Legion (2017) / Characters

Characters from the TV series Legion.

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Summerland

David Haller

Played By: Dan Stevens

A troubled man currently being treated for schizophrenia at one of the many mental hospitals in his lifetime. When he meets the girl of his dreams, David learns he may not be schizophrenic at all — but rather, a powerful mutant.

Abled in the Adaptation: In the comics, he has both schizophrenia and autism. Here he's only confirmed to have schizophrenia and even that the show went back and forth on.
Adaptational Attractiveness: In the comics, he has had multiple different artists draw him, but he usually isn't particularly attractive. In the show, he's played by the gorgeous Dan Stevens, whose character is acknowledged to be cute and a Pretty Boy In-Universe. Moreover, the TV version is taller at 6'0" instead of 5'9". He also lacks his comic book counterpart's trademark Beehive Hairdo and bizarre body language.
Adaptational Backstory Change: In the comics, David Haller was born in Israel as the illegitimate son of Charles Xavier and Gabrielle Haller. He was an only child who was raised by his single mother. In the show, David Xavier was born in America as the legitimate son of Charles Xavier and his wife Gabrielle. He was given up for adoption when he was still a baby and was taken in by the Haller family, where he grew up with two adoptive parents and an adoptive sister.
Adaptational Hairstyle Change: His Messy Hair is more normal and realistic than the towering Anime Hair he has in the source material.
Adaptational Nationality: On the show, he's an American of English and Romani descent instead of being a British-Israeli of American and Jewish descent like in the comics.
Adaptational Nice Guy: Ambiguously Evil and Face–Heel Turn aside, David in the series is much more calm, rational and approachable than his comic counterpart.
Adaptation Dye-Job: He's black-haired in the comics, but his TV counterpart's hair is light brown.
Adaptation Name Change: Because his biological parents are married on the show (which didn't happen in the source material), he was born as David Xavier, although he's adopted by the Haller family when he's still a baby, so he's known as David Haller throughout the series. However, after the Alternate Timeline takes hold in the series finale, the infant that's shown in the last scene will be known as David Xavier permanently because his parents won't give him up this time.
Alternate Self: In "Chapter 14", multiple possible versions of David are seen:
- A mentally ill homeless man, who ends up sliced in two by Kerry with a katana after killing a gang who attacked him, then fighting off an armed response unit.
- A lonely office drone, who hallucinates singing mice and sniffs glue to stave off the boredom. He eventually becomes a sore-covered addict.
- A David who is half-lobotomized by pills to control his delusions, and cared for by Amy. After hallucinating the Devil with the Yellow Eyes, David freaks out and kills a squad of policemen in a panic, but not before one of them shoots him in the spine. He's last seen as an elderly man, almost catatonic and paralyzed below the waist, with Amy still faithfully caring for him.
- An intern at a corporation who uses his powers to rise through the ranks (by reading competitors' thoughts) and eventually becomes the richest man on Earth. This David sees his powers as a gift from God, enjoys the torment he causes to his employees, and casually tortures Amy with his powers. The last shot of him shows that David is at the very least influenced by the Shadow King, if not fully possessed.
- A David who dies after hanging himself. Amy brings a bouquet of flowers to his tombstone, and the epitaph reads, "Taken Too Soon."
- A David who has a happy and simple life with a wife and two children.
Astral Projection: In "Chapter 3", he projects himself and Syd to where Division 3 is holding his sister.
Back from the Dead: In "Chapter 20", he is shot and killed by Syd in two consecutive timelines, only to be revived when Switch goes back in time early enough to stop it from happening thrice.
Badass in Distress:
- He's captured by Division 3 in the first episode and the Summerland crew helps him escape. Later on, he's also trapped in the astral plane or his own mind multiple times, relying on his allies to rescue him or at least show him a way out.
- In The Stinger of the first season, he's abducted by a mysterious floating orb and can only scream for help while Syd watches.
- In "Chapter 19", he's imprisoned again, courtesy of Division 3. He breaks himself out of it after they give him a Sadistic Choice: letting himself get treated for his mental illness, or be terminated.
Be Careful What You Wish For: After Amy's body was taken over by Lenny due to Farouk's machinations, David is furious and confronts Farouk with this. Farouk in return replies that he thought that this would make David happy. As Farouk inhabited David's mind for almost 30 years, he also knew that David sometimes wished for Amy to die.
