Solar Opposites Character Guide
The new Justin Roiland show Solar Opposites requires a character guide to explain things for you, admit it. Here you go then, here's your character guide.
This SOLAR OPPOSITES guide contains spoilers.
Solar Opposites co-creators Justin Roiland and Mike McMahan brought a lot over from their other show, Rick and Morty, like the art style and the whole sci-fi sitcom format. But where the latter show is primarily about Rick and Morty and their adventures through space and the multiverse, this new one stays grounded on Earth, focused on its characters and their relationships.
So, now that you’ve watched all of Solar Opposites on Hulu (because you probably should watch it all first as I will gently spoil stuff here), you definitely need a character guide to let you know info about all the main characters as well as some of the lesser, but still standout characters. Who voices them, what makes them tick, and what sort of wild speculation based on nothing whatsoever can we make about what will happen to them in season two? Yowza! Read on!
The Shlorpians
A family of aliens from the planet Shlorp, which they had to evacuate when it was destroyed by an asteroid. They crashed their ship into the top of a house on Earth somewhere in middle America, so they moved into the house and have lived there for a year now.
The shlorpians have access to incredible sci-fi tech well beyond human knowledge and their use of it typically gets a lot of people killed (usually by accident). Though the shlorpians aren’t invincible, they do seem to have impressive regenerative capabilities; they’re able to lose and regrow limbs easily and can even be patched up and heal quickly after receiving life-threatening injuries.
Shlorpians seem to be basically genderless, though Jesse does wear a bow. When they get stressed out, they secrete little purple blobby dudes called gooblers who run around and stuff. When a shlorpian doesn’t wash their hands, they grow a weird flower from their heads that shoots out gas that makes humans love them. Nice.
Korvo
Voiced by: Justin Roiland
Korvo is the closest you get to a Rick on this show because he thinks he’s a genius. However, unlike Rick, he’s not. He claims to be focused on the mission, but he’s just as easily distracted by petty nonsense as his partner Terry is and that petty nonsense is what drives the conflict of pretty much every episode. In “The Lavatic Reactor,” it’s revealed, after Terry zaps Korvo a whole bunch with a dumb ray, that, underneath his supposed superior intelligence, Korvo is actually pretty similar to Terry, prone to partying and obsessed with bad pop culture and jet skis.
Korvo is more or less the same at the beginning of the season as he is at the end. If he has much of an arc, it’s in the first episode where he starts out hating Earth, but then comes to accept he has a life there with his family. Korvo, on the whole, is someone who gets pissed off easily, often taking it out on Terry, but he cares about his family and is basically a good guy, if you excuse all the accidental people-murdering. In season two, he will probably keep getting mad at Terry and doing stupid bullshit. This feels like a sound prediction.
Korvo is also an extremely proficient sci-fi magician, working under the alias The Incredible Burn Victim Trash Man.
Terry
Voiced by: Thomas Middleditch
The most important thing to note about Terry is that he’s voiced by Thomas Middleditch. I say this is the most important thing because it was originally reported that Justin Roiland would be the voice of both Terry and Korvo, but that’s no longer true and yet I’ve seen more than one critic online going all “duhhhh, just like on Rick and Morty, Justin Roiland does both voices, duhhh!” Terry is voiced by Thomas Middleditch! Get with it!
Terry is the fun-loving, easygoing half of the Terry and Korvo duo. He’s not particularly interested in the mission and just wants to have fun on earth, hook up with people, hang out, and watch bad movies. He seems kind of ignorant; he’s supposed to be a Pupa expert, but he doesn’t seem to know more about the Pupa than anyone else. However, after turning Korvo dumb in “The Lavatic Reactor,” he manages to take care of the house and the replicants well enough on his own, so he’s probably more just lazy than he is stupid.
Viewers often wonder if Terry and Korvo are dating. They do sleep in the same bed, but they were initially paired up arbitrarily by their home planet and put on a mission to start a new Planet Shlorp elsewhere and now seem to just be friends (Terry even says at the end of the first episode: “Everyone’s like, ‘What, are they lovers?’ No, we’re friends!”). Terry also brings home several human sexual partners in “The Lavatic Reactor,” which apparently doesn’t make Korvo jealous or anything (though they could just be in a very open relationship). In the same episode, Terry recoils when dumb Korvo tries to kiss him, so it seems like they’re just friends and sort-of dads to the replicants. However, the shlorpians are generally pretty free about sexual exploration, so, y’know, it’s possible they’ve… done stuff.
