Mean Girls/Characters

The Plastics

• Girl Posse
• Large and In Charge: The two dominant members (Cady and Regina) are noticably taller than the two followers (Gretchen and Karen.)

Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan)

Cady (narrating) : I know it looked like I was being a bitch, but that's only because I was acting like a bitch.

• Alpha Bitch: After Becoming the Mask
• Becoming the Mask
• Face Heel Turn --> Heel Face Turn
• From Nobody to Nightmare
• Naive Newcomer
• Red Headed Heroine
• Tragic Hero: Actually manages to be a near-textbook example.
• True Neutral -> Chaotic Good -> Lawful Evil -> Neutral Good
• What the Hell, Hero?

Regina George (Rachel McAdams)

• Alpha Bitch
  • Lovable Alpha Bitch: Post Heel Face Turn (made much more apparent in the original script.)
• Blondes Are Evil
• Butt Monkey: Regina George, the butt of all of Cady's tricks and pranks. She probably deserves it, though.
• Can't Get Away with Nuthin': You KNOW it's true.
• The Chessmaster: Comes up with her plan to get revenge on Cady and throw the entire school into chaos whilst screaming her lungs out.
• Even the Girls Want Her
• Heel Face Turn: At the end.
• Hollywood Pudgy: Regina "balloons" up to a size 6. Though at the height of her weight gain, the special effects crew did shove a pillow up under her shirt. Arguably intentional, to show how high Regina's standards are.
  • Tina Fey comments on this commentary and notes that Regina at her fattest in the movie is probably around Tina Fey's own weight.
• Jerkass
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Turns into this.
• Large Ham
• Manipulative Bitch
• Neutral Evil -> Chaotic Neutral/Chaotic Good
• Rich in Dollars, Poor In Sense: Regina in a specific example. She could rattle off several mostly-illegal weight loss drugs (most of which either were expensive before being banned or would be expensive to ship from countries where they're still legal.) Yet, she didn't know enough about health and nutrition to know whether or not butter is a carb. It's especially egregious because almost any health class is going to teach nutrition and in general, most teenage girls are so body-conscious that they know more about nutrition than most professional dietitians.
• Spoiled Brat
• Villainous Breakdown: When she realizes that Cady deliberately made her gain weight. But then she recovers almost immediately and turns right back into the Chessmaster.

Gretchen Wieners (Lacey Chabert)

• Heel Face Turn: At the end.
• Heterosexual Life Partners: With Karen.
• Hidden Depths: She confesses to Cady that she's secretly miserable as Regina's friend and has to pretend to like and not like certain things to get Regina's approval.
• Informed Judaism
• Lawful Evil -> Lawful Neutral
• Minion with an F In Evil: Not as much as Karen, but still rather incompetant in bitchiness.
• So Beautiful It's a Curse: "I'm sorry that people are so jealous of me... but I can't help it that I'm so popular."
• Stepford Smiler
• Villainous Breakdown: "STAB CEASAR!!!"
• Yandere

Karen Smith (Amanda Seyfried)

• Blondes Are Evil: Subverted; she's pretty nice mostly and is easily the least malicious of the Plastics (Cady included.)
• Brainless Beauty: One of the iconic examples!
• Cloudcuckoolander
• Dumb Blonde
• Heel Face Turn: At the end.
• Heterosexual Life Partners: With Gretchen.
• Kissing Cousins
• Minion with an F In Evil: Oh yes.
• The Pollyanna: As well as being the least malicious Plastic she's easily the happiest too, lacking Regina's rage, Gretchen's crippling neurose, or Cady's need to fit in. She's even aware of (and comfortable with) the knowledge she's not very bright.
• Token Good Teammate
• True Neutral: Too stupid to have any other.

Others

Ms. Sharon Norbury (Tina Fey)

• Brainy Brunette
• Hot Teacher
• Reasonable Authority Figure

Janis Ian (Lizzy Caplan)

• Ambiguously Gay: Is Janis Ian a lesbian? Damn hard to say.
  • She could easily be Bi the Way, considering she dates Kevin at the end of the movie.
• Brainy Brunette
• Chaotic Neutral / Chaotic Good: She's good, except for her all-consuming desire for revenge on Regina.
• Cool Loser
• Deadpan Snarker
• Fallen Princess: Janis used to be popular, but her reputation was destroyed by a rumor and she now willingly embraces outsiderdom.
• Former Friend of Alpha Bitch
• Heel Face Turn: At the end.
• Opposite-Sexed Homosexual Life Partners: With Damien
• Important Haircut: Offscreen. After Regina spread the rumor in middle school that Janis was a lesbian, Janis dropped out of school for the rest of the year; when she returned in the fall, "all her hair was cut off, and she was totally weird."
• Karma Houdini: Janis, who, despite influencing and encouraging Cady to join the Plastics specifically to damage Regina, gets zero comeuppance when she reveals it to the entire crowd of girls following the revelation of the Burn Book.
• Not So Different: Though Janis wants revenge on Regina, she's as spiteful and manipulative as she is when it comes to Cady.
• Villainous Breakdown: When she realizes that Cady has become the mask.

Damian (Daniel Franzese)

• Camp Gay: Damian is "too gay to function," though to be fair he is only mildly flamboyant.
• Deadpan Snarker
• Opposite-Sexed Homosexual Life Partners: With Janis Ian
• Paper-Thin Disguise: A Running Gag