Gaia Online

In February 2003, Derek "Lanzer" Liu and a group of friends founded Go-Gaia, an Animesque Avatar Roleplaying Community and link list. They've ditched the Link List since then, but Go-Gaia continued to grow, eventually changing its name to Gaia Online.

The initial drawing points of the site were its focus on fashion and collectable fashion items. By posting on the forums, users could collect points, which they could in turn use to buy clothes for their forum avatars. Many forum sub-communities and groups were started, and the shopkeepers and site characters began to star in their own plotlines.

Gaia's storyline quickly became one of the distinguishing features of the site. Since the plot's beginnings in 2004, Gaia has had two Zombie Apocalypses, an Alien Invasion, a Vampire Attack, and more No One Could Survive That moments than you can shake a pixelated stick at.

It's come a long way since its humble beginnings, going from a simple forum to an enormous multi-faceted community. And with the release of zOMG!, Gaia made the leap into full fledged MMORPG-dom.

General Tropes
"Cindy: It's... huge! I can't believe the size of it, towering into the stratosphere like that... It's like nothing I've ever seen! Edmund: * Beat Panel, Aside Glance* That's What She Said."
 * Ambidextrous Sprite: Your items will switch hands depending on which way you're facing. Perhaps most easily seen by bumping your own posts.
 * Barbie Doll Anatomy: WHERE ARE YOUR NIPPLES NOW
 * Bribing Your Way to Victory: La Victoire
 * Also Back Alley Bargains, which specializes in power-up items for zOMG!
 * Items from La Victoire and power-ups from Back Alley Bargains can both be bought and sold on the Marketplace using Gold, though, so you don't have to spend real money on the site if you spend enough time gathering Gold (called "questing" by the users).
 * In the 2009 Halloween event, certain amounts of followers are needed to perform specific actions. Usually, you get followers by having people on the forums choose to follow you. However, if you'd rather not go to all that trouble, you could buy virtual followers with real money.
 * Church of Happyology: In this EI report, Ron Bruise tries to get Timmy into some kind of expensive treatment to get rid of anxiety caused by aliens in his past. It doesn't really work out, since it costs 350,000 gold, and Timmy only gets an allowance of 25 gold a week.
 * Cult: The "Universal Transcendent Spirit Collective", a group of believers who awaited the emergence of special beings called the Core People, who would take the believers to a paradise in outer space by use of a tremendous golden spaceship. Of course the only way to get there was to drink a delicious fruit beverage.
 * This lead to a Dude, Not Funny moment during one of Timmy's encounter with a cultist who offered him the nice refreshing drink, Timmy rejects the offer so in another EI Report it is obvious the cultist took the drink himself. This got a reaction from quite a few people.
 * Benevolent Order of the Overseer (B.O.O.) and Sentinel's Infernal Nation (S.I.N.), though now discontinued due to interference by Jack (King of Halloween).
 * Color Coded for Your Convenience: S.I.N. and B.O.O., the two warring factions of the 2009 Halloween event. No points for guessing which is the "good" side and which is the "evil" side.
 * Angelic items are usually colored in shades of white, blue (especially this particular shade that's been known as "Angelic blue") and gold, while demonic items are in shades of red and black; Nitemare/Nightmare items, a cousin to the Demonic items, utilize red and purple, although their secondary color switches often.
 * Crystal Dragon Jesus: Parodied by the Gaian Church of Non-Specific Worship.
 * Did Not Do the Research: People (usually those not knowing a thing about anime) ALWAYS assume on a first glance of Gaia that it's a kid's site, despite all the sexy, gory, and overall disturbing items on the site, and the part where you have to be thirteen to even sign up. If you say this in Site Feedback or the GCD especially, be prepared to have a raging mob hurling itself at you.
 * Double Entendre: Booty Grab, Ruby's Rack.
 * Lampshaded by one of Ruby's lines: "It refers to the clothing racks!"
 * Sam's Body & Parts. Sam herself does not get the joke.
 * Promageddon Part 3 lampshades it as well...

"Vanessa: Now operating on your eyes..."
 * Dropped a Bridget On Him: Around 30% of the members use avatars that doesn't match their gender. The trope comes into play on a regular basis.
 * There was a time when an avatar's gender was completely distinguishable. Once the kilts and the Sasha wig came out, though, all hell broke loose the staff started making everything unisex after seeing most of the male avatars on all of freakin' Gaia wearing them. Wonder how much extra work it is for the artists...
 * Meriko, one of Gaia's many artists, is working on this project (although no one knows if there are others); she keeps a journal entry of what she unisexes updated every time new items are available for both genders.
 * Cordell the dark elf. Hello, Samus.
 * Jaws from the Venus Garden, later to appear in the Aquariums.
 * Subverted by Prince Enki in the Poseidon's Legacy RIG, who outright introduces himself as male, goes topless (er... naked), and still gets mistaken for a mermaid.
 * Gino's SD Plus Doll description ("Gambino's son, sometimes mistaken for daughter...") indicates that this happens to Gino sometimes.
 * Eye Scream: The new eyes at the salon are not contacts... but at least Vanessa uses anesthesia (we think).

"Louie: No, I do not sparkle in the sunlight. Why do people keep asking me that? It's borderline racist."
 * Fan Art: Tons of it. There is even a small industry around creating commissioned "avi art".
 * Fandom Nod: Players have appeared in the comics now and then.
 * Fandub: The awful Halloween 2007 animated shorts got fandubbed quite a bit. (This was encouraged by Gaia, who actually provided downloads of the shorts for members to take.)
 * Recently, a group had made a fandub using the plot manga "Gunshow," and nailed the voices pretty well. Needless to say, even Gaia themselves took notice and featured the thread with the original link.
 * Fan Disservice: When Timmy was aged to adulthood, players were eagerly hoping for a hot bishounen who could woo the ladies. What they were not expecting was a tall, gangly, mustachioed man who resembled Edgar Allan Poe and/or Borat.
 * Some people actually liked that they didn't turn Timmy into a bishounen, and preferred the Hollywood Homely version.
 * One word. "Sagatha".
 * Fan Service: And plenty of it! Stripperiffic clothing and innuendos abound, most famously hot dogs.
 * Lots of items can make your avatar show a lot of skin, from pasties to sling bikinis.
 * The rampant fanservice is one of the reasons Gaia gets a lot of flack from people who think Gaia is a kids' website.
 * Lets not forget the recent rare item drops that are... the underwear of various hot NPCs on gaia. Frilly bras from the girl characters, and the men apparently all wear bikini briefs.
 * Fantastic Racism: In the Halloween '08 plot, a group of humans pretty much freaked out when they saw a vampire "attacking" another human and assumed the worst. (In reality, the human was allowing the vampire to bite him.) An elf pointed out that "elves aren't people," implying racial tension (perhaps even oppression?). In which direction is harder to say, since it seemed the elves meant it in a "We're better than people!" way.
 * Parodied and lampshaded by Louie Von Helson complaining that Twilight references are racist.

"Nicolae: Remember to tell all your friends about this place. Unless they're guards."
 * And subverted with Hypocritical Humor in the 2009 Valentine's event, where Louie would reject valentines from users with human avatars.
 * Fantasy Gun Control: Some characters in the storyline had guns, but players weren't given permanent gun items until January of '08.
 * Fantasy Kitchen Sink: Let's see... vampires, elves, centaurs, robots, aliens, tentacled beasties, trolls, plant monsters...
 * And don't forget that with the multitude of items right now, anybody can make up their own race or mix and match to imitate an existing one. So it's really more like a Fantasy Ocean.
 * Half-Human Hybrid: No. 9, the alien/human hybrid.
 * Hatedom: Image Boards.
 * Honest John's Dealership: Back Alley Bargains.


