Gamzee Makara

Gamzee Makara, also known by his Trollian handle terminallyCapricious, is one of the Trolls. His associated zodiac sign is Capricorn (♑) and his horns resemble those of a goat.

He uses purple as a text color, and used to type with each letter alternating case, which (like most things) annoyed Karkat. After going insane, his lines alternate between all caps and all lowercase.

Gamzee was named after forumite Gammy, as well as "Gamze", which is a Turkish word meaning "dimple" or "coquettish look". Makara is the Sanskrit counterpart to the Capricorn sign, as well as referring to a mythological Hindu creature with the hind legs of an aquatic creature and the forelegs of a terrestrial one (much like the Greek Capricorn). This land-sea duality could be taken to represent Gamzee's highblood status among the land dwellers (and his lack of care about caste) as well as his own dual nature.

Gamzee was a member of the Red Team.

Hivebent
Gamzee was HS 3911 (first) shown in his room, which is decorated with posters depicting demonic clowns. Among the things that litter his room are bottles of Faygo, an oversized unicycle, a laptop, juggling clubs, pie tins filled with sopor slime, and several bike horns.

Since his custodian is always out at sea, Gamzee was never brought up very well; he was never taught certain simple things and common troll knowledge, such as the fact that sopor slime is not supposed to be eaten, lest strange things happen to a troll's head. Gamzee's lusus resembles a large mer-goat. This follows the trend of the custodians resembling the zodiac symbol of their charges, as Capricorn is the sign of the goat, or frequently the sea-goat.

Although Gamzee doesn't seem to care about the caste system, he is a higher-up (the highest of the land-dwellers) in the blood-caste system as referenced by Equius, who forces himself to suppress his urges to order Gamzee around, because he has "no right to be disappointed by (Gamzee's) conduct". Equius also appears to believe that Gamzee's love of Faygo and sopor slime is harmful to him, as he states "...you pollute your precious b100d... With your bottled fizzy sugar and soporific to%ins" in HS 4121 (this) conversation. Gamzee is the only purple-blooded troll not seen wearing jewellery, though whether this is because he doesn't care about the system, or because of his juggalo lifestyle, or just because he isn't a sea dweller is hard to tell.

Post-Hivebent
Gamzee hadn't had much to do or say since The Scratch, simply charging people boondollars for a lovely nap on his horn pile or dancing around capriciously. That is, until he runs out of sopor slime pies and comes to the conclusions that 1) it was destroying his brain (true), 2) he is a descendant of the High Subjugglators (true), 3) he is both of the messiahs of his own religion (controversial), 4) he has to kill everyone (highly troubling), and 5) paint pictures with their blood (terrifying). In his rage he also manipulated the dreams of Dave and John, by implanting Lil Cal and a clown plush resembling Jack Noir respectively into their dreams. Ultimately this would lead to John's prototyping of the Harlequin Doll and to Jack's uprising.

It should be noted that Karkat at this point regards Gamzee's declaration as the greatest threat currently facing the surviving trolls, even more so than Eridan's rampage. He says that Gamzee did more damage during the fight with the Black King than any of the other trolls, with the possible exception of Vriska.

Gamzee waits for Equius on a large container holding one of many genetic abominations around the lab similar to his own lusus. Gamzee is finally acting the role of a highblood troll, though Equius is confused by this as he believes it to be Terezi, Gamzee having earlier discovered her glasses. They proceed to have a rather short conversation, Gamzee calling Equius "peasantblood" and shooting him in the leg to make him kneel. He then breaks the bow he had been using previously and strangles him with the bow string, causing Nepeta to leap out of hiding and attack him. Gamzee grabs Nepeta's hand, breaking her wrist, and apparently holds her in midair, and scrapes his own face with her claws. He is later seen with her blood on his club.

