History Characters / Metropolis

* {{Expy}}: He is [[TheFutureEve the Professor X to his robot's Hadaly,]] down to his mild sexism and his dabbling with magic. However, he is far mor slobby than his inspiration, looking more like a worker than his fellow upper class members.

* StuffedIntoTheFridge: Subverted. She really wasn't, as her death was an accident. [[VictimBlaming However, both Rotwang and Joh Fredersen's mother act as if Hel's death was Joh Fredersen's fault.]]

* NoNameGiven: His name is never revealed. Considering that he is just a character in a (not quite accurate) retelling of a story from TheBible, he might not even have one.

* LovesTheSoundOfScreaming: Implied. It mentions hearing the screams of every mother who drowned when it covered the entire planet in TheBible, and it doesn't seem all that bothered by it.

* TheGreatFlood: It claims to be THE Great Flood from TheBible, having returned to cause more death and misery.

* DiseaseBleach: Exaggerated. His hair goes from black to white in a matter of minutes when he sees his son fight Rotwang on the roof of the cathedral. Doubles as a ExpositoryHairstyleChange, as this also shows the final step in his HeelFaceTurn.

* EvilCounterpart: To Freder, especially in the novel. They are both HotBlooded [[MadScientist Mad Scientists]] who have a intense hatred of Joh Fredersen and fall in love with the robots they have built, only to abandon them and develop an obsession with Maria. The difference between them is that while Freder reconciles with his father, Rotwang doesn't, and ends up fighting him in a battle to the death (though both survive.) Freder also manages to woo Maria, making their relationship consensual, while Rotwang ends up trying to rape her.

* AdaptationalHeroism: Done inadvertedly in the Pollock cut of the movie, where most of his villainy was left on the cutting room floor, making him come off like a CreepyGood SatelliteCharacter.

* EvilWearsBlack: He is dressed entirely in clothes that are - at the very least - dark enough to look black in grayscale, and he is rather villainous, even if he has some noble qualities.

** This makes her an interesting {{Foil}} to one of her inspirations - Hadaly from Literature/TheFutureEve - a BenevolentAI [[EasyAIJustAddWater who was said to have gotten a soul in a way her creator did not understand.]]

* ImaginaryFriend: Though "friend" is perhaps not the right word.

* InsaneForgiveness: In the novel, he forgives Freder for trying to murder him almost immediately. This is a pretty stark contrast to the way he treats most other people.

* InsaneForgiveness: At the end of the story, she has forgiven both Joh Fredersen and the workers. The former was partially responsible for her and a thousand children almost drowning, and the latter wanted to burn her alive.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Every unnamed upper class member seem to disappaer at the end of the film, even the large crowd of partygoers who hung out with Futura. It's possible that most people stayed inside because of the power outage and the rioting workers, and that Futura's entourage were scared away/knocked unconsious/killed by the workers.

* AdaptationalHeroism: In the novel, Freder was an AntiHero struggling with his own morality who attacked his father in a fit of rage, but regretted it immediately. In the movie, he is unambigiously good.

* MadOracle: He comes off a bit like this, due to his constant thematically appropiate visions and rather HotBlooded nature.
* MadScientist: Though unlike Rotwang, this doesn't have any huge inpact on the plot, and it was completely removed in the film with no major changes to the story.

* ReluctantPsycho: In the novel, he genuinly starts to worry about his own sanity when he assaults his own father after seeing him embrace what he thinks is Maria.

* InterruptedSuicide: He tries to take his life to avoid being sent down to the workers' city, but Freder stops him.

* TakingAThirdOption: After losing his job, he decides to shoot himself in the head rather than becoming a worker. Fortunatly, Freder saves him from both fates by hiring him himself instead.

** AdaptationalVillainy: On the other hand, his goals are more selfish in the movie, as he is only trying to stay in charge, rather than improving his society. He also doesn't get as much CharacterDevelopment, making it more ambigious if his HeelFaceTurn is genuine. The removal of the Hel subplot in the Pollock version can also make him come off as less sympathic.

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: For all his faults, he genuinly cares about his family.

* {{Gaslighting}}: He does this to Freder in the book by saying that there was no girl in the room and that he was just imagining things. His goal is just to make Freder forget about it, but unfortunatly it convinces Freder that he can't tell the difference between fantasy and reality, which doesn't do wonders for his mental health.

