The Venture Bros./Characters: Difference between revisions

* [[Fetus Terrible]]: {{spoiler|He ate his twin brother in the womb}}.

* [[For Science!]]

* [[Former Child Star]]: The super-scientist equivalent. Even his biggest fan, Billy, says that he peaked too early, being an amazing sidekick but a failed scientist. Still, it seems that he's better off than some of his other colleagues.

* [[Freudian Excuse]]: The things he's seen in his childhood and neglect from his father would make any sane person do a lot of questionable actions.

* [[Informed Ability]]: Something of an inversion, actually. While we're constantly told what a failure he is, he does invent many quite impressive devices, that often fail for circumstances that were not his fault (or, if they were his fault, related only to his arrogance, and not his lack of talent).

* [[Jerkass]]: To borrow a quote from [[Order of the Stick]], Dr Venture is firmly rooted at the centre of his own personal universe. It's incredibly rare for him to demonstrate any interest in the feelings or needs of anybody who isn't him.

** Although when you consider how terrible his life is, you can argue he's gotten away with nothing.

* [[Kavorka Man]]: Granted, the women rarely sleep with him, but when he stops trying so hard with the sleazy come-ons and pick-up lines and just talks to them normally, they find him quite charming. This includes [[Unlucky Childhood Friend]] Dr. Quymn, Sally Impossible, and several [[Femme Fatale]] specimens such as his old (pre-Gonk) bodyguard Myra, the partner of his arch-enemy The Monarch, [[The Dragon|Dr. Mrs. The Monarch]], and Molotov Cocktease, Brock's main love interest.

* [[Morally-Ambiguous Doctorate]]: He never finished college, so he is technically not a doctor.

* [[Multiple Choice Past]]: According to [[Word of God]], he has trouble remembering what his actual experiences were and what were embellishments for the ''Rusty Venture'' cartoon.

* [[Politically-Incorrect Villain|Politically Incorrect Villain Protagonist]]: He's pretty blatantly racist, which fits in with the interpretation of him as a [[Villain Protagonist]]. Clips of him saying naively racist things as a child can be marked down as [[Values Dissonance]]. Oh, and he tried to find a way to eliminate the "gay gene."

* [[Punny Name]]: Doctor Venture's full name is Thaddeus Venture. Thad Venture. [[Rule of Three|thAd venture.]]

* [[Future Loser]]: According to Orpheus' Master, this is Dean's fate if he ends up with Triana.

* [[Gosh Dang It to Heck]]: Absolutely refuses to swear. Even "double dammit" is too vulgar for him. {{spoiler|Eventually subverted. The final line of the entire fourth season, was him telling the Outrider "Fuck you!"}}

* [[Hopeless Suitor]]: Apparently, to Triana.

** Especially after she gets a boyfriend.

* [[Ping-Pong Naivete]]: Mostly about sex.

* [[Red Oni, Blue Oni]]: The blue to Hank's red.

* [[Squishy Wizard]]

 

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Tropes associated with Dermott:

* [[Dumbass Has a Point]]: In the episode "Better Man," he gives good advice. Dean asks if someone can go check the temperature in Hell.

* [[Internet Tough Guy]]: Except in real life. This is a kid so absorbed in convincing people he's cool that he directly insults Brock freaking Samson.

* [[Jerkass]]: Stupid, obnoxious, and arrogant.

* [[Know-Nothing Know-It-All]]: Goes hand in hand with internet tough guy. He also thinks Triana is a goth stereotype who will apparently orgasm just because Dean puts on some goth clothes and lights a fire on her lawn and immediately assumes there's an attack on the Venture Compound.

* [[Luke, I Am Your Father]]: {{spoiler|Well technically, half-brother, but still.}}

** He's even removed his tattoos (except the D, due to the sensitivity of the area) and added a V tattoo on his face for "Venture". Hilariously enough, it now spells out "VD".

* [[Driven to Suicide]]: Tries to kill himself when Princess Tinyfeet leaves him.

