All the characters in Younger Days.
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Main Characters
Max
- Animal Lover: Max, so very much.
- Embarrassing Damp Sheets: Part of the reason Max is still in diapers is because he cannot sleep without them, and because he hasn't gotten over bedwetting yet.
- Expy: Shares a few mannerisms to that of Linus Van Pelt from Peanuts, often speaking philosophically, and is a pacifist. He only lacks a traditional Security Blanket.
- Cloud Cuckoolanders Minder: Max keeps an eye on Anne when at school, due to her tendency to go off the rails.
- Mistaken Age: This happens a lot with Max. For instance, 09/03/2016 has Max pretend to be a cat person, but gets lost. However, right nearby is a daycare, and is stuck doing finger painting and is too shy to do anything about it. As revealed the following day, this is not the first time this has happened.
- Older Than They Look: 9 years old, but looks like he's 4.
- Technicolor Eyes: Though normally the comics are black and white, comments from the cast and colored pictures from the artist reveal Max has purple eyes. Oddly enough, he does not seem to like this.
- Turn the Other Cheek: Mixed with his pacifist tendencies. Max does not believe in paying violence unto others, even those who bully him. Perhaps seen best in this series ofstrips.
- Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Shares this dynamic with Sam.
Sam
- Berserk Button: Picking on Max in her present is a very bad idea, as Bill found out the hard way.
- Big Eater: Can pack away food like nobody's business, particularly sweets. Note, she doesn't always get away with this.
- Everybody Hates Mathematics: Sam in 26/08/2013 and 05/09/2013, who cannot understand algebra.
- Expy: Shares a few character quirks with Peppermint Patty from Peanuts, such as hatred of maths, acting like a tomboy, and a love of sports and going outside.
- Fiery Redhead: Possesses a lot of spirit and can be a bit hot tempered.
- Hates Wearing Dresses: Sam in this strip, and feels silly for wearing one. Given her reaction to a dress Lili makes her wear later, it may be related to frilly dresses, rather than "all dresses ever", and seems quite taken by it — in fact, Sam only objects to wearing it all the time due to the high maintenance of the outfit:
Sam: "Wow! I feel so feminine... how can I feel like this every day?"
Lili: "Easy... you repeat this process every morning for the rest of your life".
Sam: "It's not gonna happen!"
- Lady Looks Like a Dude: Sam starting from 24/11/2013, and becomes a Running Gag from then on.
- Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Has this dynamic to Max. She's not against wearing dresses entirely either, just the frilly kind.
- Purely Aesthetic Glasses: Used to own a pair, though they haven't been seen in quite a few strips. She liked wearing them because they made her look smart; that they annoyed Max as well was a bonus.
- Samus Is a Girl: Invoked intentionally by Fernando. Sam is a gender neutral name, she has boyish short hair, and she hardly ever dresses in girly clothes, so it’s easy to mistake her for a boy. Characters in-universe are then quite shocked to find out her real gender.
- Viewer Gender Confusion: It's very easy to mistake her for a boy. Even in-universe, characters often make this error.
Major Characters
Dan
- Abusive Parents: It is eventually revealed that Dan's biological father was physically abusive to him, and that whatever he's hiding under his hoodie is the last thing his father did to him before finally getting kicked out of the house.
- Berserk Button: Dan does not like people pulling off his hood. He got so angry when Bill did it, his anger actually intimidated the bigger boy into backing down. Considering what it hides, it's very understandable.
- Cloud Cuckoolanders Minder: To keep Jowy's self injury to a minimum, this is what Dan gets to be.
- Expy: Of The Little Red Haired Girl from Peanuts, as they share the same gag of never showing their face on-panel (His face is obscured in increasingly absurd and roundabout ways too).
- The Faceless: It is positively amazing how many ways Fernando has come up with to hide Dan's face from the readers, it's even taken to extremes in this comic, where a leaf, a bird flying pas, and a cats tail cover his face. The closest so far to any kind of face reveal is a side profile in this comic strip where they wear large bangs covering their face.
- Limited Wardrobe: Played with. It appears Dan wears the same outfit all the time, but in reality he has a whole closet full of hoodies. Even his PJs are hoodies.
- Mistaken Identity: How Dan was introduced to the comic.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: 04/05/2014 has Dan scared of a sheet bed ghost. The following day has Max show to him it's a fake, just a sheet over a balloon, but the balloon is not there anymore, freaking them both out.
