History Characters / Euphoria

* KickTheDog: There is no way to spin Rue's actions in episode 3 of season 2 as positive. She deliberately gaslights Gia into thinking she's just smoking weed, playing off suicidal ideations to get Gia to trust her. She also violently attacks Leslie. Then she brings up the worst pain of Ali's life to hurt him when he confronts her over her using.

* DrivenByEnvy: [[spoiler: The reason why she turns against Maddy in season 2.]]

* {{Flanderization}}: [[spoiler: She becomes more desperate for love and male validation in season 2 as she falls in love with Nate.]]

* GoodCounterpart: To both Rue and Cassie, spelled out by Rue in the season 2 finale. Their traumas are very similar (in fact, she has the exact same trauma as Cassie), but unlike their responses, which ended up with them developing extremely destructive and dangerous habits, Rue believes that Lexi "figured out" what to do with herself, and is extremely more put together than either of them.
->'''Rue:''' I've been through a lot and I don't know what to do with it, but you've been through a lot and you know how to do with it.[...] Look what you made, I don't know how to do that, I don't know how to get where you are.

* HollywoodAtheist: Subverted. She reveals she is an atheist in the season 2 premiere and even asks Fezco how he can reconcile his belief in God with drug dealing. Fezco admits he doesn't have an answer. He's mildly perturbed by hearing this, but Lexi's atheism otherwise isn't portrayed negatively (she's really nice overall, probably one of the most together characters on the show). She also doesn't really judge others for their beliefs, and doesn't mock or critique Fezco for his beliefs, merely asks him about them.

* MostWritersAreWriters: It's revealed in season 2 that Lexi's main way of coping with her difficult family situation has been to imagine it as a TV show and then taking to writing all her experiences down like a script, eventually ending up with a whole play.

** KarmaHoudiniWarranty: The first episode of season 2 has Fez [[spoiler:follow through on his threat of violence from the last season, beating the absolute ''shit'' out of Nate to the point of him needing hospitalization.]] However, it's also not ''that'' much of a vindication.
* LackOfEmpathy: [[spoiler:In the first episode of season 2, Nate and Cassie are having sex in the bathroom at a party when Maddy starts knocking on the door and recognizes Nate's voice and demands he open the door. Cassie starts sobbing and Nate is completely bewildered as to why she's crying as she "hasn't been caught," evidently [[EvilCannotComprehendGood unable to understand]] Cassie's [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone guilt and panic]].]]

* RealWomenDontWearDresses: Nate's beliefs about women are an inversion of this trope, as revealed in episode 2:

** It's indicated in both his comments in [=McKay=]'s party and in another one made by Lexi in season 2 that he's one of the people that said [[SlutShaming mean things]] about Cassie and yet [[spoiler:he has sex with her later on.]]

* TookALevelInKindness: It's VERY minor, but after what he goes through in season 2, he takes baby steps to become slightly less of a horrible person. [[spoiler:He gives Jules the CD of her affair with Cal mostly out of altruism (the brutal method he used to obtain it notwithstanding) and apologizes for what he did to her. While he's still a horrible boyfriend to Cassie, it was not nearly to the level it was with Maddy, who he was flat-out abusive toward. Not perfect, but progress. Finally, he deals with his issues with Cal in a much healthier way by doing the right thing and getting the authorities involved, rather than resort to direct violence, as it was implied were his basic instincts on the matter.]]

* OddFriendship: He strikes one up with Lexi in the season 2 premiere [[spoiler:that develops into them having mutual feelings for each other over the course of the season]]. By the finale, [[LampshadeHanging he even acknowledges how unlikely their pairing is]].

* ParentalSubstitute: He has a close relationship with the younger Ashtray, though actor Angus Cloud states they aren't related. In season 2, it's revealed that Ashtray was abandoned as a baby at Fezco and his grandmother's home and they have raised him ever since.

* ShipTease: With Lexi. During the first episode of season 2, he's seen slyly flirting with her during a party and asking for her number before he has to go.

* AffablyEvil: He seems to have cultivated an image as a traditional family man in the town. In reality, he consistently and often cheats on his wife, mainly with ''much'' younger partners such as the seventeen-year-old Jules. He can also be a huge bully, as seen in season 2 when he aggressively pressures Cassie into revealing who assaulted Nate (in front of Lexi and their mother no less), but he never loses his affability, even seeming genuinely disturbed by finding out that Jules is underage.

** [[spoiler:In the season 2 finale, Nate approaches him and lets him know about the trauma he suffers as a result of having seen his videos at a young age. He produces a flash drive containing all of the videos, and Cal hears the approaching sirens of police, which were tipped off by him ahead of time. He begs Nate not to send him away, in the most vulnerable and fearful state we've ever seen him in thus far, but Nate simply says that he doesn't believe he will ever change, and the police arrive and arrest him shortly after.]]