* NonActionBigBad: Subverted. He ''seems'' like he would be this, gven that he is a middle-aged, suit-wearing industrialist who lets his cronies do all the work. However, he mamages to beat Rotwang, who later gives his much younger, rather muscular son a run for his money, unconsious.
* RestartTheWorld: In the novel, he wants to do this on a smaller scale with the city of Metropolis. Intrestingly enough, he is trying to destroy his own idea of an utopia so that his son Freder, the hero of the story, can turn it into a paradse.

* WellIntentionedExtremist: He genuinly thinks that he is doing what is best for the workers by locking them up underground and forcing them to working themselves to death.

* AmbiguouslyJewish: He has a pentagram, which is constantly refered to as "The seal of Solomon" in the novel, on his front door. He is also implied to use dark magic, which - historically - was a common stereotype of jews.

* {{Determinator}}: Losing a hand didn't stop him from finishing his robot. One a darker note, by the end of the story he isn't letting anything stop him from making love to the woman he thinks is Hel, [[AttemptedRape not even her lack of consent.]]

* EvilCounterpart: To Freder, especially in the novel. They are both HotBlooded [[MadScientist Mad Scientists]] who have a intense hatred of Joh Fredersen and fall in love with the robots they have built, only to abandon them and develop an obsession with Maria. The difference between them is that while Freder reconciles with his father, Rotwang doesn't, and ends up fighting him in a battle to the death (though both survive.) Freder also manages to woo Maria, making their relationship consential, while Rotwang ends up trying to rape her.

* OmnidisciplinaryScientist: Inventing, building and programming a RobotGirl from scratch all by himself - apparently without any previous research on the subject existing - would already qualify him for this trope, but he also invented a chemical formula that makes walls completely soundproof, built himself a working prostetic hand, and quite possibly sculpted an enourmous memorial and studied the dark arts too.
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: He has some rather... bigoted ideas about the opposite gender. In the book, for instance, he tells Maria that women are not capable of feeling love.

* VillainousBreakdown: After waking up from being knocked unconsious by Joh Fredersen, he loses all of his remaining sanity, believing that he is dead and that Maria is his beloved Hel.

* AIIsACrapshoot: Subverted. She is both evil and insane, but she is also perfectly loyal and working just as she should. Unfortunatly, her masters aren't exactly saints, either.
** The Pollock cut of the film subverts it in a different way. She genuinly does betray her masters, but she only became untrustworthy because they didn't give her a soul.

* DragonTheirFeet: She pretty much becomes the ''de facto'' BigBad by carrying out Joh Fredersen's and Rotwang's orders after they have been taken out of commision by their respective [[VillainousBreakdown Villainous Breakdowns.]] (Rotwang remains a threat - and is the last person to be fought - but he is to insane at this point to involve himself with her rebellion.)

* EvilCounterpart: To Maria, obivously, but also to Hel (both being women taken from Rotwang by Joh Fredersen) and to the harem girls (as they are also constantly smiling, female servants dressed in revealing outfits who do as they are told.)

* FauxActionGirl: She likes seeing people suffer, she seems pretty excited about destroying the machines during her speech, and she later leads the revolution like a FrontlineGeneral, but the only thing she actually does herself during it is pulling a lever. Also, despite being a robot she is taken down by a single, unarmed man (albeit a strong one.) Arguably justifeid in that she wasn't built for combat.

* PsychoForHire: She is this to Joh Fredersen, though if anyone is getting paid for her sevices it's Rotwang, and even that isn't certain.

* TheSoulless: The Pollock version explicably states that she doesn't have a soul (with the implication that Rotwang could have given her one if Mr. Masterman had wanted to - and if Rotwang had known ''how'' to do it.)
** This makes her an interesting {{Foil}} to one of her inspirations - Hadaly From Literature/TheFutureEve - a BenevolentAI [[EasyAIJustAddWater who was said to have gotten a soul in a way her creator did not understand.]]

* WickedWitch: She has a very hammy, witch-like personality, and the workers actually accuse her of witchcraft. It's debatable if she has any actual magical powers, but she is definately wicked.

* NobleTopEnforcer: He is a ruthless and somewhat sadistic interrogator, but he genuinly seems to care about the well-being of both Freder and Joh Fredersen. He also calls Fredersen out when his plan results in the possible deaths of hundreds of innocent children.

