Tropes that pertain to the entire cast:
- Break Them by Talking: They try to use this to their advantage during discourse.
- Brutal Honesty: All of the characters are prone to exposing this in conversation with others.
- Deadpan Snarker: To varying degrees, all of the characters have some of this in their dialogue.
- Defeat Means Friendship: Will usually do whatever the person that won against them in verbal discourse wants them to do, and by the end of the story, everyone is allied with Whitty.
- Etiquette Nazi: They all seem to be obsessed with proper manners and speaking etiquette.
- Everyone Is Single: With the exception of Mrs. Prattle, who's husband has been away in the the army, this seems to be the case, and two of the characters (both Holden and Seymour, respectively) seem to show some form of interest in Whitty.
- Family Honor: Every character seems to put this above all else, with verbal discourse essentially being made solely to establish their house's reputation.
- Hates Small Talk: None of them seem to enjoy conversation unless it's a discourse.
- Masculine Lines, Feminine Curves: The guys seem to be drawn much blockier than the girls, if their conversation sprites are any indication. Averted by their walking sprites.
- Pale Females, Dark Males: Gender-Inverted. Whitty and Falar are both depicted with tanned skin and Sandhoff is shown as pale, whereas the only male that's shown with any form of tan is Holden and Seymour and Boastings seem to be very pale, along with Will Banter and Chet Chatters.
- Passive-Aggressive Kombat: They all seem to use their conversations as a means of achieving higher social status.
- Punny Name: All of them have names that relate to conversation.
- Serious Business: Treat normal conversation and banter as such. Justified in that this seems to be the norm for their entire country.
- Skewed Priorities: All of them seem to have priorities that fit more to their own goals than to any upstanding moral value.
- Slave to PR: They all seem to be obsessed in maintaining the good names of their houses, and their goals are mainly centered around that.
- Snark-to-Snark Combat: The combat system in the game seems to be this, with all of the characters actively trying to render the other speechless through their constant arguing.
- The Social Darwinist: Seems to be the main theme of the game, and the characters seem to believe this wholeheartedly. This even extends to the entire setting of the game, as the armies even seem to only fight using words.
- Trash Talk: Everyone seems to engage in this as a part of verbal discourse.
- Weapons-Grade Vocabulary: An unusual example of this trope, as the words themselves aren't used as weapons. However, the speech bubbles that appear in combat turn into knives or fireballs accordingly.
Whitty Gawship
The protagonist and main playable character. Works as a photographer for a wine bottling. company.
Tropes:
- Asskicking Leads to Leadership: After defeating everyone in verbal discourse, they begin to respect her.
- Beauty Equals Goodness: Is arguably one of the nicest characters in the game, and, considering that two of the guests can flirt with her over the course of the story, it can be assumed that she's easy on the eyes. (Her conversation sprite is good-looking as well, which enforces this.)
- Break Them by Talking: After she learns the Last Word, she cannot lose, meaning that every battle she has will eventually result in this. However, when facing The Mouth at the end of the game, this immunity weakens every time she would lose to it, and can be broken.
- Boomerang Bigot: Averted. While Seymour tries to convince her not to like the group, she seems to firmly support their system of managing disputes, and thus tends to take after them and join their group.
- Brutal Honesty: Is a fan of delivering this, but considering the cast of characters, this is to be expected.
- Change the Uncomfortable Subject: Uses this to try and break the tension between Will and Seymour twice in the beginning.
- Commitment Issues: Is implied to have them if her reluctance into marrying Seymour even though it would help her out immensely and restore his house to it's former glory is any indication.
- Cultured Badass: Becomes this after she learns the Last Word, if her knowledge of fine wine and her sophisticated manner is any indication.
- Deadpan Snarker: Some of her lines (and her conversation sprite) are dripping with this.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Seems to show this, as in the beginning, she seems quite apathetic, but throughout the course of the game, she begins to show much more emotion.
- Determinator: Goes through verbal discourse with people even if she doesn't have enough level to put up a decent fight.
- Disapproving Look: Her conversation sprite seems to constantly be giving one of these.
- Enemy Chatter: Has this with Chet Chatters.
- Everyone Loves Blondes: Her conversation sprite appears to have dirty blonde hair, and both Holden and Seymour seem to show some form of romantic interest in her throughout the course of the main story.
- Etiquette Nazi: Downplayed.
- Gentleman Snarker: Gender-inverted.
- Good Is Not Dumb: Whitty is very clever, and she's arguably one of the kindest characters in the game.
- Good Is Not Soft: Isn't afraid of using a few strong words to go against others.
- Hates Small Talk: When building up to having discourse with Holden, she claims that she isn't one for small talk.
- Hartman Hips: Compared to the rest of her conversation sprite, her hips are quite large.
- The Heroine: She's the heroine of the story.
- History with Celebrity: It's revealed in the main story that the acclaimed Professor Chet Chatters is directly related to her.
- I'm Thinking It Over!: Takes a long time while thinking about whether or not to accept Seymour's marriage proposal, only to respond with a vague maybe.
- I Work Alone: Has hints of this, as she is reluctant to make alliances with anyone, such as Chet Chatters trying to get her to work with him or Seymour asking her to marry him in an attempt to restore the Saymore house to its former glory.
- Just Between You and Me: Is on the receiving end of this when Chet Chatters reveals that he's actually part of the Gawship house.
- Oblivious to Love: Has shades of this, considering that she will become much more reluctant and hesitant with Holden and Seymour when they both show interest in her.
- Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Seems to be this to Seymour, since he proposes marriage to her by the end of the game, in an attempt to get her to do the work of raising the Saymore house's reputation.
- Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Downplayed. Whitty is masculine in dress only, while Seymour, who proposes marriage to her by the end of the game seems to be much more sensitive and caring than the other male characters. Averted in the case of Whitty and Holden, who is masculine.
- Multigenerational Household: Her cousin is Chet Chatters, who seems to be much older than she is.
- Nerves of Steel: After she has the Last Word, she has this, as she can't lose any combat scenarios, no matter what. Except for the final battle with The Mouth, where this immunity gets weaker every time she would lose.
- Passive-Aggressive Kombat: Her main MO, shared with the rest of the cast.
- Punny Name: Whitty Gawship = Witty Gossip.
- The Social Darwinist: Seems to believe in this along with most of the cast.
- Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Despite coming across as being rather apathetic in the beginning, throughout the story, she does show genuine acts of kindness, especially not outright refusing to marry Seymour on the grounds of them not knowing each other well. She only considers it because she knows that Seymour could never restore the former glory of his house on his own, as he's usually extremely shy and doesn't seem to want to play by the rules of the others, despite seemingly doing so.
- Real Women Don't Wear Dresses: Wears a tuxedo.
- Ruling Couple: Seymour seems like he wants to become this with her, although her answer is left as a simple maybe.