* AntiVillain: While there's no doubt his sexual behavior is ''very'' predatory and borderline illegal, it's made clear as the first season progresses that he's not really a malicious person (e.g. in episode 4, he's horrified to find out that Jules is an underage teenager and politely begs her not to tell anyone about their hookup).

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: In the Season 2 episode "You Who Cannot See, Think of Those Who Can", he chews out and walks out on his wife and sons in the middle of the night for their perceived involvement in the unhappiness he's experienced in his adult life (in a mixture of drunkenness and just simply not caring anymore after his humiliation at the hands of Fez and Ashtray). [[spoiler:He is seen again in the season 2 finale, where he is arrested because Nate decided to take revenge on him.]]

* PromotedToOpeningTitles: In season 2.

* FatalFlaw: Aggression. Ashtray has a habit of acting before thinking things through, and immediately resorting to violence whenever he feels any sign of a threat. [[spoiler:Killing Mouse to protect Fezco at the start of season 2 turns out to only cause trouble, culminating in Custer cornering the two at the end of the season, trying to get Fez to reveal his role in the murder. Even when Faye tries to get the situation under control, Ashtray still decides to kill Custer against Fez's wishes. Fez makes one last attempt to save him by telling him to surrender to the police and let him take the fall for Custer's death, but Ashtray's instinct still tells him to fight, to which he locks himself in the bathroom with multiple guns and engages in a shootout with the police that break in. This not only results in his death but also leads to him unwittingly shooting Fez in the stomach.]]

* PromotedToOpeningTitles: In season 2.

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: His [[spoiler:killing of Mouse has major repercussions that push a lot of season 2 forward: Fezco must go with Custer to meet Laurie, where Rue meets her; Custer is then pressured into cooperation with the police which leads to the circumstances wherein Custer and Ashtray himself are killed and Fezco arrested. By protecting his brother, he winds up hurting him]].

* DemotedToExtra: [=McKay=] is a fairly prominent character in the first season, but after [[spoiler:he breaks it off with Cassie for good and brings an injured Nate to the hospital]] he is not seen for the rest of season 2.

* PutOnABus: He is absent in season 2.

Custer's girlfriend who begins living with Fezco and Ashtray in season 2.

* BrokenTears: [[spoiler:Rue collapses sobbing after Jules leaves her for LA in the end of season 1.]]

* DrugsAreBad: Having zig-zagged DrugsAreGood all of season 1, this is fully in effect by Season 2; she's destroyed all her relationships and is forced to go crawling to Laurie, who seems planning to force her into prostitution.

* WillTheyOrWontThey: She has this with Ethan throughout season 1. [[spoiler:They get together, but it doesn't last past Season 2.]]

* KickTheDog: She had her moments in season 1, such as gaslighting and threatening Cassie when she [[spoiler: asked about the dick pics on Nate's phone and giving the police false testimony about Tyler in order to prevent Nate from going to jail.]] While the latter moment is not very justifiable, her other less-than-pleasant tendencies can be understandable as her relationship with Nate was becoming more toxic throughout the season.

* PetTheDog: Despite being very abrasive, Maddy is shown to be fiercely protective of her friends, calling BB a cunt for making fun of Kat being a virgin, or calling out Kat for being a bad friend when Cassie has her issues with Mckay. She gets along very well with Theo, the kid she babysits in Season Two, and their scenes together show a softer side to Maddy who genuinely likes him. She also has a sweet moment with Lexi encouraging her to be more confident.

* TookALevelInKindness: While still hot-headed and emotional, she's a lot kinder in season two away from Nate's influence.

** In season 1, she cheats on [=McKay=] with Daniel on two separate occasions, indicating that she was always a disloyal person.

* ButtMonkey: Is consistently humiliated during the course of Season Two.
* BuxomBeautyStandard: Played with, she is a slender, busty young woman and [[BigBreastPride loves showcasing her figure]] but the attention she got from older men as a younger girl (men she grew up knowing and were leering at her) can be degrading.

* DirtyCoward: [[spoiler:Cassie hides in her bathroom from Maddy when Rue exposes the fact that she's been sleeping with Nate. In the season two finale, Cassie attacks the actress playing her in Lexi's show but then immediately tries to run away when Maddy runs up on stage.]]

* HeelRealization: [[spoiler:It's implied that Cassie has finally realized what a terrible person she's become after getting beat up by Maddy in the season two finale. But for now, it's ambiguous if she genuinely feels remorse for betraying Maddy or is just upset about being publicly humiliated by her sister and then beat up after Nate dumped her.]]