Jowy
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Jowy appears to have a mild case of this, which Dan has to reign him in on.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Not as extreme as Max, but Jowy will not hesitate to stand up for his friends.
- Blind Without 'Em: Is very near-sighted, and requires glasses to see, otherwise he cannot see much in front of him, best demonstrated here.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: The boy could give Pinky a run for his money, if he were not so smart.
- Dropped Glasses: Has been the subject of such a plot at least twice.
- Hidden Depths: Is surprisingly athletic, beating Dan in basketball.
- Monster Clown: Jowy doesn't like clowns.
- Opaque Lenses: Whether or not they're Opaque Nerd Glasses is up for grabs.
- The Short Guy with Glasses: Lifts them when he wants to make a point, or to deliver a Death Glare.
- Wise Beyond Their Years: While Jowy can come off as out there in his thought processes, many is the time he's revealed to be far more on the ball than most of the cast.
Lili
- Team Mom: Tends to function like this for the group when Mom isn't around.
- Girlish Pigtails: Girlish ponytail... at least at first.
- Official Couple: With Max. They both exchange valentines day presents almost yearly, Lili often acts as a pillar of support for him, and is one of a few people who knows about Max's parents' death.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Lili hates bugs, as seen here.
Bill
- Bruiser with a Soft Center: He was originally a bully of Max, until Mark told Max of his love for chocolate.
- Bully Turned Buddy: Was originally a pain for Max, often calling him "Toddler". He becomes friends with him later, after Mark tells him that he'll do anything for chocolate.
- Captain Oblivious: Bill can come across as this, something he's trying to fix.
- Forgotten Childhood Friend: Though still kids themselves, it turns out Bill and Sam are this for each other. When they were younger they used to pal around with each other, but then Bill moved away. When he returned, he and Sam had changed so much they didn't recognize each other and started antagonizing each other. Resolved later on when Max drops the bombshell to them.
- Pointless Bandaid: Bill is shown to have a perpetual bandage over his nose. The original injury the bandage covered has long since healed, he just likes the look.
- Heel–Face Turn: Part of his character arc when he shifts from bully to friend of the main cast.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: It's hard to see sometimes, but Bill is a decent person under all his blustering.
- Missing Mom: He lives only with his dad, his mom having abandoned their family when he was much younger. He's actually quite bitter about it.
- The Resenter: The primary motivation for his bullying Max, bordering almost on I Just Want to Be You. He sees the loving family Max has and is incredibly jealous that he's all alone.
Mark
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Mark's attention tends to wander if he's bored, much to Bill's frustration when their studying mathematics.
- Badasses Wear Bandanas: Mark rocks this look.
- Book Dumb: Needs Bill's help to keep his grades up in school.
- Morality Pet: His inclusion in the comics is what ultimately lead to Bill's Heel–Face Turn.
- Morality Chain: Retroactively. He's a big part of the reason Bill isn't as bad as he makes himself out to be and is one of the few people who can tell Bill off when he acts jerky.
Supporting Characters
Mom
- Drives Like Crazy: Implied with Max's mom. 9/01/2013 has Max wear multiple seatbelts to protect against her driving, until the following day proves his fear to be partly justified when Sam lists all the bad driving habits the mom has. Sam then finds out for herself how reckless she is a further day later when she falls backwards with her legs on Max.
- Only One Name: Mom. She insists on it.
- Troll: Is a shutterbug, and is not beneath taking photo's of Sam and Max to embarrass them.
Alex
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Given his age, this is to be expected.
- You All Look Familiar: Viewers have a tendancy to mistake Max and Alex as the same person when they're on the same panel.
Anne Momona
- Secret-Keeper: Is one of the few people who knows that Max wears diapers to bed.
- No Last Name Given: Averted. She's the only character in the comic whose last name is actually revealed; Momona.
Ivan
- Abusive Parents: Ivan also seems to have suffered various types of abuse from his mother, who, by his own admission, never allowed him to have toys (instead wanting him to just study) and usually tossed away his gifts on mother's day, he also has a lot of scars all over his body and suffers from very frequent nightmares.
- Older Than They Look: Similar to Max, he looks rather younger than the eleven year old he actually is. He's about the same size as Max but is actually a year or two older than Bill himself.