 * Instant Fanclub: A lot of characters that become popular, even without ANY background story whatsoever (here's looking at you, Stein) gets a fan club. Even items get fan clubs, especially those with pretty or sexy companions.
 * Killer Rabbit: Grunnies.
 * Don't forget the Easter Bunny...
 * Lampshade Hanging: Rampant, in both items and manga.
 * The Little Shop That Wasn't There Yesterday: La Victoire is a questionable example. Much of its stock is... questionable (Want to buy an Artifact of Doom? Only 749 Cash!). But La Victoire doesn't move around because no one knows where it is. It's the only shop on the site without a set location, and Word of God says it's like an "online store".
 * Recently, due to the new store fronts, La Victoire looks like a genuine store, but it could be placed in Barton judging by its ground and comparing it with Barton Boutique's.
 * YMMV on that one, but the ground seems to resemble more the one seen on Isle de Gambino's stores...
 * Again, Back Alley Bargains also qualifies. Justified here, as it's run out of a horse-drawn wagon by an opportunistic con-man.
 * Sunset Couture doesn't have a known location, either, but then, it is Sunset Couture.
 * Dernier* Cri definitely qualifies; justified, as it's on an airship and does travel away now and then so its proprietor can design new merch.
 * Loads and Loads of Characters: So... many... characters.
 * Mega Corp: G-Corp.
 * And Christmas-Themed S-Corp, and
 * And OmniDrink, which took over Gaia Online April 1st, 2009. It came back for the Halloween 2010 event, where it was revealed to be responsible for the events that drove all the ghosts insane.
 * Meganekko: Several! Meredith the bank teller, Cindy Donovinh the reporter, and Flynn in the Cash Shop, for starters.
 * And arguably Alruna in her office outfit, although it's not so much her glasses she relies on for her appeal...
 * Gaia-sama.
 * And if you'd look up from Vanessa's tits...
 * Moe Anthropomorphism: During the Great Plot Drought of 2007, some GCDers decided to start a project by creating their own plot manga. How? They took some of Gaia's many forums and turned them into anthro'd girls ala the OS-tans, each with personalities fitting the general view of the forum they're based on. Examples include GD-tan, who looks rather trashy and talks like it; Exchange-tan, who wears expensive clothing as a result of her experiences... exchanging; and even Chatterbox-tan, who dresses "randomly" and talks semi-literately. (Accounts based on these characters are actually out there and did interact with the forums at some point, perhaps an homage to the old Gaia days where NPC accounts posted in the forums alongside actual Gaians.) It was such a huge success that Gaia took notice and mentioned the comic's website in an announcement. This was the beginning for Gaia's first Summer Festival.
 * With the same inspiration as the above, a Gaia-tan item has been created based on the classic girl n00b image, with better assets, cheerful attitude, Zettai Ryouiki, BFS, an old-school G-Hairpin and Gratuitous Japanese included.
 * Followed by Gaia-sama, a Bizarro Universe Office Lady equivalent.
 * And Gaia-kun.
 * Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: A few...
 * The Halloween '08 event can be summed up thusly: Humans vs. Vampires vs. Elves vs. Zombies!!!
 * Dark elf gangsters!!
 * James Bond-like sword-fighting genius ex-scientist shopkeeper!
 * Zombie Killer Rabbits in mecha submarines!
 * No Fourth Wall: The Gee Boi Turbo item is a minigame wherein the dark elves and their pet owl go to a Gaia-centric anime convention. Kuro sets a cosplayer on fire and sets the book straight on his relationship with Devin, Cordell sings karaoke and embarrasses her brother with cuteness, and Caesar (the owl) commissions some Head-Tiltingly Kinky fanart of "Devin and the delivery guy doing WHAT?!"
 * Don't forget the Yaoi Fangirl who invaded the track at the '08 Rejected Olympics.
 * "Lex is breaking the fourth wall!", from the Lexbox RIG. How is this an example? Well, not only is it lampshading itself, but the art is of Lex using a tablet stylus to draw the stage of the Lexbox (creating an infinite loop)!
 * No Smoking: On November 20, 2009, as part of an ill-conceived sponsorship deal with the American Cancer Society, all cigarettes and related items were pulled from Gaia shops and owned ones were soulbound to the players so they couldn't be sold in the marketplace. It was repealed three days later by Lanzer, so Gaia has learned An Aesop from this: Censorship = Internet Backdraft.
 * Despite returning the smoking items, the most common one, "The Cig," now comes with a few new poses which serve as a Take That to the people who demanded their return. They include a certain smoking meme, and it's horrendous after effect, complete with bloodshot eyes, dead expression, and tons of black smoke spewing from the lungs.
 * Either Take That or fanservice. The new poses were generally pretty well received, especially since many users had suggested something like that as an alternative to the poorly-communicated and poorly-implemented ban.
 * Fanservice, since many users had equipped items to make it look like their avatar was smoking and an sign that read S.O.S. (i.e. Save Our Smokes). Not to mention the fact that it was one employee who implemented the ban. Lanzer removed the ban after the weekend, no one at Gaia HQ works weekends, and most users spent 3 days, as the ban started on a Friday, protesting.
 * The Not-Secret: Devin's sexuality. Apparently they're not allowed to say that he's gay on a PG-13 site, so instead the comics and some events imply it with all the subtlety of a brick. It's pretty openly discussed on the forums, though.
 * Vanessa will tell you that Devin is into Lance though if you push the Talk button.
 * Our Elves Are Better: Christmas Elves have been around for a few years now. Dark elves were introduced in the comic during the '08 Rejected Olympics event. Rather than living underground like typical dark elves, they are the underground. Elves of a few other shades appeared in the '08 Halloween comics.
 * Our Orcs Are Different: Although at the moment, not much is known about Gaia's orcs except that some of them smoke, wear leather, and live in caves.
 * So what you're saying is...that the orcs are Greasers.
 * Our Vampires Are Different: Gaian vampires have pale skin, fangs, and drink blood. They usually have gray catlike eyes, except when they're at full strength, at which point they turn yellow. They can take a fair amount of sunlight, although according to Louie they get really, really bad sunburns really easily, and sometimes catch fire (and in a more recent 4koma, it makes Louie himself "sweary as $@%#!"). Vampirism also seems to be no obstacle in fathering children.
 * The Nightmare's recent evolution has variant vampires from other cultures, such as the Penanggalan mentioned above. And who could forget the Twilight Sparkling Skin sponsor item?
 * Let's not forget the Halloween 2K9 Zomg event. It's not really clear why they were floating around surrounded by rings of blood with which they also attack, other than the fact that it looks cool. It's been suggested that the Big Bad of a future story arc in zOMG! will be a lady vampire.
 * According to Frontier Skies, vampires can sometimes crave cheeseburgers.
 * Our Werewolves Are Different: Currently the known way of creating a Gaian werewolf is induced by the drug Gro-Gain Max. When it comes to colors, there are four types of normal, while the others are colorful, in particular the Sparkledog type.
 * Our Zombies Are Different: There are three species of zombie on Gaia, from the events: the Grombies, caused by infectious bites from the Grunnies, and Glompies, from the failed Serum 3A (named as such because they like to, well, glomp). The original Zombies were all wiped out due to a server problem. And if these skins don't suit you, then there are plenty of zombie alternatives: from the Captain Ara's Nestegg zombies from the bottom of the sea, to the Death Whisper's Drone zombies. The latter looks suspiciously like a Grombie, though.
 * The original Zombie skin has returned as a bonus pose in one of the Easter 2010 egg hunt prizes.
 * Product Placement: Various companies help sponsor Gaia in exchange for the right of advertising there, most prominently Skittles and MTV, whose involvement has rubbed Gaians the wrong way most of all. The recent Facebook promotion has gotten a lot of users up in arms as well.
 * For a more humorous in-universe example, Jenzee urges you to BUY FREMERE'S GUARD!!!! (Her SDPlus doll even has that in its description!)
 * Serious Business: Matching and coordinating your avatar just right is extremely serious business to some players.
 * Also, the NPC characters tend to freak out over rather trivial matters in the comics.
 * Evolving item schedules.
 * Shipper on Deck: A Yaoi Fangirl invaded the non-canon Reject Olympics and was delighted when Louie got desperate for blood and tried to (suggestively) bite Edmund.
 * Sorting Algorithm of Mortality: If you run a shop, you're functionally immortal, or will have a very low score on the Sorting Algorithm of Deadness. If your name is actually an assigned number and you work for anything that ends in "Corp", start writing your will now.
 * Take That: Tons.
 * Louie's dialogue in H&R Wesley: "No, I don't sparkle in the sunlight. Why do people keep asking me that? It's borderline racist!"
 * The Fremere's Guard Evolving Item is just one Take That after another... to Gaia's own Unpleasable Fanbase, especially the GCD.
 * The players who speculated upon how gorgeous Timmy would be when he grew up got a slap in the face: When Timmy came down with megapuberty, Gaia gave users the option to let Timmy stay a child forever or be instantly aged to adulthood. Most players chose the second option. The results weren't pretty. Literally.
 * The "cardboard back wings," a jab at the players who keep demanding "back wings."
 * And, despite that, sells for a pretty good price.
 * "The Cold Case of Pietro". However, since the artist didn't make it clear it was herself she was dissing, this was taken the wrong way by the GCD, who freaked out.
 * In response the huge backdraft recieved from the removal of smoking items, Gaia returned them, with a slight alteration of "The Cig," which includes new poses showcasing a certain meme as well the horrible aftereffects of smoking, to jab at the people who wanted them back. (This backfired; the fans enjoyed the new poses immensely.)
 * Admittedly, the smoke ban had been done by a staff member gone rogue, so it might just have been a Take That to them.
 * Technicolor Eyes: Bright colors in themselves, in an Animesque do-it-yourself character creator like Gaia, are nothing new. However, the artists can be incredibly inconsistent with the NPCs' eye colors from update to update, unless said eye colors are a plot point (Johnny Gambino always has red eyes, vampires always have gray eyes, etc.).
 * Gino Gambino has been seen with red, maroon-ish, royal purple, brown, or lilac eyes. Since he appears in almost every plot update, it's kind of funny to see what color his eyes will be this time.
 * It's almost accepted though that his "default" eye color is a kind of purplish-red. Lighting may also be a culprit in the changing eye colors.
 * Except that his new doll has him with reddish eyes...
 * Rina's eyes have been purple, Pepto-Bismol pink, brown, or green.
 * Lex's dark red eyes were light blue for some reason during the non-canon '08 Prom comic. This alone has probably caused more outrage on the GCD than any of Gino's eye-color charades, as Lex's eye color is fairly well-known for such a minor character.
 * Ian's eyes changing color is handwaved to a certain degree-- his brown eyes as a "human" were probably contacts, and until the official decision that Our Vampires Have Gray Eyes, all the Von Helsons were drawn with pale blue eyes. Or they might have been in disguise as well.
 * That's What She Said: See the Double Entendre example above.
 * There's also a site achievement ("The Perfect Setup") for getting someone else to give you this comeback.
 * Troperiffic
 * Urban Fantasy: The world of Gaia seems to be fairly modern with a lot of fantastical trappings.
 * Vaporware: If you go to Durem on the world map, go down, and go left, you'll find Halloweentown. It's been there for a couple of years, and nothing has been done with it.
 * Virtual Paper Doll
 * Will They or Won't They?
 * Winged Humanoid: The angel imps and devil imps are slightly unusual examples of this, as their wings are on their heads.
 * Witness Protection: Ian - his cover was blown during the Halloween 2007 storyline.
 * Wrench Wench: Sam
 * Writing by the Seat of Your Pants: The staff have stated that they don't really plan out the plot too far in advance. This didn't stop from tying up four years' worth of loose plot threads and unanswered questions.
 * Yaoi Fangirl: Buckets full, including one of the sites artists (although denial is involved).
 * Lampshaded hard in the Olympics comics, when a fangirl invades the track. Hilarity Ensues.
 * You Fail Economics Forever: BOY, DO YOU EVER. They've been trying to remedy this as of late, however, through Gold Sink events and shop items, and various nerfs on the features that can be exploited for easy gold (mainly Booty Grab and zOMG!).
 * With the expected response from people who are used to the site's existing economic system.
 * There are also the haters of the Gaia Cash system, complaining that the site only ever wants to make money these days. Number One, this is how businesses work, and Gaia is a business. Number Two, the Admin did at one point release an explanation of how much money is needed to keep the servers running and the site afloat, and the numbers involved were not small.
 * There are also the haters of the Gaia Cash system, complaining that the site only ever wants to make money these days. Number One, this is how businesses work, and Gaia is a business. Number Two, the Admin did at one point release an explanation of how much money is needed to keep the servers running and the site afloat, and the numbers involved were not small.