* [[Friendly Enemy]]: He wants to make Dr. Venture's life ''wonderful'' to piss off The Monarch.

* [[Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today?|Have I Mentioned I Am A Pedophile Today]]?: In his first several appearances he reminded everybody [[Once an Episode]] that he had a restraining order preventing him from being near minors. Justified in that he was required by law to inform people.

* [[Obfuscating Stupidity]], or at least Affability. He's more cunning than he lets on at first, but he's also a bit of a clear-cut buffoon.

* [[The Only One Allowed to Defeat You]]: Inverted in season three, when he insists that Rusty be the one to kill him when he's [[Driven to Suicide]].

* [[Refuge in Audacity]]: His aforementioned attraction to young boys, even having molested the Venture Bros. at one point before his introduction.

* [[Replacement Scrappy]]: Dr. Venture thinks of him as one for The Monarch, and later {{spoiler|Hank and Doc consider him one to Brock}}.

* [[The Eighties]]

* [[Hahvahd Yahd in My Cah]]

* [[Heterosexual Life Partners]]: With Billy.

* [[Jerkass]]

* [[Out of Focus]]: Orpheus was a major supporting character throughout the first three seasons but was scaled back, almost to the point of absence in the first half of season four.

* [[Papa Wolf]]: For both his own daughter and the Venture Brothers

* [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?]]: Any time he ''RAISES HIS VOICE'' to deliver '''MUNDAAAAANE INFORMATION''' to the tune of SWELLING [[Crowning Music of Awesome|MUUUUSIC]]!

{{quote| "Get me... my BLUE WINDBREAKER!!!"}}

* [[Deadpan Snarker]]

* [[Foil]]: To Orpheus. Even more apparent when they move in together.

* [[Leitmotif]]: Okay, so it may have only been in one episode ("What Goes Down Must Come Up"), but when the triad are performing magic, it's implied that The Alchemist has one too. When Orpheus does some magic, his leitmotif plays and when The Alchemist does some magic immediately afterward, a little trumpet piece plays. And immediately after that, when it's Jefferson's turn and it's revealed that he has no magic to do, it's completely silent.

* [[Only Sane Man]]: Frequently the voice of reason for the Order of the Triad.

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Tropes associated with Triana:

* [[Deadpan Snarker]]

* [[Limited Wardrobe]]: She always wears the same outfit, which is later [[Justified Trope|justified]] because her father put a portal to a mystical realm in her closet.

* [[Perky Goth]]: Phenomenally well-adjusted for the daughter of a high-level sorcerer.

** She's now studying magic herself, but her personality remains the same.

* [[Well, Excuse Me, Princess!]]

 

* [[Not-So-Harmless Villain]]: Posterboy for this trope. At first he seemed like an [[Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain]], but it quickly turned out that he was a significantly bigger threat to people who didn't have [[Badass|Brock Samson]] on their side.

* [[The Only One Allowed to Defeat You]]: Gets into rivalries with Baron Underbheit and Sgt. Hatred over who gets to be Rusty's [[Arch Enemy]].

* [[Skewed Priorities]]: Everything takes backseat to tormenting Dr. Venture, except for [[Pet the Dog|his relationship with Dr. Girlfriend.]]

* [[Talking to Himself]]: Voiced by Jackson Publick, and frequently interacts with Hank, 24, and Sgt. Hatred.

** Also "Operation P.R.O.M." goes from the usual spy business to {{spoiler|Treister already taking care of the double agents and shooting himself into space, leaving hunter in charge of the OSI}}

* [[Drill Sergeant Nasty]]: He began Brock Samson's OSI training with a metal stick to the kneecap.

* [[Noodle Incident]]: He frequently throws out snippets of anecdotes about the "true" history of the United States, such as the fact that OSI has been defending the country since the Second American Revolution - "the invisible one!"

* [[Properly Paranoid]]: Always tells Brock to be wary of conspiracies. He's proven that he's quite a [[The Chessmaster|Chessmaster]], so it's wise to listen to him.

* [[Hypercompetent Sidekick]]: Dr. Venture never has to worry about villains; Brock will handle them.

