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The Meadow
The Fates
- Big Good: They appoint the heroic Prince Charmings that bring the princesses their happily ever afters. Downplayed, since, as Robin points out in episode 5, the Fates don't seem to care about the Prince Charmings getting potentially traumatized or killed and are more focused on the happily ever afters than the people participating in them.
- Blind Seer: All three of them are blind or visually impaired (one wears a blindfold, one lacks eyes entirely, ones eyes seemingly just don't work) and they possess magical story-books that spell out the lives of Forever After's occupants.
- Blindfolded Vision: One of them wears a blindfold over his eyes.
- The Chooser of the One: They're in charge of finding new Prince Charmings to replace the ones that got killed or forgot their purpose.
- Gender Flip: The Fates are males in the webcomic, whereas in the Graeco-Roman tales they were a trio of old women (Moirai in Greece, Parcae in Rome) and to add even more layers onto it, they were female in the original GREENLIGHT version of the comic.
- "Not So Different" Remark: As the Witch points out in episode 8, the Fates kidnapping people and turning them into all kinds of fairy tale figures, in Robin and Tank's cases against their will, isn't so different from the curses him and the other villains place on Forever After's inhabitants.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: There's no denying that Forever After needs its Prince Charmings desperately, but plucking random people from earth and throwing them into a world of deadly fantasy-creatures is still a pretty questionable approach.
Sleeping Beauty
Sleeping Beauty's Parents
- My Beloved Smother: They kept Briar Rose holed up in the castle his whole life and never let him know what a spinning wheel was, for fear that he would seek one out and prick himself. As Robin points out, it's probably not a good idea to not tell your child about the one thing that could potentially kill him.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In the end them not letting Briar know what a spinning wheel is makes it easy for Hira to trick him into pricking his finger on one, by claiming that it's a magic wheel that can grant wishes.
- Parents as People: While it's clear they love Briar Rose, their own incompetence both as parents and as rulers has had a very damaging effect on his development.
- Too Dumb to Live: Instead of just having a thirteenth plate made, they decided to not invite one of the most powerful witches in the land, which of course ends up upsetting said witch.
- You Can't Fight Fate: After Briar Rose was cursed, they tried to protect him by burning every spinning wheel in the kingdom. Come his fifteenth birthday and the Wise Woman simply sneaks into the castle with a spinning wheel of her own.
Rapunzel
Caterpillar
- Chekhov's Gunman: Was seen appearing in multiple stories. While this initially appeared to just be a fun cameo, it later turns out the caterpillar was actually working for the Wicked Witch and has been one of his spies.
- Nearly Normal Animal: In a panel, the caterpillar is seen playing poker with Tank.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: A small fairy tale bug that's cute as a button.
The Little Sea Maid
The Oldest Sea Princess
Aristina
Aurelia’s older sister who disapproves of her obsession with the surface world and her desire to trade her tail for legs for a prince.
- Big Sister Instinct: She is very protective of Aurelia and threatens to go after Robin with a knife should any harm come to her little sister.
Prince Damir
Damir
The Prince that appears in The Little Sea Maid's story. He is the prince Aurelia has fallen for.
- A Birthday, Not a Break: During his birthday cruise a storm sinks his ship and he nearly drowns. If it hadn't been for Aurelia, he'd have spent his last birthday with the fishes—both figuratively and literally.
- Loved by All: His subjects speak very well of him and he's quite popular with the women of his kingdom.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: After Aurelia watches him on land, she plans to trade her tail for legs to be with him. But then Robin and Tank invoke the Adaptational Alternate Ending and convince Aurelia to stay a mermaid and travel through waters to see the human world. After that, Damir isn’t seen or mentioned again, as Aurelia seemingly forgets all about him.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
The Cheshire Cat
"Late? No one is ever late in Wonderland." Note
A mysterious feline who acts as a guide for those who travel through Wonderland.- Cats Are Mean: Downplayed. He's more mischievous than outright malicious, but Tank doesn't like him because he was apparently responsible for the queen getting mad at Alice. He also refers to Alice as the "Mad One", likely knowing it would rile Tank up.
- Cheshire Cat Grin: The trope namer. He has a permanent wide grin on his face that extends way over his cheeks and head. It does drop at one point when Alice contradicts him and then reads him the riot act about his nonsensical behavior, but comes back almost immediately after they're done, implying that he was just pretending to be upset.
- Literalist Snarking: Has a way with words that he often uses for snarking.Robin: You're supposed to be a guide, right?Cheshire Cat: Who supposes that?
- Panthera Awesome: He looks more like a jaguar than a cat and has a much more intimidating design than his original book-counterpart.
- Perpetual Smiler: That grin of his never seems to vanish or even falter.
- Talking Animal: A cat capable of speech.