Gaia Events
"Gino: Liam, now is not the time for..."
 * Anal Probing: The 2006 Halloween event centered around the themes of Alien Abduction and Aliens Steal Cattle with probing devices becoming available items with which to decorate user avatars.
 * Apocalyptic Log: The journals of the S-Corp elves during the '05 X-Mas storyline. May also verge into Nightmare Fuel, after the assorted little elves and their toy-making go horribly, horribly wrong, hitting standards such as 'waking up somewhere strange after a blackout,' 'drowning in a locked room,' 'suicide with a rusty scalpel to avoid drowning after hearing your crush drown,' 'mauled to death by adorable yetis,' and 'anyone remaining vaporizing in a nuclear blast.'
 * S-Corp was also a reference to the original G-Corp Halloween plot in '04, which followed the same setup. In that case, it was a Zombie Apocalypse reminiscent of Resident Evil.
 * April Fools' Day: Every April 1st, someone explodes. Either the users get an exploding present, or several plot characters get it. Fact: They only update the plot every few months, so we were all left hanging? :P
 * There have also been two April Fools "takeovers". In 2009, Gaia was taken over by the fictitious company Omni-Drink, which has since been seen in another event. 2011 saw Meowbook, a feline spoof of Facebook.
 * Clap Your Hands If You Believe: The Overseer and Sentinel attempted to recover their godhoods by getting Gaians to worship them again. This was subverted when.
 * Cool Airship: Cresento has an amazingly cool airship that he loves to show off. Brennivin's entire store is on an airship. And then you have the Overseer and Sentinel's airship...which probably doesn't qualify until Brennivin helps out.
 * The entire event of Summer 2k10: Frontier Skies. Which consist of some Tropes such as...
 * Vampires in bat-form causing all kinds of trouble from beginning to end.
 * Kill'Em All: hmm Oregon Trail miles high in the sky... yes, this will end well.
 * Cuteness Proximity: Brennivin's reaction to the jellyfish-like demigod Cutethulhu.
 * Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Carl the Elk's stats? "No Advantages, Too many disadvantages".
 * Bragging Rights Reward: Winning with Carl as your guide. Killing half your crew is usually a vital part of the strategy.
 * Epic Fail: The situations your Crewmates can get into is just ridiculous. For example: Moth + Airship + Running after said Moth = Too Dumb to Live.
 * Too Dumb to Live + Carnivore Confusion: If you're playing with Carl as your guide, for the love of life and limb, do not shoot the blue elk while hunting. Curiously, Diedrich says nothing about you hunting Grunnies.
 * Brick Joke: Playing with Louie/Edmund as the guide, you can play pranks on Edmund/Louie. Playing with Edmund/Louie as your guide, you can suffer the effects of Louie's/Edmund's pranking. Likewise, the Dog In A Shoe (which was rumored to teleport you to the end of the game if your Luck Stat was high enough).
 * I Do Not Drink... Wine: Averted, one possible event is that Louie of all people gets a massive craving for cheeseburgers and depletes your food stores.
 * Does This Remind You of Anything?: In Halloween '08, a vampire gets caught biting a human. Both are flushed, sweaty, and quick to insist that "it's consensual! Yeah!"
 * SIN's portal and BOO's trident. Consider that their leaders are female and male respectively.
 * Dropped a Bridge on Him: Vladmir Von Helson. There was a huge setup for a climactic battle in the Halloween '07 plot... and then he got shot. This is what we get for trying to animate the storyline...
 * The Demonbusters (Halloween '09) plot was all set up for a climactic finale - then Jack came and stripped the two warring demigods of their powers. And it wasn't even animated this time.
 * Freaky Friday: Santa's mind was swapped with a cow's a few years ago. He's better now, though.
 * And then it's implied he had the cow for Christmas Dinner.
 * Santa probably didn't eat that cow. Beef must be aged awhile or it doesn't taste very good at all.
 * Gameplay and Story Segregation: Several plotlines would simply have not taken place if the Gaians, who are supposed to be citizens of this world, had their way. One example includes the Sentinel and the Overseer being reduced to homeless bums. Any number of Gaians who were their devoted followers during the Demonbusters event would have taken them in.
 * And then there's the one where they did just that. It's still the favourite storyline of those that could be bothered to participate in it, while everybody else hates it because they weren't handed every detail of the plot on a silver platter like every other time.
 * Or, you know, because the plot showed blatant favoritism for some fans while alienating others who tried just as hard to be involved?
 * Genre Savvy: Louie decides to throw a Masquerade for Halloween 2011, only to find that nobody even wants to leave home, since Halloween events inevitably end in disaster.
 * The Jimmy Hart Version: The music that plays in Towns during Halloween events since 2008 sounds remarkably like the Beetlejuice theme.
 * Saving Christmas: The '08 Christmas event had Gaians raising enough cheer to power a machine to put Santa's mind back in his own body. The '09 event had Gaians raising enough cheer to power the airship of the Overseer, who was attempting to regain his godhood by delivering presents during Santa's mysterious disappearance. The '10 event had users finding safety equipment for a Too Dumb to Live Santa doing various household activities.
 * Status Quo Is God: The 2009 Halloween event featured an epic battle between two demigods. It was good vs. evil, the outcome of this battle would change Gaia as we know it! Then Jack steps in and hits the Reset Button by de-powering both demigods. What makes this example particularly Egregious is that the side of evil did win the event.
 * Arguably the same thing happens with every Gaia-wide battle. Humans versus vampires, humans vs. vampires. vs. elves vs. zombies, the Gaia Olympics, all of them just pass on after the event is concluded with the manga maybe providing some backstory. At least the demigods are still around.
 * This Is No Time for Knitting: During the Halloween 2k7 storyline, Liam demonstrates the correct method of dealing with hostile vampires... lame come-ons.