Before he is able to confront Vriska and Eridan he is interrupted by a glowing rainbow drinker Kanaya, who kicks him in the groin bone bulge so hard that he is sent flying out of his shoes and off the lab floor. Afterwards, the seemingly unhurt dark messiah leaves some of Vriska's personal possessions and his blood near Nepeta's corpse, presumably to deceive Terezi into believing she has killed not only Tavros and Nepeta, but him as well. He leads her into a trap, making her fall into the music room and constantly screws with her using Cal. He leaves a note written in his own blood, obviously similar to Bro's note to Dave, that spites her into a duel with Vriska. Afterwards, he somehow found the time to collect the bodies of Eridan, Nepeta, Feferi, Equius, and Tavros and cut off their heads. He then set up a mock jury table using the heads (the bodies are placed in glass tubes), called order to the court with his warhammer and proceeded to observe the scourge sisters' meeting. He left Karkat a note as well at some unknown point between the two previous events, using a combination of Terezi's typing quirk and his own, luring him to the roof where Terezi stabs Vriska. The note reads "bro. SLOPPY M4K3OUTS. NOW. on the roof. H3 H3 H3 >:o]"

Shortly after Vriska's death, he resurfaces and confronts Karkat, Terezi, Sollux and Kanaya, wielding the Warhammer of Zillyhoo. Gamzee is however stopped by Karkat's Moirailing.

In [S] Cascade, Gamzee is seen messaging  with Scratch revealing something that upsets him causing him to ask Scratch "AND JUST WHAT THE MOTHER FUCK IS IT that we motherfucking are?" to which Scratch answers "Suckers."

Later, he was seen comforting Karkat, before disappearing with Sollux and Vriska's bodies for reasons that aren't yet clear. One year later he had continued to remaining in hiding with only Karkat knowing his location.

At the end of Myststuck Gamzee HS 6725 (is seen), in God Tier clothing while in possession of Aradia's music box time machines, asking Jane if she would like to have him as her guide, to which Jane (im)politely declines. Gamzee asks her to reconsider before attempting to sell her potions (which can be assumed to be Troll blood). What impact this has, as well as how he managed to ascend to the God Tiers, is unknown as of yet. However, the healed scars from where Nepeta's claws had scratched his face can be seen on him, which indicates that this is the same body he had when his face was scratched. There is a possibility that he achieved the God Tier status during the events of Hivebent, without informing anyone. This would explain why his attack on the Black King did so much damage. He also appears to still be alive since he does not have the whited out eyes that the dead characters have. It is unknown whether this is the Alpha timeline Gamzee or simply an alternate timeline version of him. His God Tier wings also are not in view; UU HS 6465 (has suggested), God Tier wings can be hidden under clothing. An earlier drawing by Hussie shows Gamzee in his god tier outfit with wing spots that match his ":o)" emoticon.

After Jane insists that she does not want him to be her guide in LOCAH, he steps down from her refrigerator the Chest of Whimsy, saying that someone has to be her guide, and proceeds to pull out the dead bodies of Vriska and Tavros (Vriska in her Godtier form, Tavros both legless and decapitated), and throws all the parts at once into Jane's kernelsprite, thus creating Tavrisprite. Presumably, he still possesses Equius, Nepeta, Eridan, Feferi, and Sollux's corpses.



Personality
Gamzee appears to be the troll equivalent of a juggalo, belonging to a cult of capricious minstrels, and his text is littered with references to juggalo subculture. So much so, in fact, that it's something of a miracle in itself that he hasn't uttered the phrase "fuckin' magnets" yet. Another possible reference to his design as a juggalo could be his strife specibi, which is clubkind. Of these, he uses juggling clubs, a pun possibly on juggalos. Though he swears quite a bit, he is a very good natured and laid back troll. He is without question a supportive friend and will do things and make sacrifices, even stop eating sopor-slime pies and drinking his wicked elixir, Faygo, at the request of a friend. Because of his magnanimous personality, Gamzee will frequently act as an adviser or even therapist to his friends, such as Karkat and Eridan, if they are experiencing emotional stress, though his usual counseling involves them waiting for a miracle.

His fetch modus is miracle based, he does not understand how it works and doesn't fucking care to find out. Sometimes he just likes to pick things up and watch the colors. He and Rose are the only characters who have thought to retrieve items from their fetch modi in HS 3923 (the most obvious way). He doesn't like knowing the technology or science behind things, stating that "kNoWiNg ShIt JuSt StEaLs Up AlL tHe FuCkIn MaGiC fRoM mY mIrAcLeS lIkE a MoThErFuCkIn ThIeF.". Vague allusions to his strange horns were made, which turned out to be the bicycle horns strewn on his floor. Sometimes he accidentally steps on one and scares the shit out of himself. He is very good natured, and has seemingly pacified the imps around his house as he is sharing sopor slime pies with them, referring to them as "pretty dope".

