Portraits revealed through your current reading position.
Carl's abusive father, recalled when Donut's warning about the ring echoes his mother's words to him.
Invoked only in memory. When Princess Donut tells Carl that he is scaring her and demands he throw the Ring of Divine Suffering away, the words land like a slap because Carl immediately thinks of how many times his mother had said exactly that to his father.
The comparison frames Carl's ring-fueled rage as an inheritance he is at risk of repeating, and it is what makes him take a deep breath — though he still refuses to give the ring up yet.
The absent parental example Carl fears he is turning into under the ring's influence.
Also appears in books you've already read — spoiler-safe to their endings: