The Once-ler

**The Once-ler** is the canon antagonist in The Lorax. This page covers the same character, but reimagined.

He plays a prominent role in The Lorax reboot, The Biggering, and both the character and reboot are inspired by the discarded Once-ler song, "Biggering", from the 2012 Lorax movie.

He was conceived on November 16, 2021, and Wiki exclusive artwork made public at Tumblr on May 13, 2022.

## Original Once-ler

*To read about the original Once-ler and recognize the differences mentioned below, click here.*

## Redesigned Once-ler

"The Once-ler", real name Leronce Roaxl (*pronounced: "Ler-rons Rock-sul"*), was born in a lawless, undocumented slum where physically weak and mentally challenged residents were seen as a liability and often targeted by their self-serving, opportunistic neighbours.

Leronce endured many hardships throughout his childhood years and performed traumatizing acts one would deem regrettable. Because of the way he was raised, he did not have the ability to question the morality of his actions and was forced to accept his life as par for the course for a long time. The moment he could walk, his parents urged him to ensure his own survival, since they couldn't, though the motivation to take care of him was also absent.

His mother taught him to knit his own clothes out of necessity, but this ended up becoming a loved hobby of his. His first creation was a small orange pillow, made out of the repurposed thread of some unknown shredded-up article he found on the street. It ended up becoming the only item of physical comfort in his life, and as such, a source of mental comfort as well.

He cared for it as if it were a living creature and primarily used it to re-enact whatever outside social interaction he happened to bear witness to that day.

As he grew older, he came up with designs that caught other people's attention and the compliments inspired him to leave his ruthless home and become a travelling knitwear salesman. He purchased a donkey and carriage with the little money he had saved up -provoking a fight between him and his parents- and started his journey to monetary success when he was just 13 years old.

In order to save money, he collected his materials out in the wild, where and whenever he could. His clothes barely earned him enough to keep his business going, as his substitutes for regular yarn were uncomfortable and not appreciated by customers who were used to better fabrics.

When he arrived at the Truffula Tree fields, he became ecstatic by the look of their leafs and wanted them for his next product. He was welcomed in by the local wildlife with kindness, and Leronce decided to deem the once untainted wilderness his new home and spot to set up shop.

A handful of trees were sacrificed for his cottage, and the next one he chopped down appeared to hold a small creature in it, who awakened confused and angered by the great mess the newcomer had made. The Lorax pleaded with him for many years to stop the destruction of the land, but the trees were the missing key to Leronce's long overdue success, making him uneager to listen. He set up multiple factories and built an entire city, mostly inhabited by employees and his biggest fans.

Besides indirectly harming animals by destroying the environment, he also targets them directly by enjoying hunting and taxidermy. He has two trophy rooms -one in his headquarters and one at home- stuffed with personal hunting photos, paintings of carnivores lunging at prey, exclusive tools designed by his company, and many other things that sabotage his attempts of appearing nature-loving. Even though his headquarters collection is boldly located in a hallway where any visitor can see, it's presented and taken in as an "interesting little museum", opposed to a look inside the mind of a psychopath.

Leronce also wished to make and sell bar-ba-loot fur coats and tested the edibility of the swomee-swans and humming-fish, including their eggs. The animals appeared unsuited for these purposes, and the "uselessness" of Truffula's wildlife in general made Leronce less eager to try and preserve their habitat.

His Thneed brand came to an end when the last Truffula Tree in existence was cut down and Leronce had to deal with the aftermath of his careless greed. He's between the age of 30 and 40 by the time he loses his empire.

## Personality

Leronce is obsessed with finding riches and always looking for more as to ensure his future remains secure. He became overly confident after acquiring his wealth, though his difficult past had already convinced him to be a victim and entitled to everything.

As "The Once-ler", he's worshipped by many, though he has critics besides The Lorax. He fends them off with his charms and free sample gifts, and in more extreme cases, his lawyers and surface-level excuses that present him as a saviour with no other options. The act of self-victimization is exclusively used against The Lorax; where he reminds him of his origin whenever his wealth becomes a subject. Having that said, he's never shared his past with the public and pretends to have a distinguished background -even discarding his real name.