- Trickster Mentor: Implied to be one. His advice is often worded in a weird and ambiguous way, but it does hold true. His needling of Alice is also hinted to be his way of getting them to stand up for themself, as he reacts very pleased when they do and tells them they might just beat Wonderland after all.
- Troll: As in the original book, he seems to get a kick out of being as deliberately confusing and infuriating as possible.
Alladin and the Wonderful Lamp
Badroulbadour
"Where'd you find this one, father? Not one of the usual fops, I daresay"
Click here to see her without her veil
The daughter of the Sultan. The most beautiful woman in the kingdom and Aladdin's love interest.
- Armor-Piercing Question: After Aladdin proclaims that she'd stay in the Sultan's kingdom if her and Badroulbadour were to marry, Bad asks her a number of these, starting with her questioning why Aladdin would abandon her people so easily.
- Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: Her name means "full moon of full moons". She also wears a long veil that resembles a starry night sky, and wears a silver moon diadem.
- Brutal Honesty: She is shockingly straightforward, never sugar-coating anything. Her very first line is her noting that Aladdin seems different from "the usual fops" who ask for her hand in marriage.
- Lipstick Lesbian: She is the beautiful daughter of the sultan and dressed very feminine. She is also falls for Aladdin who is female in this story.
- Love at First Sight: Subverted. While she does immediately take an interest in Aladdin, she only truly falls for her when Aladdin shows herself to be earnest and kind, even without riches.
- Star-Spangled Spandex: She wears a long veil that resembles a starry night sky.
- True Blue Femininity Her veils are all dark blue with a star motif.
Vasilisa
The Tsar
- Everyone Has Standards: He calls Baba Yaga out for her monkey's paw approach to Vasilisa's wish and basically ruining the young girl's life by cursing her with magic she was unable to control, when all Vasilisa wanted was a light.
- Exact Words: He tells Ivan that he will have Vasilisa once he catches the Firebird. What he conveniently forgets to mention is that Vasilisa is the Firebird. He wasn't really lying, but he wasn't telling he whole truth either.
- Hero of Another Story: Him and the Firebird clashed many times before its eventual imprisonment. When the tsar found out Vasilisa was the Firebird, he wooed her in her human form, then imprisoned her in a tower to control the Firebird. Downplayed, as even he himself admits that it isn't really heroic to manipulate a scared, young girl's feelings in this manner.
- I Did What I Had to Do: Sure, him emotionally manipulating and imprisoning Vasilisa wasn't exactly a nice thing to do. But in his defense, the Firebird within her was burning his country to a crisp every night. He also admits that he is not proud of himself for betraying Vasilisa in this manner, but that he simply saw no other way to save his land and people.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Zig-zagged. He seems brash and authoritative at first, but it soon becomes clear that most of it is the worry for his country making him short-tempered. He accepts Ivan's request to go after the Firebird and even indirectly tells him the creature's true identity beforehand. He also recognizes that Vasilisa's current situation came about through no fault of her own and was willing to keep her alive but imprisoned, instead of simply killing her.
Baba Yaga
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: She sees nothing wrong with killing and eating people, but seems to have a deep dislike for liars and slackers. She'll always keep her word, but often in a way that doesn't or only slightly benefits the other party without even realizing.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Downplayed, since she's not really evil, her moral compass just works differently. But she seemed to feel genuinely sorry for what Vasilisa had gone through and admonishes Ivan for only loving part of her.
- Hypocrite: She demands people to treat her with respect (with a heavy implications that she'll eat them if they don't), but she herself is anything but respectful to others.
- Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior!: She's very terse and harsh whenever she addresses others and doesn't bother with social conventions, like not cleaning her feet in front of guests.
- Wicked Witch: Zig-zagged. She can be this and is arguably even one of the oldest examples of the trope, but she's just as likely to provide support and guidance if you get on her good side.
- Wild Card: Infamous for this. You never know what will happen when she shows up in a story. She may help the heroes, or she might hinder them. She might give advice or she might turn you into her next meal. Either way, you should watch your back around her.
Jack Frost
- An Ice Person: Comes with being the Elemental Embodiment of winter. He has control over the frost, cold winds and snow.
- Elemental Embodiment: Seems to be the literal embodiment of Winter.
- Manchild: He's pretty mischievous and immature, regularly using his powers to play pranks on people and generally refusing to be helpful unless there's something in it for him. This is possibly the result of only being alive for half the year. He can't grow up or mature because he'll never get the chance to.
- Mayfly–December Romance: With Vasa, the eldest child of the sea. A heavily deconstructed example. Jack is born and dies with every winter and remembers nothing of his previous lives. He's fallen in love with and started a relationship with Vasa multiple times, who was forced to witness his lover pass away only to be reborn and not remember him at all over and over again. This leads to their relationship basically being doomed before it even begins and Vasa has taken to avoid Jack entirely as he's sick of having his heart broken in that manner every year.