 * Your Head Asplode: What part of "don't drink OmniDrink" don't you understand?
 * Easter 08.
 * April Fools 04!
 * Your Princess Is in Another Castle: The 'cheer meter' in the Christmas 2K9 event managed to get filled up to 75% on its first day ... so Gaia responded by dropping Cresento's airship on the Overseer's and resetting the meter to 0% again. Spawned the "Cresento landed on it" meme.
 * The Save Our Shops event had an example, too. The devs kept increasing the amounts Ruby and Liam owed because they were planning redesigns and new shops for them, and needed them to fail so these could be implemented. However, the users had been convinced that their beloved characters would be removed from Gaia, permanently, if they didn't make it, and were just as determined to save them. The result? Supposedly, both shopkeepers had debts in the trillions by the time the event ended.
 * Zombie Apocalypse: Twice! And counting!

Gaia Forums

 * Play-By-Post Games: The Barton Town forum, there are literate RP that lasted over 100 pages, with a lot of fancy thread layouts and even more fancy post layouts
 * Wild Mass Guessing: And how! The purpose of an entire subforum, Gaia Community Discussion (GCD).

Gaia Games

 * Everything Trying to Kill You: The whole set-up of zOMG! is this suddenly happening.
 * Grail in the Garbage: Dumpster Dive, where Gaians can go and pick through a dumpster for donated items. Functions similar to Daily Chance only having a tad bit more variety as the items are all from user inventory. At times a newbie user will pull up an item and not realize its value and merely toss it back into the dumpster as they didn't get what they wanted.
 * The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: Gaia Cards aka Blackjack, each challenger faced has a cheat and although the player has one themselves... it isn't much in the ways of an advantage.
 * Just to clarify, your options are to make the dealer choose a new card or to look at one of their cards to see what your odds against them are. The first opponent has the ability to guarantee an Ace, which he will typically use if his hand equals 10 (guaranteeing him victory), the second opponent has the ability to throw out her hand and redraw, which she will typically use in the case of a bad hand, and the third opponent can use either of those abilities.
 * The Dev Team Thinks of Everything: Word Bump contains a set of Gaia related terms as well as internet chatspeak and slang.

Gaia Items
"Ruby: My Eyes Are Up Here."
 * Amulet of Concentrated Awesome: Gaia loves to use this trope in its items.
 * Ascended Meme: The Gino Gambino doll includes a "Twinkie Brows" pose.
 * "Fremere's Copyright Infringement". GCD McSourface was not particularly displeased with that pose.
 * "The Cake of Pietro": now no longer a lie!
 * BFS: Several, including the Flame Sword, the Death Whisper's Claymore, the Red Sword of War, the Fremere's Guard Giga Blade, and the Onyx Bolster sword, obviously made to resemble Cloud's BFS.
 * BFG: The Nano-C had given these out, although an older Monthly Collectible, the Assassin's Guise, had its sniper rifle based on the plot line.
 * Bilingual Bonus: Several, of note is the "Untoten Gegner", which is German for 'undead opponent'. Hint hint.
 * Blade on a Stick: Spear of Chaloc, Spartan Spear, the Ancient Naginata, and a pose from the Reve Rouille.
 * Blood Knight: From the Checkmate, we have the Black King, who enters battle with a sadistic expression on his face.
 * Body Horror: Penanggalan, a pose for the Nightmare EI, is the head of a cute young girl... and a string of exposed internal organs. Euuugh.
 * Which is, actually, true to the mythical Penanggalan.
 * In fact, Gaia's Penanggalan is downright cute compared to some of the Penanggalan pictures you can find on the internet.
 * The Death Whisper embodies this trope so, so much. Would you like some bleeding eye sockets to go with that horribly mutilated zombie-like skin?
 * And from the Wrath of Gaia RIG, we have the Quintessence of Decay, which has a pose that gives your avatar rotting flesh.
 * The aptly named Nightmare Fuel item, with such wonderful poses as marred legs and your torso becoming a huge pair of jaws, among other things.
 * Boom! Headshot!: Referring to the Nano-C again, one of its poses from its final stage is, indeed, your head being blown away and left with chunky salsa.
 * Brain Food: "Monkey Brains" lets you hold the mutilated monkey head plus straw, as well as the ability to give your own head the same treatment.
 * Chainsaw Good: The Reve Rouille has one made out of a mechanical shark!
 * Circus of Fear - The Cirque du Gothique CI.
 * Clockwork Creature: The mechanical shark from the Reve Rouille comes to mind.
 * Clumsy Copyright Censorship: The Bento Bunny controversy. Let's just leave it at that.
 * Utility Belt of August 2010. Though without the roughness.
 * Cute Kitten: And rarer, apparently, to the ire of cat lovers across the site. Unsurprisingly, all three of those have come from RIGs (though later ones have came up with different animals as the rare prize, the kittens are the most well-remembered -- some even approaching Ridill status.)
 * Dating Sim: The Love Charm RIG and its sequel.
 * Defictionalization: Plenty of the pixel items on Gaia have been made into real products available through the Gaia store.
 * Did Not Get the Girl: Both outcomes for the Rapid EI Sainte Ciel; in Agape, Ciel dies saving her princess, while in Eros, she is seduced by a false princess and presumably killed... Averted in the new recolor Storge.
 * Duct Tape for Everything: An item from one of the Random Item Generators, including a pose where the avatar is apparently taped to the screen.
 * Elemental Hair: Named literally that, with fire, wind (and the softer, curlier breeze), earth, ice, water and life for choices.
 * Everything's Better with Sparkles: This is Rigel and Mintaka's philosophy on life, extending from the fictional Gaia world to users' inventories (where the sparkles are color-coded to mark premium items.)
 * Everything's Deader with Zombies: Gaia loves zombies. And now there's a potion item turning your avatar into a zombie!
 * The best item for this trope is George's Pipe. Comes complete with an Improvised Weapon (already well used, given the blood dripping from it), a zombie bite mark, a lady police zombie Heather and a business-casual zombie Harry. When your avatar is standing, Harry is just creeping up behind you. When kneeling and faced forward, Harry will be posed closer with his hand on your head. With your back turned, you get a very lovely pose where Harry is quite clearly nomming on your sweet avatar think tank.
 * Fairy Tale: The theme of the Snow Apple RIG, which features an Eskimo-themed retelling of "Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs", and grants items based on classic tales such as "Donkeyskin" and "Puss in Boots".
 * Feather Boa Constrictor: David Boa, Alruna's living feathered boa.
 * Fictional Counterpart: Gaia tries very hard to have an item for everything, even and especially licensed things.
 * Fire and Brimstone Hell: The Hell Prison CI featured a maximum security prison for the most evil things in Gaia. Azrael is one of them, and you must help him escape for a shot at a rare prize.
 * The Four Gods: The Wrath of Gaia CI had the first few stages pit Gaia-tan against the polluted beasts Genbu (earth/trash), Byakko (fire/smoke), Suzaku (air/smog), and Seiryu (water/oil spills) attacking the city. Gaia-tan defeats them by cleaning them up.
 * Gaia's Vengance: The Wrath of Gaia CI had you take Gaia-tan and destroy four beasts named after The Four Gods that were polluting the cities of Gaia.
 * Gratuitous Foreign Language: "Centre de la Terre" - center of the Earth in French, although there is no other reason for this than because the poses 'Foret de Champignons' and 'Queue de Ichthyosaure' sound cooler than 'Forest of Mushrooms' and 'Ichthyosaurus Tail'...
 * The Lucha items are given Spanish names. 'El Dualidad de la Furia' - The Duality of Fury, a black and white lucha outfit.
 * Some of the Japanese mythology-influenced items, like the Inari's Beads and the Yama no (Kami no) Tamago have their pose names all in Japanese, among certain other items...
 * Hand Cannon: A leaked future RIG features a Bolt Pistol among its possible items.
 * The Race Gun revolver is huge.
 * Parodied hilariously with the "90's Comic Book Hero" item, which is based off of Rob Liefeld's love of big guns, pouches and convenient rocks.
 * The |Blue Rubble Stocking item contains a huge gun that can only be held in one pose. Why? It's as tall as your avatar.
 * Handsome Lech: An item bearing the same name can be yours, complete with grabby hands pose on the jacket and a treasure chest full of stolen lady's goods.
 * Henshin Heroine: Reiko (Anima Adamantea) and the G-Rangers.
 * Her Codename Was Mary Sue: The Crystal Overdrive RIG took the form of Rina and Kanoko's attempt to co-write a fanfiction. Kanoko tried to center it around her character, an amalgamation of Common Mary Sue Traits, while Rina tried to tone it down (mainly by shifting the focus to her version of Ian) and stick to the original story.
 * Holy Halo: Many items, though the Angelic Halo was the first and most famous.
 * Horny Devils: Alruna and Anurla, the female and male forms (respectively) of the Alruna's Rose item.
 * Idiot Hair: There is an item on Gaia named this and has only one pose considered to be the generic idiot hair. Everything else is based on Hetalia; what made this obvious was the white flag it came with.
 * Peyo has one, too. His doll refers to it as a "duck curl", which is fitting given Peyo's obsession with ducks.
 * Incredibly Lame Pun: One item gives you a hairstyle like the first hero of Digimon Adventure, with A chicken on his head. The pose is actually labeled "The worst joke on the Internet"
 * Admittedly, it's also a very old joke, so there were many Gaians who actually didn't get the joke.
 * Alrunette's "I Am" pose is called "Lol i can"
 * "Soh Sari", "Veli Sari", and "Rili Sari". Say them out loud.
 * Innocent Innuendo: Subverted. Nobody's sure if delivery man Lance is aware of all the package-related innuendos he's saying or not. Lampshaded by Devin's over-the-top reactions to said innuendos.
 * Then again, Lance doesn't seem to be aware of his appearance's effects on straight girls and gay guys (especially with Devin).
 * Winter Groom and Winter Bride are two recent items that come with a key pose and a lock pose, respectively. It doesn't seem like much when you first look at it, but once you think about it...
 * The Spring, Summer and Fall wedding sets have similar poses, going with the Old, New, Borrowed and Blue theme.
 * The Easter 09 item Fondue the Chocolate Bunny had as it's description "Let me coat your strawberries with my white chocolate." It has since been changed due to the obvious innuendo, as was his female counterpart, Sundae's Treat's description.
 * Katanas Are Just Better: The Ancient Katana, one of the earliest weapons, and also one of the most desired (and thus expensive).
 * The katana from the Yama no Tamago might count, but it's longer and doesn't look as sharp as the very first katana. Nor is it anywhere near as popular/costly.
 * Gaia-sama, the Bizarro World counterpart of Gaia-tan has a katana as well. Considering that the aforementioned Gaia-tan has a sword with quite the girth...
 * Let's Meet the Meat: Sundae and Fondue, slutty anthropomorphic chocolate bunnies for Easter. Fondue's item description (now removed) about wanting to "cover your strawberries in my sweet white chocolate" is easily enough interpreted as sexual, but when Fridge Logic reminds you that he's made of said white chocolate, things get a little more disturbing.
 * Life Meter: "L33t Gamer" lets you have one.
 * Like a Badass Out of Hell: The Hell Prison RIG is about Azrael trying to escape during a prison riot in the Underworld.
 * Male Gaze: Lampshaded by one of Ruby's old lines, which is retained by the doll in her likeness.