Terry is a kooky, fun-loving guy at the beginning of the season and ends it much the same way, though arguably a little bit wiser. Probably not though.
Terry owns a Wetzel’s Pretzels franchise that gets little foot traffic.
Jesse
Voiced by: Mary Mack
Replicants aren’t really children so much as clones or something; the series never bothers to fully explain it. Jesse is a replicant of Terry. She wants to be a cool kid at school and crush on boys, but she never really gets a chance to do that, which is pretty sad. She also wishes her “brother” Yumyulack was nicer to her and they could be loving siblings, but he’s a jerk and kind of hates her.
You could say Jesse is the moral center of the show, but her and Yumyulack tend to connect most over wanton sci-fi destruction, something which, by human standards, is not nice to do. However, she is the one who sometimes remembers to feed the humans Yumyulack has shrunk and put in his human terrarium wall, so she’s certainly the kinder of the two replicants.
Jesse is the same at the beginning of the series at the end. Look, all the shlorpians go through small arcs in every episode, but, in the classic sitcom tradition, they don’t really change on the whole.
Jesse has a machine that turns people into Game Boy cartridges.
Yumyulack
Voiced by: Sean Giambrone
Yumyulack is a replicant of Korvo. Back on Shlorp, he was a bounty hunter. On Earth, however, he’s forced to go to school like any other kid, which pisses him off. He wants to study humans, or so he claims, which is why he shrinks lots of them down and puts them in his wall. But he really just seems to do this when people piss him off or to exercise his power over the human race in general.
The suit he wears auto-murders the hell out of any impending danger, at one point making quick work of a bar full of neo-Nazis. Yumyulack mostly finds his “sister” Jesse annoying, but he secretly cares about what she thinks and wants her to like him. He feels similarly about humans.
One might argue Yumyulack goes through the biggest character change of all the shlorpians throughout season one, becoming a more caring guy by the end, but it’s not really clear how much of that actually happens and how much is an invention of the pretendo-deck.
Yumyulack’s favorite Avenger is Hawkeye.
Funyulack
Voiced by: Sean Giambrone
Funyulack is the nice version of Yumyulack that Jesse invents in the pretendo-deck. He’s overly nice to his sister, to the point of being kind of creepy. He seems to have a dark streak like Yumyulack, though. He might be dead, as much as that’s possible for a virtual construct. I dunno.
The Pupa
Voiced by: Sagan McMahan
The Pupa is the lynchpin of the mission. When it reaches maturity, it’ll evolve into its ultimate form, which will destroy and rebuild Earth in the image of Shlorp. No one knows if this process will include the destruction of Terry, Korvo, Jesse, and Yumyulack. The Pupa has incredible telekinesis and telepathy abilities. It loves eating gooblers and candy even though both cause the Pupa to vomit. When the Pupa eats something orange, it turns orange. At the end of the season, the Pupa turns purple. Nobody knows what this means.
Computer / Aisha
Voiced by: Tiffany Haddish
Aisha is the shlorpians’ talking computer. She has a lot of attitude and controls the pretendo-deck. That’s all I’ve got.
P.A.T.R.I.C.I.A.
Voiced by: Wendi McLendon-Covey
P.A.T.R.I.C.I.A. is a robot woman built by Korvo specifically to hate man caves (aka manc aves). Her programming is based on classic sitcom mom tropes, making her alternatively a scathing critic of Korvo-esque men and a nurturing type to Terrys. She now lies in a shipping crate buried in the shlorpians’ backyard along with a cuckbot that looks Ted Cruz, so she could always come back to wreak some kind of quasi-feminist destruction. Here’s hoping!
Nanobot Man aka Mr. Nanobots
Voiced by: Alan Tudyk
Nanobot Man is a collection of trillions of nanobots who runs for president of the homeowner’s association against Terry and Korvo. However, he loses to incumbent president, Ruth. The last time we see him, he escapes out of Terry and Korvo’s window, so he could be back! I guess!
