Russell

**Russell** (Originally **Russell the Pirate**) is one of the main characters of *Happy Tree Friends*, and one of the playable characters in the False Alarm video game, while also the third boss in Deadeye Derby

## Character Bio

Russell is an anthropomorphic aquamarine sea otter pirate, who owns typical pirate accessories, such as a Jolly Roger hat, a striped red and white shirt, a hook, an eye-patch, and two wooden peg-legs. He enjoys fishing, sailing, and eating seafood, especially mussels, which was why he was named Russell. He also likes kite-flying and even runs his own fast-food restaurant (*Mime to Five*). His hook started off on his left hand, but was later moved to the right hand for the rest of the series. Russell's initial design depicted him with a five o'clock shadow; in his early appearances he appeared with it, however, the creators eventually scrapped it. He never regained his five o'clock shadow since *Get Whale Soon*.

Typically, his vocabulary consists only of "Yar!", though in the episode *Get Whale Soon*, he also says things like 'Aha!' and 'Huh?'. In *A Sight for Sore Eyes*, he can be heard apologizing to The Mole after accidentally bumping into him.

Sometimes, when put in a scary or violent situation, Russell will go insane and start laughing in a crazy manner as his pupil will turn small and will look quite "shocked" or stressed, much like Flippy when he turns evil, as seen in *Get Whale Soon* and *Snow Place to Go*. However, instead of killing people, he just slashes stuff with his hook, though whether or not he kills people in that state may be debatable simply because no one was around for him to kill in those episodes. Russell is rarely seen with the other characters, instead spending most of his time navigating and doing water-related activities. He does however appear in a few episodes with Lumpy, and lately, he seems to appear with the others more often as well, indicating he is becoming more and more social during the course of the series.

In the episode *Sea What I Found*, when Russell woke up and went to his closet to change his peg-legs, it can be seen that his legs are partially amputated when he simply hops from his old pegs to his new set of pegs. He is the first character to wear shorts. He is also the third character without visible ears, as seen in his internet shorts introduction when he took his hat off for a few seconds, and in *Something Fishy*. Russell wears a stripy undershirt when he goes to sleep. He lives in a big pirate ship-shaped tree-house and sleeps on a hammock.

Since he only has one eye and his vision is becoming blurry, he is advised to wear a contact lens, as seen in *A Sight for Sore Eyes*.

Russell’s appearances tend to be rare in the Internet shorts, as he appeared in 2 Season 1 shorts, 3 Season 2 shorts, 3 Season 3 shorts, and 1 Season 4 short. But, in the TV series, he appears more often (he appeared 17 episodes to be exact).

He appears to be friends with Lumpy in *Sea What I Found,* and *In a Jam,* as well as being a huge fan of him in *YouTube Copyright School*. He has also been seen with Nutty and Handy in *Ipso Fatso*, Disco Bear in *The Wrong Side of the Tracks*, and Sniffles in *Double Whammy Part I*. Furthermore, in *Can't Stop Coffin* he was seen playing baseball with Cuddles, Toothy and Cro-Marmot. He also appears to have a crush on Giggles, as seen in *Put Your Back Into It*, *Sea of Love*, and *You're Kraken Me Up*.

Russell hardly survives the episodes he appears in at all. So far, the only internet episodes he survived in were *Can't Stop Coffin*, *By The Seat Of Your Pants*, and *Put Your Back Into It*. However, in the TV Series, Russell survives far more often. In the TV series, he survived *A Sight for Sore Eyes*, *The Wrong Side of the Tracks*, *Chew Said a Mouthful*, *See What Develops*, *Easy Comb, Easy Go*, and *Double Whammy Part I* . He also survived *Milk Pong* and *YouTube Copyright School*. His deaths usually involve sea animals, explosions, and getting impaled.