him a Freudian Excuse - Rykal forced him to execute his beloved mother, and it's clear that she was probably going to have him executed when he failed to kill Elida or recover the Sterzaad.
- Adaptational Villainy: His comic counterpart is just as ambitious and bitter, but the show has him kill far more characters and get far more joy out of torturing people. The comic version is also more of a generic bad guy, whereas du Toit's portrayal manages to be campy and funny while also terrifying.
- Big Bad: He's the main villain of season one, even though he temporarily answers to the Admiralty.
- Boom, Headshot!: How he's killed by Elida in both the comic and the TV series.
- Category Traitor: Lazaro gets this from both sides of Arriopa. On the one hand, the old monarchy was never going to let him advance higher than the title of Marquis, and the fact that he tried to kill Queen Eldaya means that if the old monarchy is ever restored, he will likely be executed for treason. On the other hand, the Republic still distrusts him because of his former title and suspects that his failure to kill Elida is intentional.
- Chewing the Scenery: Good luck paying attention to anyone else when he starts talking.
- Dirty Coward: Lazaro is a Smug Snake whose confidence disappears the minute he's not in control of a situation. During his final showdown with Elida, he keeps giving a Motive Rant, until she has a gun pointed at his head and he starts begging for mercy.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: Lazaro is understandably pissed that despite having led the revolution that established the Republic, he's not only not a member of the ruling council but is treated like a mere lackey by them. The fact that Rykal cruelly forced him to execute his own mother has especially embittered him.
- Evil Is Hammy: To say the least. It reaches its peak in the scene where he takes over the Admiralty, which includes humming his own theme music and commentating while they murder one another.
- Faux Affably Evil: He's an expert at coming off as charming and friendly one moment before switching to a sadistic monster the next. He uses this skill to excellent effect after taking over the Republic; by keeping up his friendly appearance, he kicks off his plan to take over the universe with high approval ratings, luring in unsuspecting heads of state so he take control of them and through them control their territory.
- The Generalissimo: After using the Sterzaad to take over the Republic, Lazaro dubs himself the "Grand Supreme Leader" and puts his face on the national flag.
- Hero Killer: He takes out Nim, Clive, and the entire Arriopan fleet as well as non-heroic characters, including his own parents, the Admiralty, defenseless prison inmates, and the other galactic leaders.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Even after replacing most of his arsenal with Sterzaad-powered superweapons he still carries his father's plasma razor on his belt. A disarmed Elida steals it and stabs him in the back.
- Hypocrite: He speaks passionately about ending tyranny, then about half a second later, he unveils a Nazi-esque banner with his picture on it, followed by declaring himself Grand Supreme Leader of Arriopa.
- Jerkass Has a Point: When Lazaro performs his coup on the Admiralty, he correctly points out that the latter didn't actually make anything better after overthrowing the previous monarchy.
- Klingon Promotion: He dubs himself "Supreme Something of the Galaxy" after getting rid of his superiors.
- "Not So Different" Remark: After learning about Elida's background he talks about how for them both their roles were defined by their parents and how they were ultimately pawns in a larger game. Elida doesn't seem to care.
- The Resenter: Lazaro can't get over the fact that he led a dangerous revolution in order to dethrone the monarchy, only for it to be replaced by the Admiralty, which is virtually indistinguishable from the monarchy in how they rule (other than the Man of Wealth and Taste image they maintain). They also treat Lazaro like an incompetent lapdog.
- Self-Made Orphan: He executes his own parents as unrepentant loyalists. He's fine with killing his abusive father. But his mother was the only one who was kind and loving toward him, and the Admiralty forcing him to execute her is the start of his resentment toward them.
- Villain Has a Point: He's completely correct when he says that the Admiralty is just as out-of-touch and tyrannical as the Monarchy they replaced. Of course, this is just before he replaces them with another dictatorship with himself at the head.
- Visionary Villain: Lazaro has ambitions to spread his revolutionary views to the entire universe.
- Would Hit a Girl: He beats the tar out of Elida in their final duel.
Admiral Rykal
Admiral Rykal
The leader of the Admiralty, a overweight, vaguely avian woman who keeps trying to rein in Lazaro.
Played by: Robyn Scott
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: She forced Lazaro to execute his own mother for no other reason than because she could. It accomplished nothing except making Lazaro resent the Admiralty.
- Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: After Lazaro tales over Arriopa, he forces Rykal to kill the other Admirals, lets her be his puppet for a while, and then tosses her in the dungeons, where she gets killed by Xevelyn.
- Smug Snake: She assumes that she will always be in a position to control Lazaro. She is very, very wrong about this.
Other
Chaz
Chaz Rali
A bartender on Xija Station, and Amae's big brother.
Played by: Steven John Ward
- Adaptational Expansion: In the comic, he's just a robot who appears in one scene.
- Big Brother Instinct: He's been looking out for Amae since they were orphaned during the Narrows War. When Lazaro's executions cause chaos in Arriopa he shows up with a fireteam to find his sister.
- Satellite Character: He is Elida's former confidante and Amae's brother. He doesn't have much more of a role than that.
Xevelyn El-Feyr
Queen Xevelyn El-Feyr
The former royal consort of Arriopa, and Elida's mother. Long assumed dead, but she turns out to be alive in the dungeons beneath Arriopa's palace.
Portrayed By: Bonnie Henna
- Aesop Amnesia: She appears to have this as, even after seeing the corruption of her husband and then the backlash that led to the rise of the Admiralty, Xevelyn still thinks the monarchy is what's needed to save the galaxy and the people want it back, ignoring they're the ones who destroyed it in the first place.
- Cassandra Truth: She tried to warn her husband, the King, that sending the army to quell the protests would backfire on them, but he refused to listen.
- Dead All Along: Elida spends the first several episodes going after her due to being informed she's still alive and imprisoned in Republic space. When she gets to the supposed prison, Hath explains that he tricked her so she could get the Sterzaad and defeat the Republic. Then it's Subverted when it turns out she really is alive, being kept in a dungeon beneath the palace on Arriopa.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Most of what happens is either directly or indirectly her fault, and she ends the first season with the Sterzaad in her possession, with the intent of restoring the monarchy.
- I Did What I Had to Do: She poisoned King Albor in order to put Eldaya on the throne, as Albor was preparing to launch a brutal counter-revolt. Then she hijacks the galaxy-hopping Sterzaad vessel in order to rebuild the kingdom, ignoring Elida's decision to destroy it because it's too much power for any one person.
- Maligned Mixed Marriage: Despite being married to Albor, the King of Arriopa, she was not able to become Queen, because she was a commoner.
- The Needs of the Many: She is a big believer in making personal sacrifices for the good of the many, a belief that she tried to pass on to Eldaya.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: She pulled strings to keep Lazaro from being executed for protesting the monarchy. It caused her empire to be overthrown and landed her in a dungeon for about 15 years.
- Walking Spoiler: Beyond her appearances in flashbacks, very little is known about her until literally the last episode.
