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Freedom soars on raven wings!
Tropes pertaining to the Black Army as a whole.
Adorkable: They all have their moments, really. Ray when cats are involved. Seth’s Gadfly tendencies and loud shrieking whenever he catches a man getting too friendly with Alice. Luka and Comically Missing the Point.
Badass Crew: Just as with the Red Army, the Black Army are all exceptionally skilled fighters, often training several times a day. Since they refuse to use magic while fighting, they train hard to make sure their skill with weaponry is up to snuff. They also rely on strategic planning and nighttime attacks, so all and all they're on par with the Red Army when it comes to skill.
Birds of a Feather: Moreso than the Reds, the ranked leaders of the Black Army all get along well and bond over shared meals. Alice notes that they're like a big raucous family.
Bromantic Foil: Ray and Fenrir work well together as army leaders and as best friends. Ray tends to be more stoic and brusque with an occasional deadpan delivery who doesn't like to use magic in battles, while Fenrir is a Hot-Blooded Gun Nut who uses magic bullets against enemies that won't physically harm his opponents. They both have a Thou Shalt Not Kill policy, which turns out is due to a shared Dark and Troubled Past.
Childhood Friends: Ray and Fenrir
Color-Coded Characters: Each member has their own Color Motif associated with them. As a whole, it's Black.
Dark Is Not Evil: The Black Army contains some nice people and they are all quick to accept Alice into the fold and protect her until the next full moon.
Delinquents: How they're portrayed by the Red Army, especially Jonah, in comparison to the nobility of Red Territory.
Dysfunction Junction: All of them, to varying degrees.
Ray: The young king has a lot of drive, thanks to The Day That Went Dark, when he awakened to his innate magical powers against a group of people kidnapping classmates from his boarding school. He couldn't properly control his powers however, and he ended up killing everyone involved, including the students. He's carried the guilt ever since, and has refused to use his magical powers against Lancelot and his army, instead fighting to achieve peace and freedom by his own physical strength. This determination is what led him to become King of Spades at only 24.
Sirius: Grew up believing he'd take over the family business as a gardener and florist, only to instead have one of his best friends become a wanted man and the other become King of the opposing faction, and seemingly give up on his noble dreams of uniting the two sides in order to become cold and ruthless, without Sirius ever knowing why for either. He hates fighting, but nevertheless gave up his peaceful life to become one of the Black Army's Chosen Thirteen, in order to figure out Lancelot's true motives and bring Harr back into the light.
Luka: Grew up the second son of a noble Red Territory family whose eldest son would be Queen of Hearts. Luka felt unwanted since birth, with all of the attention and training falling on Jonah. However, Jonah was the only person in his life who acknowledged and loved him until he one day seemed to stop caring about Luka just like everyone else, breaking Luka's heart and his trust in him. This pushed Luka to abandon his family to join the opposing army and become one of their Chosen Thirteen, the Jack of Spades, the third-in-command of the entire army. Despite this, and despite his friends loving Luka for himself, he still pushes himself to the brink of exhaustion every night, doing extra training until he felt he could be worthy in the eyes of all the people who dismissed him growing up.
Fenrir: Fenrir is a noble from Black Territory, who was set to inherit his father's extremely successful construction company. This did not happen. He was the first to find Ray on The Day That Went Dark, and found his traumatized best friend surrounded by the carnage, and his fallen classmates. Fenrir blames himself for being too late to help Ray, and has vowed to find the group responsible for the whole thing by joining the Black Army. His trauma from witnessing this event is also why he uses guns equipped with bullets made from Magic Crystals that don't harm the people he shoots - he doesn't want to witness that level of bloodshed again.
Seth: Seth is seemingly the most well-adjusted and happy-go-lucky member of the group. But little is known about his past, and he seems to know more about the Magic Tower and its Disciples of Magic than he lets on. There are plenty of times when his cute outward personality drops.
First-Name Basis: They all refer to each other by first name instead of title. Makes more sense with these guys though, because they're all very close friends as well as comrades.
Good Is Not Soft: They may be the friendlier bunch from the start, but they can kick just as much ass as the Red Army when things get dangerous, and they do it without relying on magic. When Alice gets kidnapped by the Reds, they make it clear that they're willing to fight if she is not returned to them.
Hero with Bad Publicity: When it looks like someone from their side murdered the former King of Hearts, even though they didn't.
It's Personal: Somewhat surprisingly, they have more members directly related to the crimes of the Magic Tower and Amon Jabberwock.
Ray and Fenrir are both ready to bring the place down when it's discovered the shady group of people who caused The Day That Went Dark were disciples from the Tower looking for children with innate magical abilities to experiment on.
Sirius loses both of his best friends to the machinations of Amon Jabberwock.
Seth: He's very much part of a bigger plot than he shows, and it seems to be very personal for him.
Non-Uniform Uniform: They all wear variations of the army uniform, possibly to denote their positions as members of the highest-ranking Chosen Thirteen:
Ray wears an army jacket under a cape that is Chained by Fashion.
Sirius wears his jacket open and his shirt untucked with a loose tie and fingerless gloves
Luka appears to wear a scarf with his suit jacket and his massive broadsword is a constant presence over his shoulder
Fenrir wears holsters for his twin pistols at his waist and his armband hangs from his belt. He also wears a Chained by Fashion cropped jacket, not unlike the other Ace, Zero. He also appears to forego the standard dress shirt for a hoodie instead. Being the member with the most divergent uniform seems designed to highlight his Wild Child personality
Seth wears a Badass Longcoat that seems able to hide all manner of knives and daggers as well as a bolero tie
Lovable Rogues: In stark contrast to the Red Army's noble professionalism.
Opposing Sports Team: They are this to the Red Army though usually less so to Alice, who's already had a chance to stay with them and see what good guys they are.
Playing Card Motifs: Spades
Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: A cat-loving young king, a gardener who's the oldest of the cast, a shy cook who ran away from his family, a Gun Nut with magic bullets, and Seth.
The Team: Of the Five-Man Band variety:
Ray: The Leader
Sirius: The Smart Guy strategist who sometimes fills The Lancer role as the second-in-command
Luka: The Big Guy (his broadsword is a force to be reckoned with) with shades of The Heart (especially when cooking for everybody)
Fenrir: Usually The Lancer foil to Ray, though is also The Big Guy with his love of fighting
Seth: Pretty squarely in The Chick category, since he's in touch with his feminine side. Or at least that's the persona he presents himself as - Oliver