* CreatorCameo: Maybe. It has been pointed out that her bust resembles script writer Thea von Harbou (who could, [[HalfTruth in a way,]] really be said to be Freder's mother.)

* MeaningfulName: She was named after the godess of death from Myth/NorseMythology. (Not after {{Hell}}, as some might think.)

* TheUnfairSex: Both Rotwang and Joh Fredersen's mother blame Fredersen for making her leave Rotwang, event though she claimed in her letter that she genuinly liked Fredersen better. NeverSpeakIllOfTheDead might be a factor.

* FantasticDrug: He is handing out one called Maohee to his customers, which lets them experience each others emotions. He is willing to keep on doing this and even cover up its very existance despite knowing that it can have some nasty side effects if a sufficiently depressed person is hooked up to the HiveMind.

* YellowPeril: Downplayed. He runs a Japanese nightclub, but he is only partially asian, and he is more of an amoral, greedy businessman than an outright villain. Compared with Joh Fredersen, Rotwang or even Slim, he is completely harmless.

* AdaptedOut: His only scene in the movie was cut for its international release, and is one of the movie's few deleted scenes that is still thought to be missing. A couple of photos is all that remains of Fritz Rasp's portrayal of the character (not counting the later dream scene where the Thin Man turns into him.)

* DemotedToExtra: Even if you ignore the fact that his scene is missing, his role is still very much reduced in the film, where he comes of like a random paranoid preacher.

* HandicappedBadass: She may be an almost completely paralysed old lady confined to a wheelchair, but her mind and her tounge are still as sharp as ever.
* KeepingTheEnemyClose: She isn't an outright enemy, but she not on Joh Fredersen's side either, and it's implied that this may have been part of the reason why Joh forced her to move into the city.

The man who originally built Rotwang's house. Believed to be a powerful wizard he was feared and hated by his community. One day he simply disappeared, and his house remained empty until Rotwang moved in.

* CassandraTruth: Freder doesn't believe him when he says that he saw Maria at two places at once. Of course, neither one of them knows about her {{Doppelganger}}.

* ManOnFire: His clothes are caught on fire when the False Maria hits him with a burning torch. This eventually leads to him plummenting off an elevated walkway, killing him.
* MrExposition: This is essentially his role in the story. He meets Freder and tells him about Futura's dance number and that another friend of theirs has commited suicide.

* TheVoiceless: The movie doesn't give him a single line of dialouge.

The man who organises the parties in The Eternal Gardens. When Maria and the children show up, he orders the guards to throw them out. Freder then asks him who she was, to no avail.

* BaldOfEvil: He is not really evil, but he acts antagonistic towards Maria and he is balding.

* DirtyOldMan: He could be interperated as one, considering that he has a job where he is surrounded by attractive women in skimpy outfits. He also asks one of them to turn around twice to really get a good look at her dress... and also her exposed back.

Women specifically trained to serve and entertain the richest young men in the city. Freder is hanging out with one of them when he first meets Maria. In the book, it is stated that they are the ones who takes care of the worker's children after they are taken to the Sons' Club.

* {{Bowdlerise}}: Some versions of the movie never states that they are... "pleasure servants" and instead implies that they are simply rich women wearing somewhat risque outfits (for the 20s). The Pollock version notably cuts out the scene where the master of cermonies asks which one of them who would like to entertain Freder, and changes Maria's line to "These are your brothers ''and sisters.''"

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: He is never seen or mentioned again after his introductionary scene.
* WhatExactlyIsHisJob: It's really hard to determine what his job is. He seems like he might be an assistant or a doorman, but later in the movie he neither answer the door for Rotwang or helps him with his experiments.

The underclass who keeps the city running. They are locked up in a city they are not allowed to leave and forced to work at Joh Fredersen's machines.

* {{Mooks}}: They serve this role for The False Maria (and later Grot) during the climax.

* WeHaveReserves: Nicely demonstrated when twelve of them are killed/seriously injured in a gas leak at the M-Machine, only for them to be taken away and immediatly replaced with twelve new workers.
* WhatExactlyIsHisJob: We see the men work at the machines, but it's never shown what the women and children actually ''do'' in their city. Maria is a priest who holds sermons, but that probably doesn't count, as they are illegal. The closest thing we get to a mention of it is the False Maria's speech in the book, where the workers say that their wives are starving, that their children are crying and that they are all miserable.