He cares only for himself, a trait taught to him by his parents and environment as a self-preservation mechanism. With little food in the home and coaxed to take any and all opportunities, he regularly had to steal or fight for goods with other children wandering the neighbourhood. This and other factors caused Leronce to grow up sociopathic, stubborn, conceited, and sly, with trust issues and no friends.

He's suffered a great deal of neglect throughout his life and often tried to reinact the concept of affection with his first piece of knitwear, based on brief interactions he witnessed on the streets. The Lorax happens to resemble his past object of comfort, though there's also the possibility Leronce suffers from schizophrenia and his gnawing conscience over Truffula's destruction gave it form as "The Lorax".

Lorax' physical similarity to this shoddy pillow puts him in an unusual position -where Leronce has a fondness for him and values his attention above anyone else's, but his stunted social development and the emotional abuse at the hands of his parents hinder his ability to describe or translate certain feelings into appropriate behaviour. "Love" is a foreign chemical his body struggles to recognize and usually takes on the form of targeted bullying.

Though Lorax' existence doesn't help him understand, a notable hindrance Lorax helped him overcome was his lack of diction, mostly thanks to Leronce himself having someone he cares to interact with. He was trained since birth to be silent in order to appease his noise-sensitive mother, and as a preteen, would still only speak short sentences.

Since The Lorax is everything but his ally, though, the way he treats him resembles a love–hate relationship. His preaching is never appreciated, but Leronce tolerates his visitations and doesn't automatically regard him as an intruder whenever he shows up in his space.

Though he'd rather not discuss the morality of his business practises, he gets some enjoyment out of "stumping" The Lorax with his retorts, or talking down to him for no reason. He's a sadist, but the trait isn't that visible in public, since Leronce has the self-restraint to avoid upsetting people if that's more beneficial to him.

Though they can't be dubbed friends, they may meet in casual settings and enjoy small talk, which they used to do often when he was still new to Truffula. Leronce has attempted to earn Lorax' friendship in earnest, but his treatment of Truffula is always brought up and something they can't agree on. An unspoken fact is his respect for Lorax' attempts of lecturing a powerful businessman, even if it's futile, since he knows people in general don't feel comfortable looking him in the eye or challenging him in person. Those that let themselves get dominated by him are either toyed with or quick to meet his passive aggressive side, unprovoked.

The Lorax considers him a pest on good days and nerve-rackingly frightening on bad ones, but has never been physically harmed, even when Leronce was in his worst state of mind. He's reluctant to touch others in general, since he's haphephobic, though this mostly concerns humans. Animals, especially those with fur, draw little to no response from him.

The pain of being touched is a mental disorder he struggles with the most, since skittishness or being pitied is believed to be a sign of weakness and would jeopardize one's chances of survival back in the slums. In order to make it more bearable for himself and not raise suspicion with others, he wears gloves to erase skin-to-skin contact. His employees are instructed to mimic his fashion style and also cover up their hands.

Despite his almost self-destructive personality, his talents are what motivated him to find a better life and start his knitwear business from the exceptional age of 13. Leronce is creative, dexterous, and a hard worker -always trying to make the best out of the least. He's hard to discourage, even when he loses or shows to have a temper.

## Appearance

As a child, Leronce was short for his age and in a constant state of near-starvation. With no access to any kind of self-care, his black hair was long and semi-dreadlocked, giving it a bulky look. His face was completely covered by his bangs, not even showing his eyes. Those able to catch a glimpse of his face would respond disgusted by its ghoulishness.

His clothes were either too big or heavily damaged, and there were long periods of time where his underwear was the only piece of attire available to him.

The first time he and The Lorax met, he was between the age of 14 and 15, and wore rough-looking green gloves, boots, and an oversized, scruffy onesie in similar, but mismatched colour. He also wore an old, large cowboy hat, which would consistently cast a shadow over his face.