 * Mismatched Eyes: Gimpi's red and blue eyes were the first case of heterochromia on Gaia. Many more have since come out.
 * A promotion item sponsored by Skittles candy has a pair of mismatched eyes. Coincidentally, two of the colors are red and green, and green and red.
 * The Vladimir Von Helson doll confirms him to have (had?) one red eye, and one that is probably gray as standard for vampires.
 * Water Meat, which is a plush that sort of resembles a seal, has two different coloured buttons for eyes. One of the contact lens items has a pose that gives your avatar two different button eyes like this.
 * Mood Whiplash: After a week filled with weird, rainbow-colored item updates (including one based off of Robot Unicorn Attack,) great EI evolutions and much-lauded site fixes, we got manga! Goddamn.
 * Parodied by Reapersun.
 * Masked Luchador: Now possible through the Lucha Libre outfits.
 * Mercury's Wings: Has a few of these for items. The headwings and the feetwings are, naturally, separate items that must be purchased separately.
 * Naughty Tentacles: The Experiment, an evolving item that starts as a flask with bubbles coming out of it, then eventually turns into a writhing mass of tentacles that are quite plainly groping the avatar, with little heart emotes here and there.
 * And older than the Experiment is the SQUID set, with some of its items' descriptions hinting at tentacle naughtiness.
 * Netorare: This shirt. Notable for being one of the earlier items.
 * Never Trust a Hair Tonic: Gro-gain.
 * Nice Hat: Gaia has a very good selection...
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Hey, Gaia! You know those Azrael's Trickboxes you were feverishly opening in October '09 in the pursuit of rare cats and dolls?
 * Nonhuman Humanoid Hybrid: Gimpi, the hybrid angel/devil imp.
 * The Nutcracker: Embodied in the Sugarsuite item.
 * Pimped-Out Dress: Gaia also has a lot of these. What really comes to mind is the white and gold dress from the Enchanted Book, a Cinderella-themed Evolving Item (which also happened to be obvious). The Picolitrosso's Urn also has two parts of a REALLY shiny pimped out dress.
 * Neither of which hold a candle to the ridiculousness that is the Chandelier Gown.
 * Pretty much anything from Dernier* Cri.
 * And if you can't afford Gaia Cash or Dernier* Cri, the Victorian-themed dresses are pretty blingy, too.
 * Power Crystal: The Anima Adamantea and Fremere's Guard
 * In an artpiece released by the Anima's artist, it shows a girl (her name being Reiko, confirmed by Anima's final evolution) transforming into an Ultraman-like warrior, fighting bad guys and whatnot. Another art piece by the Fremere's Guard artist shows a male warrior standing alongside her.
 * And in a rather... touching mini-volution of the Fremere, the front reveals a flower with orange and blue petals, the very same found in one of the earlier arts of Fremere. But if you unequip everything except that pose and turn around, you can see both the Power Crystals of Fremere and Anima, one above the other. The name of the pose is "Caret initio et fine", or "It lacks a beginning and end", perhaps to show that the two souls are indeed intertwined.
 * Another pose involves a hairclip with the regular orange Fremere crystal, and two blue crystals (perhaps to show just how deeply Fremere and Reiko are intertwined). Eventually, it finishes with one of the new poses being a blue Fremere's Guard.
 * Jenzee, arist of the aforementioned Fremere's Guard, is at it again with her work on some poses for The Nightmare, an EI whose artist is always changing, with poses having quite a few power crystals: a blue-green crystal in the "Invidia" vest, a pink crystal inside the "Gula" beard-thing, and a headdress that is basically an accessory to Fremere (with its signature orange crystal). When the Nightmare ended its evolving, Jenzee snuck in one last pose, the missing "Pride" pose of her Sins theme. What does it look like, you ask? A gold lion head ornament and jewels hanging in the background, of all shapes and colors!
 * The headress quickly becomes more meaningful when one remembers that Fremere (of Fremere's Guard) is described as vehement and wrathful. The headress pose's name? Ira, the Latin word for wrath.
 * Prince Charming: Quite often male companions found in various items.
 * Prongs of Poseidon: Both types: Water Trident for Type 1 and Demonic Pitchfork for Type 2.
 * Randomly Drops: RIGs (Random Item Generators; Gaia's technical term for them is Chance Items, or CIs, but everyone loves a good acronym.)
 * RIG also works as a reference to the obnoxious win/lose rates. Probably why the company pushes the term CI.
 * Ridiculously Cute Critter: The angel and devil imps in their 'plushie' forms.
 * Gaia has a LOT of these. Phee-chan, the cute little winged animal that comes with the Magical Girl monthly collectible, is a parody of this. Then again, the Magical Girl itself is a parody of the whole friggin' genre.
 * Radio Jack the doll as well as the real deal. But you didn't hear it from me.
 * A staple of RIGs, and invariably one of the very rarest prizes per RIG.
 * Schedule Slip: If an EI doesn't evolve the day it's supposed to, even with sufficient excuses as to why, expect nonstop bitching. The Case of Pietro is the most infamous example, having undergone five evolutions between it's introduction and one year later(currently at 7 evos), though the Reve Rouille, Lyndexer's Journal and Hidden Ace got hit with this as well near their finales (all have since completed.)
 * Shoulder Cannon: Preda-Armor and a few versions of Nano-C have these
 * Shout-Out: Man, many of the avatar items are tributes to some anime, game, movie, novel, or comic book. The monthly collectibles and RIG-only items in particular are based off of pre-existing properties and even memes; some are rather obvious, while a few are more obscure.
 * Signature Style: Sometimes it's easy to guess which artists have worked on which items, due to common recurring elements; pepper-tea's items, for example, are usually filled with intricate gold details, Jenzee has a penchant for Power Crystals, and DrinkyTengu's items are mostly based off of Japanese myths.
 * Smoking Is Cool: There are a few tobacco-related items on sale in Gaia. A brief attempt at banning them caused Gaia a great deal of Internet Backdraft, mostly because of the poor communication involved in the ban.
 * Not to mention the incredibly poor implementation. Sure, you couldn't buy cigarettes in the gold shops... but there were far, far more offensive items available across the site. During the backdraft, it was a pretty common sight to see people displaying the most outrageously inappropriate avatars they could put together, while sarcastically claiming that it was obviously okay because at least they weren't smoking.
 * Space Pirates: The theme for the Neon Core CI. is the heroine pirate.
 * What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic: A monthly collectible was released that had a back-mounted cross item and a floor pentagram item. Conservative players squirmed.
 * And another was themed on the Four Horsemen, though there was less squirming about that.
 * Or for the Holy Gauntlets...
 * Zettai Ryouiki: Because of a lot of skirts being closer to the knee (or, the newer ones are), it's hard to pull off this trope on Gaia. However, with the right skirt and stockings, it's easy to achieve Grade A.
 * Cindy Donovinh's work outfit has Grade A.
 * This troper finally managed to get grade A with Gaia's stockings although a skirt wasn't used so much as a sash.

