History Characters / SuccessionMainCharacters

* TheUnfavorite: Due to his rather... odd demeanor and ambitions, as well as the age gap between him and the rest of his siblings, he's usually [[ButtMonkey completely forgotten about]], and tolerated at best. Despite being Logan's firstborn son, Logan considers him [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg a complete nonfactor]]. Strangely enough, this means that Logan tends to treat him more kindly than his other children since he's so clearly harmless.

* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Much like his underling Greg, he seems harmlessly incompetent, but he's a very good schemer when his back is against the wall. [[spoiler: The Season 3 finale rams this home when he outdoes the rest of the Roy children and throws in with Logan, pulling off a heavy victory for himself, even if temporary.]]

* MeaningfulName: Tom shares the same last name with [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Wambsganss Bill "Wamby" Wambsganss]], a second baseman who famously pulled off an unassisted triple play--making all three outs single-handedly--during the 1920 World Series. [[spoiler:Tom outwits the three Roy siblings not once, but ''twice''. And the latter gambit ends with him being elected as the new CEO of Waystar.]]

** Subverted by the end of the series, however: [[spoiler: he still doesn't get a huge amount of respect and appreciation, but he is also pretty much the only sibling to find himself more or less content with his life by the time the finale rolls around. His siblings end the series with pretty much nothing to show for all their machinations and efforts -- Kendall's been forced out as [=CEO=], Roman's drowning his sorrows and Shiv is trapped as a trophy wife in an unhappy marriage -- he's HappilyMarried to Willa and ready to move on to his next odd whim.]]

* HiddenDepths: She isn't the usual idiotic gold-digger stereotype portrayed; she has genuine aspirations for her own career, and she shows more talent for political maneuvering than hopeful presidential candidate Connor, rewriting his speech at Mo's funeral so that it speaks neither [[SpeakIllOfTheDead ill]] nor well of the old predator (though it does end up memorably awkward}.

** Despite his abuse, he also grows to care for Greg's well-being. In what is Tom's most selfless act on the show, he protects Greg (at actual detriment to his own position in the family) from Logan's wrath after Greg inadvertently betrays his great-uncle to a biographer writing a tell-all book. In Season 3, when Greg asks Tom if he would absorb his personal part of the blame in the cruise papers scandal for him since it seemed as though Tom would be going to prison anyways, Tom simply agrees to, with nothing to suggest he has ulterior motives or a hidden agenda in doing this for Greg. Even Greg is surprised.

** In season 2, he's shown a apartment with ceilings so low that he bangs his head into them; he accidentally says too much in an interview and sweats about being outed as the "leak"; he's one of several people forced to play "boar on the floor", and forced to testify in front of a Senate subcommittee in spite of being monumentally unqualified.

-->'''Greg''': I merely wish to answer in an affirmative fashion.
-->'''Gil Eavis''': You can speak to us normally.
-->'''Greg''': So I shall.

-->'''Tom:''' Have you ever read ''Literature/MeinKampf''?
-->'''Mark Ravenhead:''' Ehhhh, yeahhhh? Couple times, I guess.
-->'''Tom:''' Couple times? Were there easter eggs in there you didn't get the first time?

* StepfordSmiler: It's made repeatedly clear that he isn't as happy in his marriage to Shiv as he likes to seem and is deeply resentful of her treatment of him as an afterthought. He admits to Greg, after the bottle throwing and learning that the shot was a suicide, that he also has a lot of self loathing.

* OnlySaneMan: Knows full well that Logan is awful, both to her ex husband and her own children, but also that Kendall can be oblivious and self righteous, and tries to stay out of all of it.

-->'''Gerri:''' He said he offered you your job back.
-->'''Frank:''' Yeah. I'm considering.
-->'''Gerri:''' ''Why?''
-->'''Frank:''' I need money to pay someone to kill a guy in Palermo. Baby needs shoes, moth to a flame... ''I don't know''.

* DeadpanSnarker: Less mean spirited than the others, but he's got his share of snark aided by an extremely dry delivery.

* {{Foil}}: To Kendall. Power and money obsessed, likes to think he has a moral compass, the only one who knows any kind of pop culture (though more Shakespeare than cartoons and rap music) and will crawl back to Logan whenever given the chance.

* SitcomArchNemesis: Roman's hated Frank ever since he was assigned to essentially babysit him at work. Frank doesn't bother responding to Roman's many put downs.

* ButtMonkey: Karl is often uncomfortable with his less than ideal circumstances. And while everyone is the target of verbal abuse, Karl is never very good at fighting back against it.

* BigBadWannabe: He smugly boasts that he'll eat Kendall and the Roys one by one. This never comes to frutition, with the only time he's shown to hurt anyone being a passive example of not siding with Kendall's vote of no confidence. In fact, it's later shown that Lawrence's company isn't as hot as it first seems to be, which causes it to be gutted quickly into Season 2 much to his chagrin.