Red Goobler
Voiced by: Justin Roiland
Most gooblers are purple and innocent, but the red goobler is a manifestation of ultimate stress that deliberately stresses out the host that created it, with the goal of eventually killing them. Korvo stresses a lot, so he pukes one up. Terry and Korvo manage to catch the red goobler, but, unbeknownst to Korvo, it gets away. This means it could come back in the future to try and kill Korvo again or at least to fill his DVR up with more lame mom shows, if this turns out to be the kind of show that even brings back characters like this. Maybe it will! Maybe it won’t! Oh man!
Vanbo
Voiced by: Jason Mantzoukas
Vanbo is a shlorpian who, in an alternative timeline reality, could’ve lived with Terry and Korvo. He is an asshole and nobody likes him. He may or may not have his own true crime podcast. He also might literally not even exist because Terry and Korvo imagined all their dealings with him in the pretendo-deck. If he does exist, he’d be a good antagonist to bring back, if you ask me. That’s what I think.
Terri
Voiced by: Tiffany Haddish (I think)
Back on Shlorp, Terry dated another shlorpian named Terri. Korvo describes her as a “smokeshow,” so, evidently, she is very sexy.
PEOPLE OF THE WALL
The place where, surprisingly, all the heavy drama and plot serialization stuff goes down, Yumyulack’s wall terrarium is home to all the humans he shrunk down for mostly petty reasons. It’s got an Escape From New York/Fury Road vibe in there and everybody is a little crazy because Jesse only feeds them candy. I will henceforth capitalize “Wall” because it looks cooler.
The Janitor
Voiced by: Tom Kenny
The school janitor figured out too much about what the replicants were up to in the first episode, so Yumyulack had to shrink him down and put him in the Wall. He’s the first one we see go in there, so I put him here first. He shows up in the second episode, seemingly having adapted to his new environment. Sadly, as far as I know, we never see him again after that, so he probably died. Things are rough in that Wall.
If I’m wrong and you spotted him in the background of a scene or something, do let me know.
Tim
Voiced by: Andy Daly
Tim was just a regular guy who got shrunk down by Yumyulack because he had a red shirt and Yumyulack had shrunk people in every other color but red and wanted to complete his collection. Tim thrives in the Wall, becoming the inspiring leader of the resistance against the Duke.
It will be interesting to see what Solar Opposites does with Tim in season two as he transitions fully from hero to villain in the blink of an eye in the seventh episode. He seems like a heroic character, but the interesting thing about the Wall people is we don’t actually spend a ton of time with them and don’t fully know who they are or who they were before Yumyulack captured them. It seems Tim was a nobody in the outside world, but, like the Duke before him, became drunk on his power and influence in the Wall.
Tim fought to overthrow the Wall’s tyranny this season. In season two, he will be the source of that tyranny.
Cherie
Voiced by: Christina Hendricks
Cherie was a Benihana waitress who Yumyulack shrunk because he said no shrimp and she gave him shrimp. She’s a proficient fighter, making good use of her Benihana skills, and she helps Tim overthrow the Duke. She is a good-hearted person, who, when she and Tim discover there’s a way outside the Wall, intends to tell everyone so they can all escape. But Tim wants to stay in charge of the Wall, so he kills her and dumps her body outside. Pretty sure she’s dead. Sorry, no more Cherie. No more Christina Hendricks.
Then again, maybe she survived! She’s a tough cookie.
The Duke
Voiced by: Alfred Molina
The Duke is head of the Wall throughout the first season, but is ousted by Tim at the end. Like most of the people in the Wall, we don’t know his origins or why he ended up in there. He gets away after his ousting, escaping to the outside, which means he could yet return to be a thorn in Tim’s side. Wow, very exciting.
Jean-Pierre
Voiced by: I don’t know, there’s like a million characters in the Wall so it’s hard to place who voices everyone
Jean-Pierre was a good dude who helped elevate Tim to resistance leader status and then took a projectile pushpin for him and died. Before his death, he used to jerk off and think about Tim while he did it. Turns out, Tim’s a piece of shit so Jean-Pierre kind of died for nothing. Rats.
Sister Sasha
Voiced by: Uh…?
Because she’s more of a benefactor than Yumyulack, a religion has sprung up in the Wall governed by the Bowinian Church (named in honor of Jesse’s bow). Sister Sasha runs the church. I think she’s still alive at the end of the season? She seems cool enough.