* DubNameChange: The Pollock version changes her name to Mary. This might be a form of CulturalTranslation, as "Maria" is the german name for the Virgin Mary, which she is named after.

* TheParagon: Her goal is to add some culture in the workers' lives, teach them about peace and try to improve their conditions peacefully. She is also personally responsible for motivating Freder to become the Mediator.

* AGodAmI: At one point in the novel, he claims to be the Devil. Unusually for tis trope, this isn't meant as a BadassBoast. Instead, he means that he is in great pain and will share it with everyone.

* DeathByAdaptation: He is killed by the same knife wound in both the book and the movie, but in the book, he survives long enough to leave the room and follow Freder and Josephat for a while. In the movie, he dies in less than a minute.

* DistinctiveAppearances: He is the only blonde male worker that we see.

* HeroicSacrifice: He throws himself infront of a knife meant for Freder. This ends up killing him.

* RedemptionEqualsDeath: He was never evil per say, just self-serving and risk-taking, but he ''did'' betray Freder's trust by going to Yoshiwara instead of going to Josephat's apartment as he promised. This indirectly lead to Josephat being assualted by the Thin Man. Georgy more then makes up for this when he sacrifices his own life to save Freder's.

* HeWhoFightsMonsters: He hates the False Maria for being a sadistic murderer, and ends up murdering her while showing signs of sadism.

* NotSoDifferent: To the False Maria. They are both sadists who lead the workers in a rebellion against Joh Fredersen and convince them to attack innocent people who only wanted to help them. The only difference is that Grot only wants to kill a few people he has personal reasons to hate, and that he doesn't have any hidden agenda.

* MachineWorship: Some of the wokers have literary started to worship the machines. Freder, on the other hand, acts more like a NayTheist towards them.

* ToServeMan: The movie shows Moloch literary devouring the workers.
* UnexpectedCharacter: In the movie. An Ammonite god is probably not something you would expect to see in a sciene-fiction film (albeit as a vision.) Slightly less so in the book, which has obvious religious symbolism from the get-go, even before Moloch shows up.

* BigBad: Of Marias "Tower of Babel" story.

* {{Silent Antagonist}}s: They are not given any dialouge.

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: It boasts to Maria of how it's stroking her ankles, and says that it's looking forward to embrace her hips and breast.

* SoftSpokenSadist: Comes of like one.

An inventor with a questionable morality and sanity. He is willing to work for Joh Fredersen, but is still mad at him for having a relationship with his lover, Hel, many years ago and accidentally killing her.

* PrinceAndPauper: He breifly trades places with Freder by switching clothes with him.

* HeelFaithTurn: Rotwang believes that he conerted to christianity right before his death.
* IconicItem: His red shoes. Rotwang only realised who he was because of them.

* UnexpectedCharacter: In the movie. An Ammonite god is probably not something you would expect to see in a sciene-fiction film (albeit as a vision.) Slightly less so in the book, which has obivous religious symbolism from the get-go, even before Moloch shows up.

* TheBrute: Played with. He doesn't actually support Joh Fredersen's plan and tries to stop Futura from destroying the city, but he ''is'' workimg for Fredersen and he ''does'' oppose the heroes of the film, so he counts.

* HeroAntagonist: His goal is simply to avenge the death of the workers children. He simply doesn't know that it wasn't the real Maria who told the workers to destroy the Heart Machine, or that most of the children have actually been saved.

* NotSoDifferent: To the False Maria. They are both sadists who lead the worker's in a rebellion against Joh Fredersen and convince them to attack innocent people who only wanted to help them. The only differences is that Grot only wants to kill a few people he has personal reasons to hate, and that he doesn't have any hidden agenda.
* OnlySaneMan: He points out to both Joh Fredersen and the workers that destroying the Heart Machine would have disastrous consequences. Unfortunately, they don't listen to him.

* RevengeByProxy: In the book, he tries to kill Freder at one point, as killing Joh Fredersens son would be the second best thing to killing the man himself. (It makes a bit more sense when you consider that, as far as Grot knows, Joh Fredersen is indirectly responsible for the death of his daughter.)
* [[YouAreNumberSix You Are Number Seven]]: In the Pollock version, he is given a number instead of a name, much like Georgy.

* CustomUniform: She wears a dress that is lighter and slightly more elaborate than the ones worn by the other female workers. Though it's apparently not ''completely'' unique, as Rotwang doesn't seem to have any problems finding an identical one for his robot. It could be related to her role as a preist. On a meta level, it makes her (and her duplicate) easier to spot in crowd scenes.