* CommutingOnABus: He is ostensibly a member of the main cast in Season 1, but he gets very little screentime in either season and is absent from the plot for large chunks of time.
* DemotedToExtra: Almost right away. The start of the show makes him out to be a major antagonistic role, but he then fals out of focus and becomes a secondary character before exiting the show all together.
* InscrutableOriental: He makes his disdain clear to Kendall in private, but he doesn't want to be part of Waystar Royco and it means that he presents himself as totally unreadable by them.
* KickThemWhileTheyAreDown: In the first episode, he is the one to tell Kendall that his father has just had a brain hemorrage. While Kendall reels in shock, Lawrence delivers the kicker: "You invited me into the chicken coup, and without Daddy involved, I'm going to eat you one by fucking one."

* NotSoStoic: When Waystar starts looking to mess with Vaulter’s books and Kendall hints Logan is trying to strip the company, Lawrence is visibly shaken and nervous. After Kendall [[spoiler: guts Vaulter on his dad’s order]] Lawrence devolves into confused anger.

* TheDogBitesBack: While he allows himself to be run roughshod by the entire Roy family, he has his limits - notably snapping back at and humiliating Shiv's lover at their wedding reception before having him leave the premises. He becomes more tired of Shiv treating him like a pawn in Season 2, even telling her to fuck off when she goes too far mocking him during a dinner. By the season finale, he's had enough with Shiv's antics and even tells her he's considering leaving her. Taken even further in the Season 3 finale when he [[spoiler: outright betrays Shiv by warning Logan of her, Kendall, and Roman's plan to block the sale of the company]].

-->'''Tom:''' Have you ever read Mein Kampf?

* MeaningfulName: Tom shares the same last name with [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Wambsganss Bill "Wamby" Wambsganss]], a second baseman who famously pulled off an unassisted triple play--making all three outs single-handedly--during the 1920 World Series. [[spoiler:Tom outwits the Roy siblings not once, but ''twice''. And the latter gambit ends with him being elected as the new CEO of Waystar.]]

* NotWithThemForTheMoney: Zig-zagged; he's a SocialClimber and very obviously enamored with the Roy wealth, but his feelings for Shiv are genuine. [[spoiler: In Season 4 he very blatantly spells out that a big part of his attraction towards her was for power and money, and that while he sincerely cares for her, he still values those material things almost as much.]]

* MeaningfulName: Tom shares the same last name with [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Wambsganss Bill "Wamby" Wambsganss]], a second baseman who famously pulled off an unassisted triple play--making all three outs single-handedly--during the 1920 World Series. [[spoiler:At the end of the series, Tom beats all three of the Roy siblings to take over Waystar.]]

* {{Manchild}}: Tom tries very hard to come across as a suave professional but his natural immaturity ends up coming through a lot, wheter in his trying way too hard to prove he belongs to the ultra-wealthy elites or his tendency to throw tantrums when things don't go his way.

* EveryoneHasStandards: He "feeds the piggies" as Logan asks during "Boar on the Floor", but he looks absolutely revolted while doing so.

* EveryoneHasStandards: She hangs back and looks unwell while everyone else (excluding Frank who wants no part in it, and Kendall disassociating) cheers on “boar on the floor”.

** The above also prompts some growth in how he regards and treats Willa; [[spoiler: in the pre-election night episode, on being offered a (less than prestigious) ambassadorship in exchange for dropping out and throwing his support behind Mencken, he actually listens to Willa when she tells him she doesn't really want to live in a third world country and factors that into his decision-making process. While hardly a huge sacrifice -- one of the countries proposed was Somalia, after all -- it nevertheless does show a selflessness and willingness to consider his partner's thoughts and feelings on a major life decision rather than just leaping impulsively into a chance to boost his own ego.]]

** At [[spoiler:Logan's wake]] she takes the highest pleasure to absolutely eviscerate his young mistress, Kerry.

* EveryoneHasStandards:
** He will wheedle and blackmail his way into the Roys' money, but he takes umbrage at the idea of working for right-wing news. However, he's gradually encouraged by Tom to abandon those standards in favor of chasing money and power.
** For all his and Tom's incest jokes, and their homoerotic "disgusting brothers", he's uneasy when Shiv starts out a threat asking if he finds her attractive.
-->'''Shiv''': Is that too disgusting for you, Greg?
** Despite ultimately going through with it, Greg himself is almost in shock about about giving the order to call the election for Mencken, recognizing that having him as POTUS would mean something horrifying for America.

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: In his first scenes he suffers a bad reaction to pot, gets fired from a low-level GoofySuit job at an amusement park as a result, and tries to unsuccessfully blame the situation on a contact high. This establishes him as a slacker, a loser and a ConsummateLiar.

* BewareTheSillyOnes: He's seen as a harmless goof by pretty much everyone and such a view is not unjustified, but he regularly shows he's smarter and craftier than he appears.

* OpportunisticBastard: He is constantly hitching rides on the shoulders of more powerful people, first aligning himself with Tom [[spoiler:and then ditching him for Kendall when the opportunity presents itself]].

* {{Blackmail}}: He turns out to have quite a talent for this.

* BewareTheSillyOnes: He's seen as a harmless goof by pretty much everyone and such a view is not unjustified but he regularly shows he's smarter and craftier than he appears.