"Capricious" means impulsive and/or unpredictable, so this may be an indicator of his personality although most of his actions and conversations have shown him to be more silly and spacey than impulsive. The fact that capricious means unpredictable would go along the lines of how Gamzee believes in "mIrAcLeS" happening all the time- also, in thesauruses, it is seen as synonyms with arbitrary (which means "whimsical, chance") and eccentric. The word capricious could also refer to his given symbol, Capricorn, which shares the same root word.

Gamzee spends the Alterniabound flash capriciously dancing and trying to sell access to his pile of horns. As the Trickster Mode shows, this is in a direct reference to the dancing shopkeepers in The Secret of Mana. In one such instance of his 'Horn pile innkeeper shit', he offered Karkat a nap in the pile of obnoxious noisemakers for 420 boondollars, a reference to the cultural marijuana reference of 4:20. Such would fit well into Gamzee's laid back, stoner-esque personality also in the time lines later on in the game have the number 420 mixed in several times in several different ways ex.) PAST terminallyCapricious [PTC] 420 HOURS AGO responded to memo.FUTURE...terminallyCapricious [FTC] 0:42:00 HOURS FROM NOW responded to memo. He has a hidden darker side to his personality, which is in line with him being capricious. Since this is the case, a lack of the sopor slime that was suppressing this nature has proved HS 5258 (downright terrifying).

His breakdown leads to a change in typing quirk, his lines alternate between caps and lowercase instead of single letters. As noted by Equius, his volume 'flu%uates', implying that he speaks calmly every other line while YELLING ON EVERY OTHER MOTHER-FUCKING LINE. In this form, he holds the lower-blooded trolls in high contempt, even more so than Equius, and demands that they "kneel" in his presence. He also becomes, or perhaps always was, a crack shot with a bow, capable of taking out an incredibly powerful prototyped enemy with two arrows in the eyes. Gamzee's serial killer mentality also leads him to leave disturbing messages around the walls, splattering an "are you next? :o)" on one with Tavros' blood.

He asphyxiates Equius to death with a broken-bow garotte, bringing Equius to the happiest and most ironic of all possible submissive demises. It was HS 4121 (the best fuckin miracle he ever did part of.) He then bludgeons Nepeta to death. Curiously, he appears to be missing one of his clubs after the encounter, but also takes her blue claws as trophies.

He seems to have an obsession with collecting the bodies of his victims and has been observed beheading them, preserving them in glass tubes and, according to Kanaya, HS 6257 (kissing them, sometimes). This may be more than a suspicion, as when he's seen sitting next to Tavros's beheaded body, his lips are covered in blood. This obsession may or may not have a connection to his ancestor's practice of painting his walls with the blood of his victims.

Gamzee's prowess with multiple weapon types may be a result of his dangerous jokerkind strife specibus, apparently allowing him to use any weapon as a wildcard.

Relationships
Gamzee apparently sees Karkat as his best friend, despite a strained relationship from Karkat's end, becoming a huge understatement later on. Gamzee doesn't take Karkat's insults seriously, and always checks up on him. Later on, Karkat is shown as expressing worry about Gamzee when he disappears, afraid he's gotten hurt, and even says that he should maybe look for him later. He is also horrified by Gamzee's new personality, trying desperately to snap him out of it. Finally, Karkat admits that he was not only Gamzee's best friend, but Gamzee was his best friend as well. Nepeta's Shipping wall later shows her opinion that Karkat and Gamzee are (or should be) moirails. This relationship comes to fruition after Gamzee's flipout, and actually seems to HS 5995 (end it.)

Gamzee also appears to have a strong relationship with Tavros. They form one of the worst rapping duos in, well, all of paradoxspace. Tavros's mood and text seems a lot more confident and mellow when talking to Gamzee, thus making them closer friends than anticipated. They also refer to each other as "bros" in a respectful way, also copying each other's faces as seen HS 4023 (in this conversation). It is strongly referenced that Gamzee once had flushed feelings for Tavros, seen in HS 5886 (this pesterlog), even suggesting that they should make out at the end of said conversation, although Tavros seems highly disturbed at the thought.

After finding Tavros' corpse, Gamzee is seen with his HS 5927 (blood on his lips) implying that he tried to revive him (Although this is questionable, as he states that he wants to kill ALL of the trolls) or just had sloppy necrophiliac makeouts. It is unknown if Gamzee has any knowledge of Tavros and Vriska's complicated relationship.

