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The ClueFinders team
Joni Savage
- Badass in Distress: Any time she ends up captured by the threat of the game.
- The Big Gal: Along with Owen, she's one of the more physical members of the team. Often charging headfirst into danger.
- Blind Without 'Em: She can't see without her glasses.
- Catchphrase: "I dunno, but we're gonna find out!" and "Let's go, Santiago."
- Character Tics: In idle animation in many of the games, she wrinkles her nose and glares at the player or plays with one of her braids.
- Crazy-Prepared: Infrequently but when she is this trope, it's pretty impressive.
- Fearless Fool: Initially. She grows out of it.
- Fiery Redhead: More controlled than the average but she does have a temper.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: Choleric; for she is the team leader and also has a temper.
- The Leader: She's this to the Cluefinders.
- Meaningful Name: Her last name, befitting her wild and hotheaded personality.
- Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: The Energetic Girl to Santiago's Savvy Guy.
- Stepford Smiler: It’s possible in 6th Grade Adventures that she knew she was turning into a plant, but kept acting like she was okay so her friends wouldn’t worry about her.
- Team Mom: Mild case as she tends to make sure her friends are okay (which includes such things as making back up food supplies for picnics and knocking sense into Owen) and really doesn't like it when they're put in danger.
- Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Despite her rough-and-tumble appearance and personality, Joni's quite enamored with the Egyptian jewelry in the tomb they visit in 4th Grade Adventures, or at least until the ring won't come off.
Santiago Rivera
- Designated Victim: He shares the role of being the standard kidnapping victim with Leslie, especially when they're paired up. Primary evidence for this trope is "Toy Store" where Santiago and Leslie get shrunk and trapped in a bubblegum machine after being played up as rescuing Joni, Owen and Laptrap (who had gotten shrunk with the cable car the group rode to the titular store in and then got kidnapped, albeit unintentionally, by the game's villain).
- Exposed to the Elements: Inverted. His standard outfit of a hooded sweatshirt over an undershirt and blue jeans has been worn in every game save Math Adventures (where it would have been this trope given said game takes place in the Himalayas) and 4th Grade (where he switched the sweatshirt for a t-shirt), meaning he's worn said sweatshirt in such locales as South America (3rd Grade), a tropical island (5th Grade) and San Francisco (6th Grade).
- Foil: To Joni. She’s quick to act before thinking and has a temper while Santiago thinks things through before acting and is level-headed.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: A mixture of Phlegmatic and Melancholic; for he thinks things through before acting, is level-headed and the Gadgeteer Genius.
- Gadgeteer Genius: He's the expert in all of the tech and even programs their floating computer buddy.
- Humble Hero: While he doesn't exactly say Think Nothing of It, he tends to shy away from compliments on stuff that hasn't been proven to work yet.
- The Lancer: He functions somewhat as the second-in-command of the team and his calmer personality contrasts with Joni's impulsivity and passion. He comes with a side of the tech side of The Smart Guy.
- Mr Fix It: He can fix up any broken invention or mechanical marvel.
- Nice Guy: The majority of his inventions are either to further the crew's mission or just to be helpful in general.
- Not So Above It All: Has two major moments of this over the series: telling Joni, quote, "I guess this (taking a ring from the Egyptian tomb they visited) makes you an international jewel thief" in 4th Grade Adventures and participating in the pizza topping argument at the beginning of The Mystery of Microsneezia.
- Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: The Savvy Guy to Joni's Energetic Girl.
Owen Lam
- The Big Guy: The least brightest and also one of the most physical capable members of the team. Sixth Grade even has him leaping about a cliff-side to crack boards up.
- Big Eater: Especially when there's pizza.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: Sanguine; for he is the most hyperactive member of the team.
- Idiot Hero: Notably the only one in the main cast.
- Granted, he is smarter than most Idiot Heroes, apparently able to translate Leslie's Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness with relative ease.
- The Load: He offers the least obvious contribution to the team aside from being the Plucky Comic Relief.
- Opposites Attract: Has a G-Rated version of this with Leslie.
- Sunglasses at Night: Given he never takes off his signature shades, this is bound to happen.
