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Monroe
The protagonist. A boy who finds himself in a strange, white space while searching for an unfinished swan.
- Art Attacker: He's able to shoot balls of ink to traverse the blank space around him.
- Making a Splash: Another ability he gets is to shoot spheres of water.
- Parental Abandonment: His mother died in the past, and doesn't seem to have a father. It turns out to be the King.
- Time Master: A power-up he can have is to stop the balls he shoots in midair to send out multiple at once.
The Swan
An unfinished swan that somehow managed to escape its painting, kickstarting the plot.
- Living MacGuffin: A living painting (an incomplete one) of a swan. Unfortunately…
- Slippery MacGuffin: …it always seems just out of Monroe's reach.
- Tragic Keepsake: It's a painting that Monroe's mother made, so it's understandable why he would go find it.
Monroe's Mother
The mother of Monroe, who previously died. She's stated to be a painter who never finished a painting.
- Art Initiates Life: Somehow, her unfinished painting of the Swan came to life after her death. It's later revealed that she herself came to life from the king, who wanted to have a family.
The King
A pompous king who thinks highly of his art.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: What Remains of Edith Finch implies that he was trying to break his family's death curse (only one Finch would have children, and all Finches were fated to die horribly, and usually young). by making an entire world that would last forever. He broke the curse by being the first Finch to have both a nephew and a son - who then destroyed every trace of his world. And his siblings and mother also died tragically through mundane means.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": He is simply known as the King. However, it is suggested that his true name may be Milton Finch.
- Insufferable Genius: He believes himself to be an incredible artist, to the point where he became negligent and incompetent as a ruler, and is also why the people of his kingdom have left.
- Tragic Villain: Despite not being the best ruler, he seems to be incredibly lonely, and gradually realizes that his creations won't last forever. In the ending, he turns out to have created Monroe's mother so he could have a family, and entered a depression after she disappeared. It's also heavily implied that not only is the world his own Dying Dream, but that practically all of his own family is dead.
The Giant
A rather lazy giant seen sleeping in the Unfinished Kingdom.
- Eye-Obscuring Hat: What little we see of his face is covered by the blue hat he's wearing.
- Heavy Sleeper: He's rarely depicted doing anything other than sleeping. Monroe tries yelling, but that doesn't do anything. In addition, you can't wake him up by shooting ink/water balls at him, as they'll simply bounce off his large arm.
- He does, however, wave to Monroe once the latter leaves the kingdom.
- Lazy Bum: It's stated that he's the "laziest" giant around. While he does help the townspeople, he'd rather be napping. Once they left, he also became the "happiest" giant.
- Top-Heavy Guy: Despite his large feet, his big arms and belly appear even larger.
- Undying Loyalty: Other than being lazy, he stayed within the unfinished kingdom due to being loyal to the king.