** To Rue, particularly in Season Two. Both Cassie and Rue are the older of two sisters, lost their father as a young teen, and developed addictions ("love" from men and drugs, respectively) as an unhealthy coping mechanism to that loss. In Season Two, both of them use duplicitous means to satiate their addictions and are willing to hurt and betray those they love for a fix. Tellingly, when their actions are revealed, Rue and Cassie each try to throw each other under the bus to divert attention. [[spoiler: Becomes a ShadowArchetype in the end of Season Two, as Rue's mother and sister get Rue the psychiatric help she needs and she begins to sober up. Meanwhile, Cassie's mother is merely exasperated with Cassie's mental instability and Cassie ends up leaving to live with Nate. Cassie's behavior after Nate dumps her, attempting to ruin Lexi's play and refuse to apologize for betraying Maddy, clearly remind Rue of her own actions after ''her'' addiction was taken away.]]

* AntagonisticOffspring: Towards his father Cal, whom he resents to the point of nearly assaulting him in the season 1 finale. In Rue's narration, she also mentions that Nate doesn't like his mother because he considers her "weak."

** Nate makes fun of [=McKay=] for dating Cassie due to her sexuality history, repeatedly slut-shaming her, and insisting that [=McKay=] should dump her. [[spoiler:In Season Two, Nate not only sleeps with Cassie, but almost immediately believes himself to be in love with her and starts a romantic relationship with her.]]

** When Cassie threatens to reveal [[spoiler:their relationship]] to Maddy, Nate accuses her of blackmailing him, after blackmailing Jules and Tyler in Season One.

* KarmaHoudini: By the end of season 1, [[spoiler:Nate has gotten away with his domestic abuse of Maddy, assault on Tyler, and blackmailing Jules. And only a couple of people really know how despicable he really is.]]

* {{Leitmotif}}: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgDMTorgCPg "Nate Growing Up"]], which plays in various scenes that focus on him, including his backstory narration in episode 2.
* ManipulativeBastard: Much of his season 1 storyline has him [[spoiler:blackmailing Jules so he would get off the hook for abuse charges.]]

Rue's sweet younger sister, who ends up [[spoiler:dabbling in drugs]] by the end of season one. One of the few people Rue genuinely cares about.

* NiceGuy: Generally a decent and patient guy who has a crush on Kat, whom [[spoiler:he eventually hooks up and enters a relationship with by the end of season 1]]. He might be one of the few characters who is sincerely this.

* WillTheyOrWontThey: [[spoiler:[[RelationshipUpgrade He and Kat do]], at the end of season 1, but they break up in season 2.]]

** It's implied that some of Cassie's behavior in Season Two is a result of Daniel brutally tearing into her self esteem and "confirming" thoughts she's already had about her worth.

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: She runs away to LA at the end of Season 1.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: [[spoiler: He only genuinely apologizes twice in the series. The first is to Jules for how he treated her. He not only admits she didn't deserve it, but gives Jules his Dad's sex tape as proof of his sincerity, despite knowing it would destroy his Dad's business.[[note]] This is the whole reason he went to such lengths to get it from Maddy[[/note]] The second is after playing ''Russian Roulette'' on top of Maddy, even admitting that was too far. He is even clearly disturbed by Cassie's sadistic and volatile behaviour.]]

** KarmaHoudiniWarranty: The first episode of season 2 has Fez [[spoiler:follow through on his threat of violence from the last season, beating the absolute ''shit'' out of Nate to the point of him needing hospitalization.]]

* TroubledAbuser: Nate is an abusive partner to Maddy and has a heap of issues himself, particularly with his father. [[spoiler:He has massive esteem and self-image issues, might be struggling with his own sexuality, and is a mess of psychological problems.]]

* GoodIsNotSoft: As nice as he is, he has no problem being rough or harsh to do what's right.
** [[spoiler:When he lets Rue into his house in "Stand Still Like the Hummingbird," he ends up catching her trying to steal some of his grandma's medication. When she rationalizes her actions by saying she'll only take a few pills, Fez denies her still, saying, "It's the principle, Rue. [[TheGoldenRule It's not right.]]" He then tells her to leave, and when she gets violent, he has to resort to dragging and throwing her out.]]

* InformedPoverty: Maddy comes from a low income family, yet is almost always wearing high quality clothes and make up.

* TwoferTokenMinority: More like triple: she's Black, gay, and struggles with mental illness.

* UnkemptBeauty: She often dresses in a very masculine, stripped-down way with messy hair and a plain face, but her beauty is clear. Even when her makeup gets ruined, she's still gorgeous. She's also played by one of the most gorgeous woman in Hollywood.