- Surfer Dude: Skateboarding is more his game but he does remark "Dude, where's my board?" when a tsunami interrupts the group's sailing trip in Fifth Grade. Plus his dialogue does evoke this trope.
- The Rival: To Fletcher as they're both totally radical.
- Totally Radical: Most, if not all, of his dialogue.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Pizza. According to his character card, his favorite saying is "I never met a pizza I didn't like".
Leslie Clark
- Baby's First Words: Her in-game profile claims that her first word was, "encyclopedia."
- Badass Bookworm: Unfortunately doesn't often get to showcase the first half of the trope. That said, in 6th Grade Adventures, she's a crack shot with a slingshot.
- Birds of a Feather: Her dynamic with Santiago.
- Black and Nerdy: She is African-American and is the bookworm/smart girl of the group.
- Foil: To Owen.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: Melancholic; for she is reserved and analytical.
- Girly Girl: Sort of. While not the stereotypical one, Leslie is considerably more feminine than Joni.
- Grandaddy's Girl: She very obviously adores her grandfather when he appears in 5th Grade.
- Magic Skirt: For a childrens' game, this is a given, but it might just be the way the skirt is fitted.
- Not So Above It All: Participates in the pizza topping argument at the beginning of The Mystery of Microsneezia.
- Out of Focus: In a unique way. She's the character with the least games as a playable character to her name (since she's only playable for about half of 5th Grade and Toy Store and only truly has 6th Grade to her name as the whole group was playable in 4th Grade).
- The Quiet One: She talks much less than her peers, and usually only to say something impersonal.
- Shorter Means Smarter: While it's hard to tell, she is the shortest team member and definitely the smartest.
- The Smart Girl: According to background information, her first word was "encyclopedia." As an older child, she is quite a bookworm.
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Leslie tends to talk in long words, probably as a reflection of how smart she is.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Bubble gum in The Mystery of Microsneezia.
LapTrap
Voiced by: Les Hedger (American dub, all games), Dai Jenkins (British dub, 3rd Grade through 6th Grade Adventures and Math Adventures), Justin Fletcher (British dub, Real World Adventure Kit)
The ClueFinders' robotic companion who behaves in a humorously cowardly fashion. He is a Turbo T.U.R.T.L.E. which, according to his in-game profile, stands for Turbocharged Ultra-Rugged-Terrain Laptop Equipment. LapTrap carries the game options, which the player accesses by clicking on him. As such, LapTrap is essentially the successor to P.O.P. (the Program Options Pad) in the Reader Rabbit games.- Cowardly Lion: Constantly petrified by the threats the adventures bring the gang into but he's quite fond of and protective of the kids, to the extent that his sudden lack of care for their safety in The Mystery of Microsneezia is a major flaw in S.N.A.I.L.'s disguise that winds up unmasking him completely.
- Deadpan Snarker: Never misses an opportunity to snipe at pretty much anyone he thinks is being less than intelligent. Owen is the most frequent target, but all of the kids have gotten some of his snark.
- The Eeyore: Tends to always look on the gloomy side of things.
- Hover Bot: He's a floating robotic laptop.
- Informed Species: His nickname is "The Turbo Turtle". You'd probably never would have guessed otherwise...
- Omniglot: Though this could be justified by him being a computer.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: His voice sounds an awful lot like Billy Crystal.
- Robot Buddy: Was originally meant to serve as a military bot, but a flaw in the programming turned him into this, originally for Joni's uncle and eventually for the Cluefinders.
- Token Robot: The robotic member of the team.
- You Don't Look Like You: Has a more Disk-Shaped appearance in 4th-grade.
Villains of note
Fletcher Limburger
- Big Bad: Originally posing as an ally, he turns out to be the main villain of 3rd Grade Adventure all along.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Appears to be a nice and helpful pilot, but when the kids find the keys to the lost city of Numeria, his offer to take Joni and Santiago there leads to them being abandoned in the middle of nowhere.
- Evil Is Hammy: More so in Mystery Mansion but has his moments in Mystery of Mathra as well.
- Evil Poacher: Steals animals purely for profit and when there's even a chance Joni and Santiago are onto him, he abandons them in the middle of the jungle, several feet in the air.