Enrique
Voiced by: Miguel Sandoval
Not exactly strong on logic, Enrique is a diabetic who turns against Tim and works under the Duke because he blames Tim for the death of his son, Pedro, even though the Duke is the one who literally had Pedro murdered to make an example of him. Enrique is still alive at the end of the season because, now that he’s in power, Tim sees no reason to not just rule over him along with everyone else. Maybe Enrique will overthrow Tim in the end? Maybe! Wow!
Kramer Guy
Voiced by: Justin Roiland not even really trying to do a Kramer impression
Kramer Guy sounds and acts like Kramer from Seinfeld and is a courageous resistance warrior who gets shot with flaming Q-tips and dies a horrible death. Giddy-up!
Steven, the Mouse Milk Man
Voiced by: Hey, who knows?
Steven (possibly Stephen), the Mouse Milk Man, is a kind soul and former CEO of AT&T. He serves mouse milk from his pet mouse Molly. He loves his mouse, is comfortable in his role in the Wall, and wants for nothing. He reluctantly becomes a resistance fighter and even saves Tim’s life. Actually, it’d be really cool if he were the one to defeat Tim someday. He’s a nice guy and we all like him.
Molly
Voiced by: Mouse noises
Molly is a sweet mouse who makes milk. I can’t talk about Molly anymore here. I just can’t!
OTHER SIDE CHARACTERS
Ruth
Voiced by: June Squibb
Ruth is president of the homeowner’s association in the shlorpians’ neighborhood. She only drinks Diet Coke and doesn’t care for sci-fi bullshit. She isn’t exactly an antagonist but it seems plausible she could continue to be a thorn in the protagonists’ sides.
Principal Cooke and Miss Frankie
Voiced by: Rob Schrab and Kari Wahlgren
Two members of the school staff at Jesse and Yumyulack’s school. They have it out for the two replicants and also like to have sex with each other. They’re okay characters. It’s funny when Principal Cooke curses.
Kari Wahlgren is the voice of Haruko from FLCL, which is pretty neat. And Rob Schrab is Rick and Morty co-creator and Community creator Dan Harmon’s longtime friend. He directed a lot of episodes of Community and was supposed to direct the second LEGO Movie but then that, uh, didn’t happen. (He did direct this 4D short that plays at Legoland Florida though.)
Lydia
Voiced by: Gideon Adlon
After bullying Jesse and Yumyulack, they shrink her down and kidnap her, something they learn they should never do with kids because people care about finding them a lot more than they do adults. So, to make her forget what they did, they open her head up and pour Diet Coke on her brain until she’s mentally disabled. Lydia seems like she might be a major player in the series because she has a pretty big role in the pilot episode, but she doesn’t come back after her first appearance, probably because it’d be too sad and fucked up to keep making jokes about her in her brain-damaged state.
The voice of Lydia, Gideon Adlon, is the daughter of Pamela Adlon, creator of Better Things and voice of Bobby Hill from King of the Hill. Lydia is even kind of a similar-sounding voice to Bobby, if you ask me!
Gordon
Voiced by: Ryan Ridley
Gordon works at the water treatment plant, but doesn’t take his job very seriously. He likes to do heroin and once sold Terry a gun. What a character! Who knows what he’ll get up to next? Perchance more heroin? It’s a good bet!
Funbucket
Voiced by: Rob Schrab
Catchphrase: “Bingo-bango!”
Funbucket is some kind of strange little monster and the titular character of his own sitcom. He’s not real, but, Terry and Korvo are such big fans, they use their alien technology to make him real. He seems like a cool guy. He just wants to live his own life, you know?
Funbucket II
Voiced by: Rob Schrab
Catchphrase: “Y’all ready for bisque?!”
When the first Funbucket runs off with two bros named Travis and Avery, Terry and Korvo make a new Funbucket. He seems unwell.
Combo Funbucket
Voiced by: Not sure… Rob Schrab with filters applied, maybe?
Catchphrase: “Korvo! Terry!”
Combo Funbucket is what happened when Funbucket and Funbucket II fused on a molecular level. He’s kind of a freak, but Travis and Avery still love him, so he lives with them now. He will be the sole protagonist of season two. I can 100% confirm this, so you can quote me on it.