Gaia Manga / Mini comics

 * Black Comedy Rape: Becky's fear of Halloween comes from getting assaulted by a stallion as a child while in a horse costume with a friend. The horse now appears as the bonus pose in Becky's doll.
 * Gratuitous Japanese: The storyline comics, which are referred to as manga for no sensible reason.
 * Instant Death Bullet: Vladimir Von Helson. Averted by Gambino and Ian, excused by a Fusion Dance subplot and by spending the next update bedridden in a hospital, respectively (how Ian's vampirism wasn't exposed at this time is a mystery).
 * Rosalie in a flashback. Possibly subverted depending on how clearly Ian remembers the event.
 * Important Haircut: Gino Gambino cut off his yard-long hair in the manga that is conveniently titled "A New Man". Though he failed at making it look remotely decent, he later got it styled at Brennivin's shop.
 * No One Could Survive That: You'd think being shot and then falling off a tower would kill you. You'd be wrong. And don't even get me started on the people the tower fell on.
 * How about that Earthshattering Kaboom that, with over half a dozen people at Ground Zero, had only one casualty?
 * Lampshaded in the manga "A New Man", in which Gino talks about some of Gaia's history, and states that Gaians are just really hard to kill.
 * Which still doesn't explain how other Gaians thought he was dead at one point...
 * Odd Job Gods: Many of Gaia's demigods are in charge of things like lost change or stylish facial hair. The one who Gaians raced to save in the Summer 2010 event is in charge of  Edmund and Brennivan decide it'd be best not to tell anyone, given how arduous and often downright lethal the quest had been.
 * Parental Incest: The 2008 prom manga showed Timmy trying to build up the courage to ask Dr Singh to be his date for the prom, and his anger at being pipped to the post by Lance. It was revealed much later that Singh has actually raised Timmy from an early age, which might hint towards an unintentional gender-flipped Wife Husbandry by Singh.
 * Plot-Relevant Age-Up: Gino - after an incident that merged him with his father, he was aged up from 16 to 19-ish so he could go and woo Sasha. Gino and Johnny separated later, putting him back at his original age.
 * Gino's profile originally included a date of birth for him. Gino is actually in his early twenties, making him college age. After profile format changed, things like date of birth were not visible to general public on the default setting. Most NPC profiles haven't changed the default settings so many forget Gino's age and base in on appearance. It's not that he's not aging, just that the artists are slow on updating his design.
 * Timmy, who went through megapuberty and was age-accelerated to adulthood.
 * Plot Hole: A lot of them. It's been joked in the GCD that even the writers don't follow the storyline any more.
 * Pretty Woman: the mother of Anne and Marie Von Helson was allegedly a "showgirl."
 * Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: The Halloween '08 plot was launched when an old Fortune Teller peered into her Crystal Ball and proclaimed that doom would fall upon Gaia and that only one "group" would survive or all would die. Four of Gaia's races assumed that "group" referred to race and immediately fell at each others' throats. Turned out they misunderstood the meaning of the prophecy - it referred to the appearance of the Animated.
 * Strip Poker: How does the "plot" behind the LeXBox RIG get kickstarted? This was suggested (and later played on) by, out of all things, the Cardbot.
 * Stripperiffic: The Overseer and the Sentinel in the "When Gods Fall" minigame.
 * Somewhat justified; their crash course in Homelessness 101 did involve a search for clothing...however, the game portrayed Sentinel as a compulsive pyromaniac, so they never really got to keep anything they found.
 * Tongue on the Flagpole: The "FanservICE" mini-comic.
 * Violation of Common Sense: Rosalie's death resulted from one. Trying to kidnap her babies away from Vladimir is kind of stupid and dramatic, but understandable. Bitching at him about it when she got caught? Less so.
 * Arguably, most of the comics violate common sense in some way.
 * The Virus: The G-Virus. Possibly Serum 3A as well, as Gambino mentions it's one of his "early failures."
 * 3A is a subversion; Gambino considers it a failure because it didn't make the subjects aggressive enough.
 * What the Hell, Hero?:
 * Yonkoma: The mini-comics.
 * Yonkoma: The mini-comics.