Around this time, his health had improved and his hair was cut shorter, showing it's naturally wavy, but less thick than before.

As his business and success grew, Leronce grew in size with it and is extremely tall at the end of the story, reaching a height of about 10'5" (3.17 meter), though this keeps changing for narrative reasons. His actual height is 7'7" (2.30 meter), an exceptional size he obtained since the age of 17.

He wears a neat green suit with long silky gloves, a pink tie, and a top hat that again keeps his face hidden. Still, his eyes and mouth are visible on occasion, the latter containing fangs. His hair is again shorter, though remained long at the front.

He's extremely slender, as his past of hardships seemingly destroyed most of his body's fat cells. Even so, he's remarkably strong, primarily in his upper body, where his muscles are the most defined.

As an elderly man, his hairdo looks similar to that of his child self and he has a long beard.

### Eyes

Besides his height, Leronce's eyes can also drastically change and function as an abstract portrayal of his mind. One consistency are his prominent eyelashes, though the severity also changes.

Below is a chart with an explanation:

*(Click "Expand" to see)>*

**Variant 1**

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> *When free from any influence, his eyes are much like everyone else's and borrow the original Dr. Seuss art style. They're argued to be blue, though this is not visible.*
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**Variant 2 (multi-applicable)**

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> *His eye white turns yellow when experiencing negative emotions, like restlessness, anger, or insanity.*
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**Variant 3**

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> *Leronce has multicoloured eyes throughout most of his later life, described to be "peacock-like". These are in response to his destructive pride.*
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**Variant 4**

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> *These eyes are only possible while Leronce is still prideful.*
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>
> *When his mind gets "surprised" by a positive feeling, his eyes try to adjust themselves accordingly in the moment and erase most colours irrelevant to his current feelings.*
> *This seldom happens, as it tends to be in response to friendly gestures from The Lorax specifically, who doesn't care to have and maintain such a relationship with him.*
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**Variant 5**

>
> *This set of eyes shows itself at seemingly random moments and disappears after a single blink. They're a rare sight and not clearly linked to any kind of emotion or state of mind Leronce is experiencing at the moment, though a sign of insanity; as for a hinted at connection to the possibility Leronce is schizophrenic (See: Trivia).*
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## Trivia

* Leronce's surroundings commonly mistake his last name to be "Ler";
	+ His name change did not come with a (new) surname, explaining the confusion.
* Leronce's surname, "Roaxl", is an anagram of "Lorax", which is not acknowledged in the story.
* Leronce enjoys cigars;
	+ He's told The Lorax he initially started smoking as an attempt to stay warm, meaning he was a child then.
* Leronce nicknames The Lorax "fluff" at times.
* Leronce greatly dislikes bar-ba-loots for being lazy, docile predator animals.
* Leronce likes guinea coons, creatures that happen to resemble The Lorax;
	+ They're the one animal he's never considered hunting.
* The deviating colour of Leronce's tie refers to the first Truffula Tree he cut to make his first Thneed.
* Leronce's favourite colour is orange, which is ironically not reflected in his fashion style or home's interior.
* Leronce's pillow did not survive the passage of time; and the fabric disintegrated before he reached his preteen years.
* In an act of spitefulness, Leronce set up his largest factory in his own hometown and exploits its desperate residents by subjecting them to slave labour; involving long hours and little pay. This factory is purposely left undisclosed.
* Leronce's 2nd variant of eyes refers to the original Once-ler's appearance.
* Leronce's 5th variant of eyes is inspired by a painting by August Natterer that captures the artist's moment of schizophrenia.
* Leronce's voice is that of the "Biggering" demo's vocalist, Gabriel Mann;
	+ An AI voice model of this artist was created to use in Biggering projects.

## See also

* The Lorax
* The Biggering
* No Sequeling (Unofficial sequel)
* "Last Clash with the 'Stache"/Biggering (Music video)
* The Call for Eden (Music video)
* I Would Die for You (Music video)
* Not The Lorax by Illumination (Song album)
* Gabriel Mann AI (AI voice model for The Once-ler)