Minor characters in The Biggering

The list of The Biggering characters that play a minor role.

If you ended up here unaware of what the series is about, please look up the main article first.

## Athena Funce

Athena Funce is Once-ler's personal secretary and based on Ms. Funce-ler from the TV special. She is 50 to 60 years old.

She's a loyal, long-time employee and quite serious when it concerns her job. She shows little emotion, minds her own business, nor ever expressed any kind of opinion on The Once-ler, which is assumed to be why he hired her to work so closely alongside him.

She's the only employee who doesn't wear attire that hides the details of her face, symbolizing she's not a blind worshipper, despite her obedience to him.

She has long, wavy black hair in a beehive model, many eyelashes, short eyebrows, a large lower lip, and is skinny.

## Smilla O'Schmuns

Smilla O'Schmuns is Once-ler's accountant secretary and based on Ms. O'Schmunsler from the TV special. She's in the same age range as Once-ler.

She used to be the highly respected founder of a large environmental protection group and had done extensive research on Once-ler's practises. As she threatened to go to the media with her findings, it could've meant an early end to his career if he hadn't manipulated her into working for him.

His excuses and charms were very effective and Smilla became obsessively in love with him, despite his palpable disinterest in her.

Besides having been sweet-talked into becoming his ally as means of protecting his business, her administrative skills are put to good use and give Once-ler the foresight needed for his list of excuses to ensure his victory in future court cases and public speeches.

Smilla is persistent and undiscouragable, which were helpful traits during her quest of exposing The Once-ler, but troublesome in present time. Her infatuation turned her criminally desperate; as one day she saw it necessary to feed him alcohol and try and force herself onto him. She did not self-reflect after his rejection and believed to had charmed him.

When Once-ler lost his wealth and was confirmed to be everything Smilla had figured out prior to working for him, she still couldn't shake off her feelings and would come up with excuses as to why he's still a good person. She continued her romantic pursuit and approached him whenever the opportunity arose, no matter how often she got shot down or threatened.

With Smilla ending up a shell of her respectable former self, she too became an outcast.

She's curvy, has short to half-long blonde hair, a small pointed nose, and dark eyes. Depending on her facial expression, her eyes are either shown to be upturned almonds or rounded. She's considered to be a natural beauty by her surroundings and doesn't wear much make-up.

When she started working for The Once-ler, she slowly changed her fashion style to something less casual and wore a short green dress suit and bowler hat, a pink ascot tie, short green gloves, a green yellow-beaded bracelet, and black high heel shoes. She had a more voluminous hairdo.

Years after Once-ler lost his company, her hair grew longer and she has a rounder face, insinuating she's gained some weight.

## The Once-ler's family

The story introduces many family members who showed up to work for The Once-ler. Their relatedness is highly questionable, but never made an issue.

As his home environment left The Once-ler with no documentation of his family tree, he looked up whoever shared his unusual last name when his business started expanding. No DNA testing was entertained, meaning strangers were approached and deemed his family, just to have cheap labour at his disposal.

Only two people in his life are confirmed to be family, this being his parents. They never shared with him the existence of other relatives.

### Once-ler's parents

        The name and age of Once-ler's parents are not revealed in the story, and the only piece of known information about their identity is that one of them bears the last name "Roaxl". They solely appear in flashback scenes and are portrayed as shadowy figures, caused by the negative feelings Once-ler has for them, warping his memories.

**Once-ler's mother** was extremely fearful of everything around her, her own past being to blame. She couldn't share a room with other people or handle the knowledge of someone being nearby, with Once-ler's father being a rare exception as her childhood friend and self-appointed protector.

She couldn't stand loud noises, spoke with an eery whisper, and her eyes rarely blinked out of fear she'd be caught off-guard by something or someone. Once-ler wasn't allowed to laugh or cry in her presence and was trained through inhumane practises to maintain silence as an infant. Her low tolerance for sound stunted his speech and he was mostly mute during his childhood.

Despite the emotional abuse, the rare moments of kindness he enjoyed primarily came from her, though they remain debatable. She wanted to love him and there was a point in time she welcomed the thought of him, but the pregnancy and birth ended up being an agonizing experience that made her associate her child to pain and the near-death experience she went through. Once-ler was seen as a threat and not allowed to approach her if his father wasn't around, if at all, yet she was against the physical punishment her partner subjected him to. After bearing witness to it for the first time, it never transpired again.