Gaia NPCs

 * Aerith and Bob: The cast of NPCs averted this for a while, mostly consisting of names like Ian and Johnny, with the least "normal" probably being Moira or Anna Corinne. Later additions like Cresento and Nicolae eventually shoved Gaia into this trope. Then you have the vast collection of usernames; many people think of their avatars as characters with some place in The Verse, and even if you only count the three users who have definitively become part of canon, none of them had particularly average names.
 * Nicolae isn't not too bad, just a variant of Nicholas.
 * Ambiguously Gay: Lance
 * Anthropomorphic Personification: The holiday spirits, as well as Saiph and his fellow stars from the Fallen Wish and Lonely Star items.
 * More recently, Saiph's and Hatsya's siblings Mintaka and Rigel have appeared, and they all come from the same constellation: Orion (who also happens to be their dad).
 * Anti-Villain: While still arguably the Halloween '09 villain, Sentinel has garnered respect and sympathy from B.O.O. and S.I.N. members alike because of her troubles.
 * Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Timmy, after becoming an evolving item.
 * Ax Crazy: After being locked up and tortured by demons for 1000 years, the Sentinel wasn't exactly playing with a full deck after she was released, though she has calmed down somewhat since then.
 * Badass Normal: Edmund, also a Badass Bookworm.
 * Moira, until her badass decayed in 2007. She's never really recovered it.
 * Many Gaians, if they make their avatars as their original characters, can be Badass Normal as well. Considering that many others tend to be non-human in general...
 * Ballad of X: Ballad of the Overseer; can be considered Overseer's Leitmotif.
 * Beard of Evil: Timmy and Labtech Gene. Dr. Singh wore a fake one to stop them from being suspicious of her.
 * Vladimir Von Helson had a goatee with a Skunk Stripe in it.
 * Bifauxnen: Cordell.
 * Big Bad: Mr. Gambino at first before Von Helson
 * The Big Guy: Bucho, an imposing figure and head of security for the Gambino Family.
 * Big Ol' Eyebrows: Gambino family trademark, source of the "twinkie brows" meme. Especially noticeable with Gino when he was little, but pretty hard to miss with either of them.
 * Bishonen: Damian "Ian" Von Helson, Louie Von Helson, and Gino Gambino.
 * And about a billion other male NPCs. Better is to name those who aren't.
 * Of special note is Liam, who when confronted with vampire twins trying to kill him, proceeds to blind them with Bishie Sparkle and bad come-ons.
 * Averted by adult Timmy. Averted hard by Timmy. He'd clean up nice, but not bishounen by any stretch of the imagination.
 * These days, Gino's teetering on the edge between playing the trope straight and deconstructing it-- his thinness is caused by poor health, and several references are made to his sunken chest and jutting ribcage.
 * Bindle Stick: Adult Timmy used one of these when he had to climb a mountain in search of Spirutal Enlightenment.
 * Bizarro Universe: One of Gaia's RIG's, the "Dark Reflection," shows many AU Gaians, from Rufus being the human and Ian as the cat, to Nice Girl Moira and Punk Sasha (throwbacks to an old thread in the GCD where users would give NPCs "makeovers" by editing their sprites). It also includes "Alrunette," everyone's favorite succubus except nice and innocent, Nicolae as a priest, and much much more. The star of this EI is Kanoko again, except now she plays an Alice-like role, with Radio Jack as the White Rabbit, mirroring the story of Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There.
 * Bumbling Dad: Johnny K. Gambino. He's a brilliant man who can play the stock market like nobody's business, but he cannot for the life of him remember to keep an eye on his only son and future heir, even after said son has already been kidnapped by vampires twice, jumped headfirst off a collapsing skyscraper, and kersploded with enough force to attract the attention of aliens from halfway across the galaxy.
 * Even more impressive? Being a Bumbling Dad is a step up for Gambino. He'd previously been seen openly abusing/neglecting his son, up to and including sponsoring development of the G-Virus to toughen him up.
 * Camp Gay: Devin's latest art update put him in a pink blouse.
 * Canon Discontinuity: The Moira/Louie Relationship from the animated shorts was so awkward that Gaia had Moira take the vampire cure and break up with Louie by the next update.
 * Though that's since been mended to a "love-hate" relationship; rumor has it Moira's profile lists Louie as both "Like" and "Dislike".
 * Captain Ersatz: Old man Logan, that is all.
 * Peyo, is the creator of those little blue and white creatures in the forest.
 * Vladimir Von Helson, lord of Gaia's vampires until his untimely demise, had the voice actor of Dracula from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.
 * Quite a few items make it easy for your avatar to become a Captain Ersatz. Say hello to the Shibuya Nobody and the Keytarblade. That is just one of many.
 * In fact, "cosplay" is a category in the Avatar Arena.
 * Rigel, Mintaka, and their pet Dark Kitten Star: a grown man, woman, and their animal sidekick (who talks) planning something to defeat the "heroes" by cheating. Now why does that sound familiar...
 * Catch Phrase: JEEPERS! (oh Timmy, your innocence literally knows no bounds.)
 * Gambino's Evil Laugh. To the point that he gets offended when other people start doing it.
 * Cheerful Child: Rina.
 * Now that Rina's hit puberty, Peyo's taken on the role.
 * The Chew Toy: Gino. But before that, Ian took up the honor of being gaia's Butt Monkey.
 * Timmy also carried the role in the Evolving Item subplots.
 * Christmas Cake: Ruby. Holy cats, Ruby.
 * Clingy Jealous Girl: Anne and Marie Von Helson have pretty much been stalking Liam non-stop since he seduced them in '07, driving away any girl he so much as looks at. Since this is Liam we're talking about, they have their work cut out for them...
 * Evil Twin + Clone = T-Bone aka Evil Timmy, who is currently under house arrest for being an endearing kind of evil who just wanted to take over the world and shroud it in the eternal pain and darkness of smooth jazz.
 * Corrupt Corporate Executive: Johnny K. Gambino
 * Creepy Child: Timmy and Peyo, after Timmy's... infection.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Gino's been edging toward this role since '07.
 * The Ditz: Sasha and Liam. Mostly Sasha, as Liam builds robots and is seen often to be well aware of his image.
 * Dojikko: Kanoko, particularly in the beginning of the Dark Reflection RIG.
 * Early-Bird Cameo: Brennivin first appeared as the 'mysterious man' in the Dark Reflection's Game Over scenario.
 * Similarly, Kanoko was introduced in RIGs months before the luxury shop opened.
 * Nicolae appeared in the '08 Olympics comics, and again in the comics for Halloween '08, before formally being introduced in the zOMG! intro manga and setting up shop to sell Power-Ups.
 * The Perfect Tragedy RIG brought with it two SDPlus dolls of characters named Rigel and Mintaka -- both named after stars in Orion, and both dressed similarly to Saiph and Hatsya. The "Sparkilicious" manga later revealed them to be their overdramatic older siblings.
 * Emergency Transformation: Moira was turned into a vampire after falling from a falling Ferris wheel during the Halloween '07 plot. (However, she was later cured.)
 * Enemy Without: Timmy. He was infected and taken over by pure evil, then later separated from it with a giant centrifuge.
 * Estrogen Brigade Bait: Believe it or not, among all the macho bishie pretty boys on the site, Edmund is the character all the girls want. Apparently battle scarred old stuffy men is in now amongst teenage girls.
 * Everyone Is Bi: In 2009's Valentine's Day event, only Devin, Vanessa, and Liam showed any gender preference (Devin and Vanessa refused valentines from users with female avatars, Liam refused valentines from users with male avatars).
 * In 2010 and 2011, a pair of Dating Sim-themed RI Gs had the same partner options/questions regardless of the player's gender.
 * Evil Laugh: Somewhat justified, since Gambino originally was a Big Bad. He's since mellowed somewhat, but is still prone to cutting loose if he's coming up with "a scheme".
 * Evil Makeover: After being infected with pure evil, Timmy started wearing a suit, slicked his hair back, and grew a beard. Basically, he morphed into a Man of Wealth and Taste. Except he was still a child.
 * Evilutionary Biologist: Johnny K. Gambino, the man responsible for the dreaded G-virus.
 * Not to mention Dr. Singh, who got annoyed with her young assistant Timmy and put him in a barrel of G-Corp waste, then spent the next few weeks gleefully observing his mutation. And promptly paid the price when he nearly ate her.
 * Fallen Angel: Azrael. There are also items based on his attire named "Fall of the Morning Star"/"Fall of the Evening Star" (nods to Lucifer, as he is associated with Venus, the Morning Star).
 * Flanderization: Timmy started out as Dr. Singh's upbeat, ditzy but fairly smart, Keet assistant. He's now rather clueless, compared to his original persona. As a result, a lot of fans have gotten tired of him.
 * Devin's sexuality. Seriously, guys. He's gay. Can we focus on somebody else now? Please?
 * Gino started out as a shy little boy who had terrible things happen to him. But then bad things started piling on to him more and more to the point where he's now just considered a whiny Butt Monkey who seems to just be destiny's joke.
 * Friendly Neighborhood Vampires: Louie and Ian.
 * Full Set Bonus
 * Funny Foreigner: Brennivin has very broken English... and an obsession with fashion that sometimes leads him to gush over outfits while ignoring the person wearing them.
 * During the Christmas 2K9 event, he wanted to use the Sentinel's hair for a scarf.
 * Fusion Dance: Gambino and Gino fused after one was assassinated (don't ask), which wasn't revealed until Labtech X injected Gino with a catalyst that ultimately separated them. This is the event that resulted in Gino's Plot-Relevant Age-Up.