- Light Is Not Good: He has blond hair and blue eyes and is an evil poacher who’s willing to kidnap people and abandon kids in a rainforest.
- Punny Name: A fletcher is someone who makes arrows. Limburger is a kind of cheese and sounds similar to "Lindbergh", the last name of a famous airplane pilot.
Sir Alistair Loveless III
- Big Bad: The main villain of 4th Grade Adventures, who sets up the conflict with his plan to gain the power of Set.
- Card-Carrying Villain: He has no trouble admitting that he's a "villain" and "an evil man...up to no good."
- Dastardly Whiplash: The wardrobe is a bit updated (top hats and bowlers are pretty passé nowadays, etc.) but otherwise he fits very well into this archetype.
- Evil Brit: An evil Dastardly Whiplash who comes from London.
- Evil Eyebrows: His eyebrows are so evil, they curl upwards.
- Evil Laugh: He does one, if not more, in almost every scene he's in.
- Evil Is Not a Toy: Loveless summons the evil god Set in hopes that Set will share his power with Loveless and allow him to Take Over the World. Set dismisses him and turns him into a mummy.
- Mummy: Set seals his body/soul inside the mummified corpse of Perabsen. He's gotten better as of Mystery Mansion Arcade.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: "Loveless"...you think this is a bad guy? (Completely right, as he will admit.)
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Martinet seems to be channeling a bit of Vincent Price in his performance. Loveless looks like Price himself as well.
- Obviously Evil: Even without the name, he might just as well be walking around under a neon sign reading "BAD GUY". Humorously enough, even The Other Wiki observes in its article on the game that there's something off about him. "In one scene, he cackled manically for a long time in the typical villain fashion, before coughing and explaining that he swallowed his mint."
- Preppy Name: Noble title? Check. Old-fashioned first and last name? Check. Roman numeral at the end? Check.
- Rags to Riches: He mentions offhandedly that he used to be a poor child living on the streets. Now he's the well-to-do colleague of an archeologist. That's not good enough for him, though, he wants the power that only Set can give him.
- Unexplained Recovery: No longer a mummy in Mystery Mansion.
Set
- Big "NO!": His last words as he's sent back to the underworld.
- Blue Is Heroic: Inverted. He's the God of Evil, and he's colored dark blue.
- Evil Gloating: Deconstructed. After dispatching Loveless, he does almost nothing other than gloat about how powerful he is and how the kids will never stop him. Ironically, this is what allows the ClueFinders to get the drop on him while he does absolutely nothing to stop them until it's too late.
- I Am the Noun: When he is quite literally staring down at the heroes, he loudly declares that he is chaos.
- No Indoor Voice: Due to his size and divine nature, all of Set's lines are spoken at the top of his lungs.
- Yellow Eyes of Sneakiness: He's the evil god of chaos, and he has yellow sclerae with no pupils.
Pericles Lear
Malicia
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She disguised herself as a beautiful human girl and pretended to be a princess in distress. Once Joni and Owen get the amulet for her, she transforms into her real form and forcibly takes it from them.
- Evil Makes You Ugly: Her true form is quite hideous in contrast to her beautiful human form.
- Laser-Guided Karma: She attempts to use the amulet to drain life from Owen, but he reflects the beam off LapTrap, trapping her inside the amulet.
- Light Is Not Good: She has blonde hair, wears a blue dress, and has pale skin and is evil and manipulative.
- Meaningful Name: “Malicia” sounds close to the word “malice” and she is quite evil.
- Walking Spoiler: Most of her tropes reveal a major plot element.
Other characters
Dr. Horace Pythagoras, Joni's uncle
- Distressed Dude: The 3rd Grade Adventures starts with him being kidnapped by Mathra, which brings the Clue Finders into it. Mystery of Microsneezia features a similar plot, with the Clue Finders having to go to the titular island to rescue him after he sends Joni a distress signal.
- Honorary Uncle: Implied to be one to Santiago since he's just as enthusiastic about greeting the boy as he is his niece and Santiago is just as relieved as Joni that he's all right.
- Only Sane Man: He's the only member of his team not to believe Mathra is behind the animal disappearances.