* [[Improbable Weapon User]]: lawnmowers, Bibles, sharks, jawbones, anything that is not a gun.

* [[Knife Nut]]: When given an assortment of [[James Bond|Q]]-style gadgets to use, Brock pulls out his knife and insists that it is the only weapon he will ever need.

* [[Made of Iron]]: and with the power to turn anyone opposing him into [[Made of Plasticine|Plasticine]].

* [[Parental Substitute]]: For Hank, becomes a lot more evident in season four.

* [[Pet the Dog]]: While Brock is often merciless to enemy minions, he has on occasion been nice to them. One time he sang off a guy who thought Brock had nicked a major blood vessel and thought he was bleeding to death.

* [[Rated "M" for Manly]]: Absolutely every aspect of the trope applies to him.

** [[Real Men Wear Pink]]: However, he seems to be the more 'maternal' part of the [[Has Two Mommies|family unit]] as he's willing to play along with the boys' little games (even Dean's effeminate activities).

*** Which itself was a running gag when SPHINX was first introduced, when every time it was mentioned a female backup team sang it.

* [[The Fundamentalist]]: Not really.

* [[Hello, Sailor!]]

* [[Improbable Aiming Skills]]: Shore Leave is deadly accurate with his pistols, being able to shoot specific targets on 21's costume from a large distance. One handed.

'''{{spoiler|Monarch}}'''{{spoiler|: Suuuuuuuuure, you d-- where was I, then, uh?}}<br />

'''{{spoiler|21}}'''{{spoiler|: Where were you--you were there! We were on top of you! We made out on you!}} }}

** {{spoiler|It's also part of the reason 21 gets rid of 24's skull. He keeps showing up when he tries to masturbate.}}

* [[Drill Sergeant Nasty]]: 21 following 24's death.

** {{spoiler|It's just the Moppets trying to cover up their (likely) murder.}}

* [[Genre Savvy]]: They catch on to a lot of details regarding the workings of the Venture universe.

* [[Punch Clock Villain]]

* {{spoiler|[[Screw This, I'm Outta Here]]: 21 in "Operation: P.R.O.M."}}

** {{spoiler|In "Operation P.R.O.M.", when Dr. Orpheus helps 21 realizes that one of 24's ghost friends isn't actually dead yet, 24 vanishes, and Gary breaks down in tears. This indicates that 24 was a figment of 21's imagination the entire time. This is seemingly contradicted by 24 communicating with one of Monstroso's dead henchmen when 21 isn't exactly present onscreen, but this could simply have been an extension of 21's hallucination.}}

** When incessantly asked about it, Jackson Publick confirmed that {{spoiler|they ''intended'' for 24 to not really be a ghost, but ultimately, it's open to interpretation (although the "24 really was a ghost" theory only works under very specific and unlikely circumstances }}

* [[Manly Gay]]

* [[Prison Rape]]: He tried to rape The Monarch once, but he couldn't get it up because Monarch looked too much like a girl from behind. He even brought him back to his cell, but still felt nothing.

 

=== Monstroso ===

Tropes associated with Torrid:

* [[Australian Accent]]

* [[Gasshole]]: Much fuss is made over the smell he leaves behind in the Venture bathroom.

* [[Never Found the Body]]: The Order of the Triad seem to currently believe he's dead.

* [[Teleport Spam]]

 

* [[A Father to His Men]]

* [[Hey, It's That Voice!]]: Toby Huss, who tweaks his [[King of the Hill|Cotton Hill]] voice to sound a bit like [[Looney Tunes|Foghorn Leghorn]].

** He upgrades this to [[Obfuscating Insanity]] when {{spoiler|he pretends that he truly believes himself to turn into the [[Incredible Hulk]]. This is a ploy to flush out the two O.S.I. moles Cardholder and Doe who are gaslighting him to turn him insane and take over the O.S.I.}}

 

=== Race Bannon ===

[[File:race_bannon_the_venture_bros_2901.jpg|frame]]

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* [[Heroic Sociopath]]: Can cheerfully greet Brock even while gruesomely torturing a detained SPHINX agent.