 * Gag Boobs: Vanessa. Edmund even alludes to Marshmallow Hell in one of the Evolving Item updates. ("The only danger she poses to anybody is suffocation.")
 * Genki Girl: Rina
 * And Candice (or as she prefers to be called, "Kandi".)
 * Granola Girl: Devin. He's what's known as an ultra-vegan; he'll only eat plants if they died a natural death without human interference.
 * Handsome Lech: Liam and Edmund both seem to have a way with the ladies.
 * Heterosexual Life Partners: Liam and Gino (Who moved in for a week in 2007... it's 2009.)
 * Though in the "Fallen Gods" manga, Liam kicked him out... for embarrassing him while possessed.
 * Hobos: Good Ole Pete, who has a taste for brass polish and discarded sandwichs which he finds on bus seats.
 * The Overseer and Sentinel were this too after being de-powered but before getting their airship.
 * Hollywood Genetics: Vladimir Von Helson had dark brown hair. Rosalie had blonde hair. Their sons Ian and Louie have pure black hair. Louie could be explained as dying it for the goth aesthetic, but Ian has stated that this is his natural hair color.
 * Hollywood Pudgy: The Sasha doll comments on her weight. At the time it was released, Sasha could get away with a bikini top and wrap skirt, thus the trope is played straight. Subverted in a comic where Liam tries to blackmail Sasha with high-school yearbook pictures, which make it clear that she used to actually be obese.
 * Hot Scientist: Mirai, ostensibly a marine biologist, and Dr. Singh, who specializes in evolution. However, the "scientist" part occasionally comes into question with both of them. There have been female G-Corp labtechs, but they tend to die in Zombie Apocalypses.
 * Hot Scoop: Cindy Donovinh. She might also qualify for Hot Librarian, since she apparently runs the archives where records of past events are kept.
 * Hot Shonen Mom: Ruby. Even before the Art Shift, she had to remind users that "My eyes are up here." Now her store name contains a blatant Double Entendre, which she lampshades.
 * That photo of Rosalie is also looking pretty gorgeous for someone who's just had her third.
 * Innocent Flower Girl: Averted hard by Rina, who is a Genki Girl and also a bit of a Covert Pervert.
 * Let's not forget that she joined S.I.N. in the 2009 Halloween event.
 * Jerkass: Dr Singh, who often abuses Timmy. She seemed to be turning into a Jerk with a Heart of Gold for a short while after Timmy was separated from his evil counterpart, but returned to her old Jerkass self after Timmy was jailed, to the extent where she left him to walk fifty miles while bleeding from stab wounds, made him continue to present the show with her before he had any medical attention, told him off for his lackluster performance and then claimed he was ungrateful when he called her out on it.
 * Singh seems to have reached Karma Houdini status since Timmy became an Evolving Item.
 * Crescento. He crushes the Hoboverseer's puny ship and does not give a flying crap about it or its pilot.
 * Kissing Cousins: Ivan and Meredith in the Dark Reflection. Subverted when main-Ivan gives his opinion on the subject.
 * The Klutz: Prakash Singh, Dr. Singh's younger eccentric brother. He opens doors on his own face and when he gets too excited... he faints.
 * Large and In Charge: Johnny K. Gambino, though his actual height and proportions vary with the artist.
 * Labtech X,
 * Large Ham Clam: The Overseer. FEELS GOOD, MAN!
 * Gambino, minus the clamminess. BWA HA HA HA HAAAAA!
 * Let X Be the Unknown: Labtech X, who was Gaia's biggest enigma for four years until
 * Love Makes You Evil: Most prominently, Vladimir Von Helson and Johnny K. Gambino, who went from a rivalry to full-blown war when Rosalie got involved. To a lesser extent, Ian and Gino also got much more unstable when Sasha was on the line (Gino had an excuse).
 * Mad Scientist: Labtech X
 * Arguably, Gambino. He started G-Corp
 * Edmund led G-Corp at one point.
 * Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter: Gino Gambino - even though he's male.
 * The Mafia: The Kuro Gang, which is basically a mafia of dark elves. (Apparently, instead of living underground, dark elves are the underground.)
 * May-December Romance: Edmund (old enough that he knew Old Man Logan when he was Young Man Logan) and Vanessa (hangs out with teenagers and doesn't look a day over twenty-five)
 * Ms. Fanservice: Almost all of the female NPCs show copious amounts of skin or wear very tight clothing.
 * No Accounting for Taste: Apparently Agatha and Logan were a couple once. Their daughter recently opened a pet store for fish. The mind boggles.
 * No Celebrities Were Harmed: Ron Bruise, a boxer-shorts-clad stand-in for Tom Cruise.
 * And the Hilton Von Helson sisters.
 * Obfuscating Stupidity: Quite possibly invoked by Labtech 123. In under a year, he went from completely clueless to competent enough to re-engineer the lost G-Virus.
 * One-Winged Angel: Gino, after an injection from X.
 * Perky Goth: Moira, with a touch of Tsundere.
 * Pet Homosexual: Devin. Upsetting because there USED to be more to him...
 * No. There wasn't.
 * Plucky Office Girl and Office Lady: Meredith is one. She mentions during Ian's trial that she graduated from college at the age of fifteen, proving that she has the intelligence and motivation to do greater things, but after all these years she's still just a half-forgotten bank teller.
 * Additionally, one of her lines, back when she had NPC dialogue, stated that she'd developed Super Strength from hauling sacks of gold around. And let's not forget that during Prom '08, she was scripted to be the only one brave enough to dance with Bludeau.
 * A recent RIG has her going full Superhero for a while.
 * Powers That Be: The "Giant Holy Head" a God-type being that appeared to Adult Timmy as a... giant human head, who looked rather familiar by the way. The Giant Holy Head took pity upon Timmy and his unfortunate life (mainly due to Dr. Singh's wonderful parental skills), and gave him three arbitrary options to change it (with the help of his fellow Gaians!!). The choices were 1) Become a child again and be placed with a suitable guardian, 2) Shed his mortal form and become an Evolving Item or 3) Divine punishment for Dr. Singh.
 * Preacher Man: Pastor Gork, the holy person and follower of the "Universal Fellowship of Nonspecific Worship". He witnessed the awesome power of The Sentinel and was openly honest about telling Adult Timmy he didn't have a soul (due to genetic tampering).
 * Really Seven Hundred Years Old: Don Kuro the dark elf. Despite looking like a five-year-old, he's actually 800 years old.
 * Red Eyes, Take Warning: Johnny K. Gambino is the most obvious, appropriate since he was originally a Big Bad with good publicity.
 * Lex is a perfect aversion. His red eyes get him a lot of questions about Gambino, but he just works at the casino and sometimes does Elvis impersonations.
 * Of course, since Johnny has red eyes,
 * Vladimir Von Helson's doll confirms him to have (had?) Mismatched Eyes, one of which is red.
 * Screw the Rules, I Have Money: Johnny K. Gambino. Oh, the shenanigans he's gotten into over the years. Interestingly enough, he began life penniless and made his fortune gambling ...
 * ... in one day.
 * Scout Out: The Wing Scouts, made up of some of the orphans from the Christmas 2007 event, who can exchange Wing Stickers for items.
 * She's All Grown Up: Rina. Just, Rina.
 * Ship Sinking: Mainly Ian/Louie/Gino (all outed as siblings in '07, amidst drama), Kuro/Devin ("Seriously, guys. This isn't canon."), Ivan/Meredith ("... she's my cousin."), and most recently Jaws/Overseer ("WTF is this $#17").
 * Social Services Does Not Exist: Inverted. There is apparently some kind of Child Protection Services in the Gaia universe, but it sucks. Examples:
 * A Christmas event in 2007 had users fostering orphans, who had it so badly at the orphanage that they could only stomach crappy food (or food substitutes: genuine imitation gruel, anybody?).
 * Liam has apparently been completely on his own since age five. Some fans have theorized that he grew up at the abovementioned orphanage.
 * Gino Gambino, full stop.
 * Debatable, since he grew up before Gaia's social services were introduced. He was playing the trope straight at the time.
 * Timmy being fostered/adopted by Doctor Singh, who abused him and subjected him to zany experiments.
 * Talking Animal: Rufus and Radio Jack. Subverted with Carl the Elk, who's not even a talking elk, just a regular old elk that runs a thrift store for some reason... (with the exception of stock NPC messages, such as for Halloween and Christmas events)
 * Twofer Token Minority: Josie, the former real estate agent (now the store NPC for Global Imports,) is black and female.
 * Devin is nonwhite, vegan, and gay. Threefer!
 * Valley Girl: Sasha, but only in her shop dialogue. In the manga, she's pretty coherent and occasionally even shows some common sense.
 * This seems to have been toned down a bit since her shop's updating. Except when she shows off the poem she wrote for her community college course.
 * The Vamp: The Von Helson twins. At least, until they were swayed by the power of Liam's "pythons." (For those who are confused, the illustration showed him flexing his biceps.)
 * Vegetarian Vampire: Almost. An officially-unreleased (but unofficially-released) comic had Louie sponsoring a soy-based blood substitute. Had this comic been canon, Louie would have been a literal vegetarian vampire.
 * If you choose Louie as your guide in Frontier Skies, one event has him distract a crew member and drink a little of their blood before apologizing. This results in the crew member losing some health. Another event has him downing "like, eight double cheeseburgers" at the expense of your food supply.
 * Villain with Good Publicity: Johnny K. Gambino, most of the Von Helson family until Halloween '07 ended (Vlad died, the Twins and Louie got a case of Badass Decay, and Zhivago's on the run).
 * The Wesley: Diedrich is starting to become this.
 * Villain with Good Publicity: Johnny K. Gambino, most of the Von Helson family until Halloween '07 ended (Vlad died, the Twins and Louie got a case of Badass Decay, and Zhivago's on the run).
 * The Wesley: Diedrich is starting to become this.