- Tragic Ice Character: Due to Jack's short, cyclical life span he will never be able to have a proper relationship with Vasa, his true love. Even worse, because Jack never remembers his previous life, he is literally unable to learn his lesson in that regard and will be eternally doomed to fall in love with and be rejected by the person he considers his soul mate.
Morevna
Mara Morevna
- Gender Flip: As with other characters in the webcomics, Morevna is based on warrior princess Marya Morevna from the original tale.
- Hot-Blooded: Just like Ivan, he can be quite intense.
- It's Personal: The reason he's so determined to hunt down Koshei and so angry with Ivan for freeing the deathless wizard is because him and Koshei used to be a couple. Koshei eventually went insane due to his neverending lust for more magic power, forcing Morevna to lock him away.
- Pet the Dog: He promises Vasa to forbid Jack from coming near the sea while he's still young, so Vasa won't be forced to endure the perpetual cycle of Jack falling for him and dying in the same season over and over again.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: He is the lord of all the skies and willing to personally hunt down and lock up threats to the world.
- Second Love: Him and Ivan end up being this for each other.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: He is willing to do whatever it takes to keep the world save, down to killing or imprisoning entities whose very existence endangers everyone around them. This becomes a point of contention between him and Ivan, as Morevna considers Ivan selfish for shielding Vasilisa despite the destruction she caused as the firebird.
Strange Tales
Yen
- Ambiguously Human: He looks like a regular old man, but his proficiency in driving back spirits and some parts of his appearance suggests he might not be entirely human anymore.
- Ambiguous Situation: It's not made clear whether him temporarily leaving his body and becoming a fish during the height of his fever was a dream or if it actually happened.
- Cool Old Guy: He saves the group from a Shuigui in his first appearance and continues to help them out, providing them shelter in his master's temple and giving Tank life advice when the fairy confesses that he feels like a failure.
- Defector from Decadence: He used to be a rich and powerful magistrate, until the day he fell ill. Almost dying from his illness, coupled with an out of body experience that may or may not have been a dream, he realized that this life wasn't making him as happy as he'd thought and that all his riches and power were ultimately inconsequential in the great scheme of things. The next day he left the temple and never looked back.
The Light Princess
The Light Princess' Parents
- Adaptational Sexuality: Due to them both being men in this version of the story, they're no longer a heterosexual couple.
- Gender Flip: The queen is a king in this story.
- No Name Given: Neither of them have actual names.
Word of God only refers to them as "Coira's King Dad" and "Coira's Councellor Dad". - You Need to Get Laid: A downplayed example. Coira's fathers are desperate to get her hitched, as they believe falling in love will have a grounding effect on her and restore her gravity. They turn out to be partially right.
Orpheus and Eurydice
Charon
- Ambiguous Gender: Charon wears an all-encompassing veil over their entire body and is never referred to with gendered pronouns, leaving their gender up to interpretation.
- Exact Words: When the heroes buy passage from them, they point out that their boat was not made for the living. Orpheus at first thinks Charon means they're against ferrying non-ghosts, but it turns out Charon was being literal. Their boat was made to ferry weightless spirits, so when the significantly heavier living Orpheus and friends board it, it starts to sink.
- The Ferryman: They're the Trope Codifier.
Cerberus
- Angry Guard Dog: She guards the entrance to the innermost parts of the Underworld and is a gigantic, three-headed dog-skeleton.
- Gender Flip: Cerberus in the original myth was a male dog, while in Forever After she's female.
- Hellhound: One of the oldest examples of the trope, as the personal guard dog of the king of the Underworld Hades.
- Music Soothes the Savage Beast: As in the original myth, Oprheus manages to tame Cerberus by playing her a beautiful melody.
Hades
- Lack of Empathy: He isn't moved in the slightest by either Orpheus' plea or her heartbreaking serenade about her grief. Tank even remarks that he looks bored while listening to the latter.
Persephone
- Armor-Piercing Question:
- After hearing Orpheus out and sympathizing with her, Persephone nevetheless pointedly asks if Orpheus would be willing to tear Eurydice away from a happy carefree afterlife just because she can't cope with the grief losing him brought her.
- She's on the receiving end shortly after when Tank cuts into the conversation and proposes giving Eurydice the choice whether to leave or not and asks Persephone whether she wouldn't have liked to be given a choice.
- The Woman Behind the Man: While Hades is still nominally the ruler of the Underworld, it's clear Persephone is the one wearing the proverbial pants in the relationship. Hades is willing to concede to her in his decisions without making a fuss.