He has lots of other friends too. Friendship is beautiful. Life is beautiful.

However, what isn't beautiful is the VIDEO for the Insane Clown Posse song "Miracles". Gamzee calls the song "BlAsPhEmY" after Dave HS 4718 (sends him) a link to it. The result led to Gamzee engaging his Hero Mode with an interesting purple 'lightning' effect surrounding him. He has also shown signs of kismesis affection for Dave before kicking off one of the best rap offs in the history of paradox space.

Later on, Gamzee does a graceful fucking pirouette-swan-dive off the deep end, possibly because of a combination of running out of slime for his pies and having a major faith crisis because of the video Dave showed him. This puts him into a rage that causes him to make the kids' universe "Terminal". Gamzee has now declared his intentions to murder the rest of the trolls to show them the new interpretation of his religion. However Karkat's combinations of "HS 005988 (shooshes)" and "HS 005989 (paps)" seem to have ended his rage.

Lusus/Kernelsprite
Gamzee's lusus is a giant goat-like sea creature. It had apparently often been out to sea instead of caring for Gamzee as a custodian is supposed to - about the only useful advice it ever gave Gamzee was "keep away from the ocean". It was killed after Karkat ran the Mobius Double Reacharound Virus, speared by what appears to be a harpoon or something similar. It has been speculated that Eridan Ampora is responsible, possibly because of his hatred of littering -- revenge for Gamzee throwing trash into the sea, or just his genocidal tendencies toward land dwellers. Opposing this theory is the fact that Eridan's weapon is Ahab's Crosshairs, a rifle that shoots energy blasts, not a harpoon gun. Although, there is a regular harpoon pointed towards the sea in Eridan's window...

When Gamzee is sitting atop the tube on HS 005338 ([S] Equius: Seek the highb100d), a genetically engineered knight creature very similar to his lusus can be seen inside the tube.

Trivia

 * Gamzee was named by Alyssa after the forumgoer Gammy.
 * Gamzee's two personalities, one smiling, the other frowning, are similar to the masks of Tragedy and Comedy.
 * Gamzee is one of three trolls that are seen trolling Jade HS 3290 (here), although he didn't take a keen interest in trolling the kids in the first place.
 * Purple is the color of death in some East Asian countries, while simultaneously being the color of royalty in European countries, which might relate to Gamzee's desire to kill the Trolls as well as his hereditary nobility.
 * Gamzee's juggling clubs look quite a bit like the PX3 Vegas club by Play.
 * In the conversation with Dave, Gamzee says, "Double metaphor all the way across Skaia : o )," a possible reference to the double rainbow video where the person in the video is overly-excited when he saw a double rainbow, saying hilarious things like "double rainbow all the way across the sky."
 * When filled with murderous intent, Gamzee's eyes are shown to be dark orange rather than the golden color troll eyes normally are. This can be taken as a measurement of how crazy he is.
 * Currently, Gamzee is the only troll who has not been seen dead.
 * That being said, he had to have died at some point to have reached god-tier.
 * Gamzee's obsession with "MiRaClEs" is most likely a reference to the Insane Clown Posse song "Miracles."
 * The Miracles music video that sent him into a murderous rage was sent to him before it was even chronologicaly made in the earth timeline, deliberately given to Dave to trigger Gamzee's killing spree.
 * Since Gamzee is the Bard of Rage, this could be a tribute or reference to the clown bard from Problem Sleuth, the relation having to due with his title, the bard, and his affiliation with clowns.
 * Gamzee's God-tier design was revealed by Hussie on Tumblr, he repeatedly emphasized it as being canon, and it was later HS 6725 (revealed to be true).
 * In a short tumblr Q&A session, Andrew joked that Gamzee is the shortest of the twelve trolls, deliberately going against what he considered most people's assumption that he was the tallest. He later confirmed that the trolls height and other aspects are up to the readers interpretation.
 * When Kanaya HS 5424 (kicks him out of his shoes), it is shown that Gamzee does not wear socks.
 * Gamzee's codpiece in his God Tier outfit is reference to Bard Quest, one of Hussie's earlier adventures. The main character, the Bard, spends a great deal of the unfinished story trying to obtain a codpiece.