Ruby Gloom/Characters

Ruby Gloom

"Now, what excuse--I mean, legitimate reason is there for a party today?"

• Hollywood Tone Deaf: Outside of the musical episode, she, in her own words, can't carry a tune in a bucket.
• Living Doll: Hinted at.
• The Noseless: Ruby is this when not in profile.
• Perky Goth
• The Pollyanna
• Redheaded Hero
• Ship Tease: With Skullboy
  • In particular the "Fun with Paper" or "You Are What You Eat" segments.
• Strange Girl
• Team Mom
• Youthful Freckles

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Doom Kitty

* violin chord*

• Deathbringer the Adorable
• Doomy Dooms of Doom
• Cute Kitten
• Narrative Shapeshifting: She uses her extremely thin, flexible and strong tail to make shapes ? not strictly shapeshifting, but it does alter her appearance after a fashion. Of course, only Ruby can understand her.
• The Speechless
• Silent Snarker

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Iris

"Hey, Ruby, I'm bummed! I wanted to do some aerial routines with Squig, but it's kind of hard without windshield wipers...!"

• Balloon Belly: Very briefly.
• Catch Phrase: "I'm good!"
• Cute Clumsy Girl
• Cute Monster Girl
• Cyclops
• The Flapper: Iris appears as this during Poe's version of the story in "Venus de Gloomsville."
• Fluffy Tamer: If Squig and Venus are any indication.
• Genki Girl: She loves adventure and rarely seems to hold still for very long.
• Ugly Cute: Who could say no to that puppy-dog eye?

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Misery

"My cousin was struck by lightning. Twice." "Well, it couldn't possibly happen to you, too. What are the chances?" [Pause for lightning-and-simultaneous-thunder.] "Fairly good! It's genetic. The electrical current is drawn to the high lead content in our blood, and then BOOM! ...people use you to charge their batteries."

• Amusing Injuries: Misery is regularly hit by lightning, only to say "ow" and come back 10 seconds later in perfect shape.
• Butt Monkey
• The Chew Toy
• Chewing the Scenery: Emily Hampshire occasionally gets really hammy in her role as Misery:

"I'm also the Queen of Disasters, by the way. And the Princess. And the Baroness! And the Countess! And the Viscountess! THE EMPRESS!!" "OOOHHH, I’M LIKE A WALKING, TALKING GOOD LUCK CHARM!!!

• The Eeyore: Though she does cheer up as the show goes on.
• Elegant Gothic Lolita
• Ensemble Darkhorse: •Misery is far and away the most popular character on the show. Her only conceivable rival is the title character, at which point it's kind of hard to draw a comparison.
• Iron Butt Monkey: Lightning hits Misery so often that it's become a defining character trait. Aside from the blackened clothes, it seems to be nothing more than a minor inconvenience to her.
• Lethal Chef: "It's an old family recipe. I've adjusted it to reduce the damage to the dwelling."
• My Real Daddy: While it's hard to point out one person, it's probably the good people at Nelvana who can take credit for turning Misery into a fan favorite. Ruby Gloom creator Martin Hsu only made one known illustration of her.
• Non-Singing Voice: Misery's sleep-singing voice is provided by Jeen O'Brien, who also sings the theme song.
• Our Banshees Are Louder: Many fans believe that Misery and her exclusively female relatives are banshees. And her wail sure is terrifying enough.
• Plague of Good Fortune: Every Friday the 13th everyone in Misery's family has extraordinarily good luck and their normally extraordinarily bad luck is spread to those around them.
• Ugly Cute: She's bag-eyed, pockmarked, tearstained... and adorable.
• The Woobie

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Skull Boy

"I'm an artist, Ruby! It's in my bones!"

• Dem Bones
• Desperately Looking for a Purpose In Life
• Emo Teen: Even if he doesn't have the attitude (Debatable) he definitely dresses the part.
• Gene Hunting
• Jack of All Trades
• Lamarck Was Right: Basically his entire philosophy.
• Ship Tease: With Ruby.
• Ugly Cute
• The Woobie

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Frank & Len

"Say your amp's not working. What's the first thing you do?" "My amp's not busted." "Exactly. You deny it." "I'm tellin' you, it's not busted!" "That's denial." "Hey, did you bust my amp?!"

• Aloof Big Brother: Frank sees himself as this, at least.
• Big Eater
• Cloudcuckoolander: Len
• Completely Missing the Point: "You're just not getting it, Len."
• Depending on the Writer: Frank is either far smarter than Len and is the one who scoffs at Len's ditzy moments, or is just as stupid as his brother.
• The Ditz
• Guyliner: Len
• Multiple Head Case
• The Power of Rock
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: While Len has green skin, he seems to have red oni tendencies... but Frank is blue oni through and through.
• Sibling Seniority Squabble: Taken farther than usual-- Frank has claimed to be older, but...
• Those Two Guys

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Mr. Buns

• Companion Cube
• Living Toys: Mr. Buns is a strange example. The other characters treat him as if he's alive (except for Misery), and he seems to do things when he's not on-screen... but whenever he's on-screen, he's just a lifeless sock-bunny. In the most extreme case, he's fencing with Poe from just off-screen, only for the sword to drop the moment he's visible in the frame.

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Edger, Allen, and Poe

• High-Class Glass
• Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Poe.
• Shout-Out: Take a wild guess!
  • As well as occasional ones to Gilbert and Sullivan.
• Shout-Out Theme Naming: See the above.
• The Speechless: Edgar and Allen.
• Toothy Bird: All three.
• Ravens and Crows

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Scaredy Bat

• Adorkable
• Big No: He does this every once in a while.
• Bollywood Nerd: Well, he's certainly got the right accent...
• Butt Monkey
• Cute Little Fangs
• Ensemble Darkhorse: Not as much as Misery but it's hard not to love him.
• Large Ham: At times he can be one.
• Lovable Coward
• Puppy Dog Eyes
• Ridiculously Cute Critter
• Shrinking Violet: Sort of...
• Talking Animal
• The Woobie

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Misery's Family

• Alliterative Family
• All Just a Dream\Epileptic Trees: It's speculated that a few of the Misery relatives that appeared in the reunion episode might have been figments of her own imagination.
• An Ice Person: Two, actually. Malady and Malaise will cause a localized ice age if they stay close for too long.
• Ensemble Darkhorse: Morose. One episode was all it took for her to become popular.
• Hulk Speak: Mayhem
• Iron Butt Monkey: Nearly all of them. For all of the disasters they've been through, it's a wonder they're even alive at all!
• Meaningful Name: Malady (she's always sick) and Malaise (she's always sleepy)
• Older Than They Look: Several members of the family might be this. Mayhem apparently remembers the dinosaurs!
• Our Banshees Are Louder
• Plague of Good Fortune: Every Friday the 13th.
• The Scrappy: Migraine is this to the rest of the family.
• Tastes Like Diabetes: The triplets are so ridiculously cute and perky that they give Morose a nervous breakdown:

"Children...playful, cheerful children...Why?! Why?!"

• Uncanny Family Resemblance: Consistently!