* HeroWithBadPublicity: She get's blamed for her duplicates actions and nearly gets executed for it.

* IncorruptiblePurePureness: She is probably the most unambigiously good character in the entire story. Even Freder and Josaphat could be seen as slightly anti-heroic compared to her.
* InsaneForgiveness: At the end of the story, she has forgiven both Joh Fredersen and the workers. The former was partially responsible for her and a thousand children almost drowning, and the latter ones wanted to burn her alive.
* TheParagon: Her goal is to add some culture in the worker's lives, teach them about peace and try to improve their conditions peacefully. She is also personally responsible for motivating Freder to become the Mediator.

* CompositeCharacter: Of Mary, mother of Jesus, and John the Baptist, arguably.
* CustomUniform: She wears a dress that is lighter and slightly more elaborate then the ones worn by the other female workers. Though it's apparently not ''completely'' unique, as Rotwang doesn't seem to have any problems finding an identical one for his robot. It could be related to her role as a preist. On a meta level, it makes her (and her duplicate) easier to spot in crowd scenes.

* CompositeCharacter: Of Mary, mother of Jesus and John the Babtist, arguably.

* AdaptedOut: His only scene in the movie was cut for its international release, and is one of the movie's few deleted scenes that is still thought to be LostForever. A couple of photos is all that remains of Fritz Rasp's portrayal of the character (not counting the later dream scene where the Thin Man turns into him.)

* AlliterativeName: A more subtle example, as his full name is never stated. However, it is implied that it is "Freder Fredersen."

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jan20.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350: ''"All Seven Deadly Sins, on her behalf!"'']]

One of Freder's friends from the Sons' Club. He bears witness to the False Maria's dance and is, in the novel, the one who tells Freder about it. He is later killed by the False Maria during the climax.

* DemotedToExtra: In the movie, only the scene where he watches the False Maria dance in terror has been kept. His exposition scene is given to Josaphat, and his death scene is never shown.

* DisappropiateRetribution: He is brutally killed by Futura for being mildly annoying.

* SparedByTheAdaptation: This is presumably the case in the movie, as his death scene isn't shown.

** AdaptationalVillainy: On the other hand, his goals are more selfish in the movie, as he is only trying to stay in charge, rather than improving his society. He also doesn't get as much CharacterDevelopment, making it more ambigious if his HeelFaceTurn is genuine.

* {{Expy}}: She could be seen as an evil version of Olimpia from Literature/TheSandman and/or Hadaly from ''The Future Eve'', both of them being other [[RobotGirl female robots]] capable of passing off as real people. In return, [[FountainOfExpies she has inspired quite a few expies of her own.]]

* NotSoStoic: She gradually goes all the way from not showing any emotions whatsoever to ChewingTheScenery.

* WickedWitch: She has a very hammy, witch-like personality, and the workers actually accuse her of witchcraft. It's debatable if she has any actual magical power, but she is definately wicked.

* CrossoverCosmology: Their numbers include the Ammonite god Moloch, Thor from Myth/NorseMythology, and Ganesha from {{Hinduism}}.

* AmbiguouslyJewish: He has a pentagram, which is constantly refered to as "The seal of Solomon" in the novel, on his front door. He is also implied to use dark magic, which - historically - was a common stereotype of jews. This might lead to some UnfortunateImplications.

* GodIsEvil: It claims that God doesn't care about the people who pray to Him, and hasn't done so since He flooded the world in the BookOfGenesis.

** AdaptationalHeroism: The Pollock version instead gave him this by having him say that he had lost control over his creation, meaning that his robot (and Mr. Masterman's poor judgement) was completely to blame for the revolution. He still tries to kill Maria later though, as he knows that he will be blamed for the robot's actions otherwise.

* TheSoulless: The Pollock version explicably states that she doesn't have a soul (with the implication that Rotwang could have given her one if Mr. Masterman had wanted to.)

* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: He is only credited as "The Thin Man" in most versions of the movie. Averted in the Moroder version [[AllThereInTheManual and the book,]] where he is named [[MeaningfulName "Slim."]]

* SofSpokenSadist: Comes of like one.

* AntropomorphicPersonification: It seems to represent Maria's fears. (Namely, of being violated, murdered and failing to save people whose lives she was trying to protect.