- Strong Family Resemblance: He's practically a male Joni in appearance, down to the eyeglasses.
Socrates, Joni's dog
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: After his appearance in "4th Grade", vanishes until "Reading" and then never appears again.
- Evil-Detecting Dog: He's the first one of the team to realize that Alastair Loveless is a bad guy, saying that "he smelled like trouble."
- Remember the New Guy?: Is introduced as Joni's pet and all the characters are familiar with him. The audience on the other hand has never met him before.
- Talking Animal: Averted, despite coming from an island of these. His thoughts are audible to the player, but not to the characters in-universe.
- Team Pet: Technically, by virtue of being the pet of the team leader.
Professor Botch
- Absent-Minded Professor: Very much so, given his initial obliviousness to Loveless's villainy.
- Nice Guy: Absentmindedness aside, he's a lovable fellow.
The Egyptian God quartet
- Animorphism: Where as in Egyptian lore, gods were depicted as humans with animal heads or were humans who could transform into an animal form, Horus, Sobek, and Bastet are fully anthropomorphic animals.
- Furry Confusion: Despite Bastet being a humanoid cat, she holds a normal looking cat in her arms, which isn't explained.
- God Is Flawed: Precisely the reason why the quartet can't stop Loveless from unleashing Set and the forces of Chaos: they're too tall.
- Joisey: Horus and Isis speak with a very distinct Jersey accent.
- Lions and Tigers and Humans... Oh, My!: Isis is notably, the only human of the Egyptian God quartet, as the other three members are anthropomorphic animals.
- Muscles Are Meaningful: Sobek isn't designed more muscular compared to most characters in the series for no reason, it directly ties into the power he gives Santiago: super strength.
- Toothy Bird: Horus can be seen grinning or talking with a perfect set of human teeth.
Captain Clark, Leslie's grandfather
- Distressed Dude: Similar to Joni’s uncle in 3rd Grade Adventures, Captain Clark goes missing in 5th Grade Adventures.It’s revealed that he, his crew, and the islanders have been captured by aliens.
- Doting Grandparent: Appears to have this kind of relationship with Leslie.
- No Name Given: His first name is never revealed.
Miss Rose
- Anti-Villain: Yes, she wanted to attack and enslave the humans, but it was only because the humans were poisoning her people's water supply. She expresses concern for Joni when Leslie and Owen see that she’s slowly turning into a plant and urges them to hurry up for Joni’s sake. She releases and cures her prisoners once the water is clean again.
- Cool Old Lady: Implied.
- Damsel in Distress: Subverted. When Leslie finds her crutch in the underground world of the plants, she thinks she's been kidnapped. Actually, she's the plant leader.
- Foreshadowing: During her first scene of the game, she talks about taking care of her children, which are plants.
- Heel–Face Revolving Door: Even prior to Mystery Mansion she seemed to have a screw loose and would cycle between acting concerned about Joni's Transflormation and smugly taunting the protagonists about it.
- Human Disguise: She took on the form of an elderly woman living next to Joni. During the last half of the game, she reveals her true form to the Cluefinders.
- Meaningful Name: Her name is Miss Rose, she wears a red shirt and she’s the leader of the plant people. Whether her real name is Rose or not is never answered.
- Walking Spoiler: As you can see, discussing her involves a lot of reveals.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Her plots for world domination are only due to a polluted water supply.
Ficus
- Mr. Exposition: Explains what's happening and what they need to do to Owen and Leslie once they get underground.
- Plant Person: He’s a small plant being with a leaf for a head and roots for limbs.
The Mastermind/Carmen Sandiego
Voiced by: Christiane Crawford
Click here to reveal the Mastermind's identity
- The Dog Was the Mastermind: Or in this case, the master thief that came out of nowhere.
- Evil Sounds Deep: Justified. It's to keep everyone from finding out their true identity.
- Face-Revealing Turn: The figure is hidden behind a swivel chair in the shadows. When the chair does turn around it's the Lady in Red herself.
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Unexpected Character: So that's where Carmen Sandiego has been all along! - Walking Spoiler: Almost all the tropes here have white spaces for good reasons.
- Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Maybe. Could be the reason why she sent the other villains into their traps after they failed.
