The characters in Duck Season. Unmarked spoilers below.
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The Dog
The mascot of Duck Season.
- Adaptational Villainy: The dog in the original game was at worst a jerk who laughed at you. This version is a murderous psychopath who Would Hurt a Child.
- Attack of the Killer Whatever: The Duck Hunt dog is out to kill you!
- Ax-Crazy: The dog seems alright normally, but if you shoot him...
- Berserk Button: He does not like being shot at. So much so that he will kill you and your entire family for it.
- Big Bad: Of the game.
- Creepy Mascot Suit: The Mascot Villain of the video game, who hunts down the protagonist. His costume, as his name implies, is of an anthropomorphic dog. He's somehow able to transfer himself from the Duck Season video game to the real world — which he uses to murder people.
- Defeat Equals Explosion: Explodes into a pile of pixelated blood after you finally manage to defeat him.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Even if being shot in the game is just as painful and traumatic as being shot in the real world is, murdering the kid and his entire family over a game is more than a little excessive.
- Eye Beams: Gains these when you fight him in the game after he grows to giant size. If you don't find a way to disable them (by going for the eyes), he will destroy the screen and give you the "Stuck Forever" ending.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: He gains glowing white pupils when he's in the real world.
- Humanoid Abomination: Looks like a human in a dog suit, and in the good ending can be killed like one, but the fact that he can manifest himself from a video game into the real world and does so with Glowing Eyes of Doom shows that there is something seriously off with him. The Easter Eggs and the status of Duck Season and Boneworks being the Shared Universe reveal that the Dog is actually a "digital cryptid", a malevolent entity that comes from the Void and seeks to escape into the real world.
- Immune to Bullets: Subverted; in the game when you're just hunting ducks, you can shoot him as much as you want and he won't even have a scratch. However, Once you have to fight him in the game you can harm him with the bullets and thus deplete his Life Meter. And in the real world, multiple shots from a machine gun and a few shots from the Light Gun can kill him.
- Kick Them While They Are Down: On top of killing the Boy's mother, if the Boy fails to beat the dog in the game, the dog will mock him after leaving the game and trapping him in the "Stuck Forever" ending.
- Multiple Gunshot Death: Suffers this in the Best Men ending courtesy of the police.
- Out-of-Character Moment: The vast majority of the time, the dog is content to caper about the field while you shoot ducks down, but before Level 8 starts, you can catch him smoking off to the side.
- Parody: Of the Duck Hunt dog, appearing not as a cartoon character but as an actor in a rubber suit.
- Pet the Dog: A peek behind the logo of the "Nuke" ending shows the dog hugging the trapped and distressed David.
- Real After All: At first, he seems to just be an annoying character in a video game...then you see him outside your house, FILMING YOU.
- Revenge by Proxy: Thinks nothing of killing the boy’s mother just to coerce him into facing him.
- Sore Loser: If you best him when he challenges you in the game, he'll come after you in the real world.
- Videogame Cruelty Punishment: With the exception of the moment listed under Real After All, every act of nightmare fuel in the game is something the boy provokes — because he shot the dog first.
- Walking Spoiler: Spoiler? What, the dog? Nah, of course not.
- Would Hurt a Child: He goes after the Boy with the intent of stabbing him to death, and he succeeds in the "Dead" ending.
The Boy (David)
The protagonist of the game.
- Children Forced to Kill: He kills the dog after he tries to kill him.
- Death of a Child: In the "Dead" ending. Averted in the "Canon" ending.
- The Runaway: Becomes one of the "Orphan" type in the Canon ending after his mother is killed by the dog.
The Mom
The mother of the protagonist.
- Good Parents: A kind, thoughtful mother who was nice enough to bring a new video game home for her son, as well as serving him snacks and drinks between levels.
- Targeted to Hurt the Hero: The dog kills her to make the protagonist come face him in the game.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: She's the one who brought over the Duck Season game home in the first place.