Still wanting to pull her weight around the house, she usually went out scavenging when the sun was down. His father wasn't fond of this strategy and would be her chaperone, even after a long day of work.

**Once-ler's father** was a large, highly masculine man, who put great value in pushing oneself to the limit for the sake of improvement, or at the very least survival. The moment his son could walk, he was deemed "mature" and ready to take care of himself.

He didn't like Once-ler much and thought it was foolish to have a child in a struggling environment, but as his pregnant partner was overcome by motherly instincts and showed excitement at times, he couldn't make any grim suggestions and hoped a baby would improve her mental state.

Because it nearly cost her her life, he believed his son owed her for being born and he taught him harsh life lessons with the intent of keeping him alive. At the same time, his own opinions often emerged in his moments of anger; and he'd claim not to care how he lived his life. The confusing messaging affected Once-ler's social and emotional capabilities more.

His father played his mother's protector and caretaker since early childhood. He loves her and always ends up bending to her wishes, even if his domineering personality would make it seem unlikely. He is the only person she trusts and allows to touch her.

## Thon Celer

Thon Celer, real name Lavern Aha, is the creator of Whant, a Thneed copycat business that did not survive long after Once-ler picked up on its existence. He's between 50 and 60 years old.

He was an opportunist who believed his Whants were an excellent product that would even impress The Once-ler. He boldly approached him to show off his work and sales numbers, hoping it'd lead to a collaboration, but instead, he got sued.

Once-ler was awarded billions in damages, and by televising the court process, publicly humiliated Celer in front of his worldwide fans. It was a ruthless defeat that left Celer's family homeless and no one feeling sorry for them. He ended up taking his own life.

Celer is the complete opposite of Once-ler and is short and overweight, with colourfully dyed hair and dark eyes, though the latter is not necessarily conveyed because of the art style. His suit is similar to his, though pink with a green tie.

## The Dunce-ler

Nick Star, nicknamed "The Dunce-ler", is a concierge at Once-ler's headquarters. He's around the age of 20.

He's a background character who makes no prominent appearances in the story, but has notoriety amongst other employees. Though his face is different and he's not as tall, he's sometimes mistaken for The Once-ler.

He's a fast worker who rarely talks and is never seen hanging out with anybody, yet seemingly doesn't care about his friendlessness. He carries a carefree, sometimes simple expression on his face, but there appears nothing off about his speech or thought process.

## The Big Tree

"The Big Tree" is an unusually tall Truffula Tree that emerged from the seed that was planted by The Once-ler.

Its trunk stands high and straight up, and the leaves are black and bulky. Its bark is so tough, it can't be cut, and the entire tree would have to be dug out if one wanted to move it. If left lying somewhere, its roots would gradually grow towards the ground and lift it back up.

While it has all these safety measures, if someone were to touch it at all, it'd give a fragile response and immediately drop all its fruit, regardless of how developed these are.

While The Big Tree looks somewhat ominous and unlike its fellow kind, its leaves are softer than that of any Truffula Tree in the past and its fruit is no different. The seeds it releases spawn the smaller, colourful variant, making this tree one of a kind and its genetic make-up not entirely understood.

Depending on how The Lorax' existence is interpreted (whether he's real or imaginary), it can either be a reincarnation of The Once-ler, who was granted a second chance at life by The Lorax, or a once normal tree that absorbed Once-ler's corpse and became "poisoned".

## Trivia

* Smilla O'Schmuns fantasizes about taking on Once-ler's presumed last name (Ler), which is a reference to The Once-ler's secretary in the TV special, canonically named "Ms. O'Schmunsler";
	+ The name "Smilla" has some relevancy to "O'Schmunsler", since the word "schmunzler" is "smile/someone who smiles or smirks" in German, while "Smilla" is of Scandinavian origin and has a similar meaning.
* Athena Funce's first name refers to the TV special's voice actor for Ms. Funce-ler (as for O'Schmunsler), Athena Lorde.
* There is online inconsistency concerning the spelling of Ms. Funce-ler's name;
	+ "Funce-ler" has also been written as "Funceler" or "Funtzler";
	+ Oddly, "O'Schmunsler" has never been entertained the alternate spelling "O'Schmuns-ler".
* Thon Celer's real name, Lavern Aha, refers to Laverna, the goddess of thieves;
	+ In the same vein, as for in the story itself, "Thon Celer" is acknowledged to refer to "The Once-ler".