* [[Posthumous Character]]

 

 

* [[Instant Expert]]: Earned two Ph. D.s [[Rule of Funny|in a month]].

* [[Kavorka Man]]: Even with the handsome face and endless charisma, he's amazingly successful with the ladies for a malformed two-foot-tall fetus man.

* [[Smug Super]]

* [[Talking to Himself]]: Jonas and his brother share the same voice actor.

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Tropes associated with Sally:

* [[Body Horror]]: When she loses control of her power, yeesh.

* [[Captain Ersatz]]: Of The Invisible Woman from ''[[Fantastic Four]]''.

* [[Romantic False Lead]]: His initial role.

* [[Rule of Funny]]: The only possible explanation for all of the things that he manages to do (without his prosthetics) with just one arm and one leg...

* [[Shoe Slap]]

* [[The Starscream]]: To the Guild Sovereign.

* [[Smug Snake]]

* [[Start My Own]]: In the second half of season four, he tells the Sovereign he's going to start his own guild with [[Companion Cube|Wisdom]], Professor Impossible, Baron Underbeit, Lady Hawke Johnson/Lyndon Bee and Fat Chance.

* [[Superpower Lottery]]: "I can kill a man by simply touching him. Now what were your special powers again?"

* [[Touch of Death]]: Though it's been shown in "Bright Lights, Dean City" he can control it to merely knock out his foe if necessary.

* [[That Man Is Dead]]: Attempts this by calling himself Professor Incorrigible, but Limb wasn't crazy about the idea. McLaughlin

* [[Villainous Breakdown]]: After Sally leaves him.

 

=== Baron Underbheit ===

* [[Ruritania]]: Underland. {{spoiler|Subversion: it's located in Michigan.}}

* [[Spikes of Villainy]]

 

=== Fat Chance ===

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Tropes associated with Brick Frog:

* [[Incredibly Lame Pun|Incredibly Awesome Pun]]: You know what that indentation that some bricks have is called? A frog.

 

** {{spoiler|Actually, Kano just broke the ORB, but had orders to kill him.}}

** {{spoiler|Incorrect; it was Rusty's ''grandfather'' who was spared by his bodyguard, Sandow. Kano may well have killed Jonas after all, which is made especially ironic by the fact that Sandow had already rendered the so-important ORB useless.}}

* [[Posthumous Character]]

* [[Spirit Advisor]]: But only while Rusty is off his drugs.

* [[No Celebrities Were Harmed]]: He is essentially what you would get if William S. Burroughs were played by [[Sean Connery]].

* [[Unexplained Recovery]]: Hank and Dean found him dead in the second season. Turns out it was a diabetic coma, they were just too stupid to actually check that he was alive.

** Most likely is an example of [[Deliberate Values Dissonance]] to reflect that Col. Gentlemen is rather out of touch with modern ideas about racial sensitivity.

 

=== Hector Molina ===

[[File:hector_molina_6936.jpg|frame]]

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Tropes associated with Hector:

* [[Stripperiffic]]: Wears a black catsuit with a neckline down well past her navel.

 

[[File:action_johnny_2331.jpg|frame]]

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Tropes associated with Jo(h)nny:

* [[Wangst]]: Deliberately invoked in as dramatic a way as possible.

* [[Writing Around Trademarks]]: The writers are no longer allowed to call him "Jonny Quest" so that he doesn't do too much damage to the brand name.

* [[Mistaken for Subculture|Mistaken For Supervillian]]: Is mistaken for a supervillain by both Hank and Doctor Girlfriend due to her outfit and hair. She decides just to roll with it.

* [[Perky Goth]]

* [[Stripperiffic]]: Her outfit in "Victor. Echo. November.".

* [[Sure Why Not]]: Her reaction to being offered membership into the Guild of Calamitous Intent.

Tropes associated with Raven:

* [[Disabled Love Interest]]

* [[Goth]]

* [[Tall, Dark and Handsome]]