Cheerful Child: Before he began Hearing Voices, his memories show that his boyhood was a happy one.
Composite Character: Starting out as an In Name Only adaptation, he eventually became an accurate representation of his comics self merged with X-Man.
Crazy Is Cool: Over the course of the series, he's given the choice of embracing his powers or his (presumed) insanity. In the end, he embraces both.
Cult: He founds one in Season 3, which essentially works as some sort of surreal hippie commune in which members get high by taking David's psychic emanations as a Fantastic Drug.
Deadpan Snarker: His coping mechanism for being locked in a mental asylum.
Despair Event Horizon: He reaches it in Season 2 after Syd attempts to kill him.
Double Standard: Rape, Sci-Fi: Averted in the Season 2 finale when David uses his powers to manipulate Syd into having sex with him. She later calls him out for this during his "trial."
The Dreaded: Not so much David himself, but what he becomes in the future in which he killed Farouk: Legion, the World Killer.
Dropped a Bridge on Him: A unique example. Despite being an extremely powerful mutant and the protagonist of the show, he is anti-climatically shot in the back by Syd in "Chapter 20" when Farouk helps Division 3 infiltrate David's new hideout. However, thanks to Switch, he is revived when she goes back in time and prevents it from happening permanently.
Earn Your Happy Ending: At the end of the series, he forms a truce with Farouk and gets the chance to re-start his life, albeit as a baby, with two loving biological parents to take care of him.
Et Tu, Brute?: The final act that pushes David over the edge is Syd, the person he loves, trying to kill him. When David is captured by Division 3, and neither his girlfriend nor any of his friends take his side, even siding with a freed Farouk, David is done with them and escapes.
Even the Guys Want Him: The Shadow King (who is otherwise depicted as being completely straight) in Lenny's form is very sexually aggressive towards him, and tells David that he's "Such a pretty boy" despite his normal form claiming to see David as a son. The real Lenny is openly gay, but when questioned if she has feelings for him, she gives awkward non-answers and shows visible jealousy over his relationship with Syd.
Fake Memories: He suffers from these. Some of the most important are the facts that: David believes he had a pet dog in his childhood named "King" (his sister later states they never had a dog); David thinks his female friend Lenny was the person who convinced him to use the vapor, as well as break into his psychiatrist's office (other characters claim they saw a man named "Benny," although their reliability has not been confirmed); David at one point told Dr. Kissinger about the Devil with the Yellow Eyes — David later insists it was simply a delusion or that he can't remember. It's implied that TDWTYE is behind the false memories, and has been appearing to David in different forms since his childhood. This turns out to be true.
Fantastic Drug: The psychic emanations he gives to members of his cult. There even are two color-coded variants, depending of David's current state of mind: the blue one has depressant properties, while the red one has stimulant properties.
From Nobody to Nightmare: From mental patient to Legion, the man who devastated the world.
A God Am I: The Shadow King tries to instill this in David. They both supposedly are gods who can shape reality however they want. Over the course of Season 2, he succeeds. David does develop a god complex, and the Multiple Personalities in his head urge him to embrace this.
Hearing Voices: Since he was around 10 or 11 years old, he heard voices. David received treatment for this, as he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, but he later learns that this is due to his telepathic powers. And then it's revealed that it's both.
Icy Blue Eyes: When he's in an especially bad mood, his blue irises take on a very cold sheen, and it's usually a sign that he'll either lash out with his powers, or he's self-destructive (like when he had tried to hang himself).
Immune to Bullets: Once he gains control of his powers, it's impossible to hurt him with bullets unless you catch him by surprise (like Syd does in "Chapter 20").
Innocent Blue Eyes: When he's in an especially good mood, his baby blues reflect his endearing boyishness, and they mainly appear when he's around Sydney or Amy. They're also prominent during his pre-schizophrenic youth.
In the Blood: He inherited a lot of traits from his biological father Charles Xavier: they're both incredibly powerful telepaths, they share a Sweet Tooth (which includes a mutual fondness for cherry pie, and in "Chapter 26", David serves his father knowledge in the form of a cake slice knowing that Charles would be tempted to eat it), they both enjoy stargazing, and they're both brown-haired Pretty Boys who are of the exact same height (their actors, Dan Stevens and Harry Lloyd, are 183 cm / 6'0"). Like David, Charles also fell in love with a troubled woman while they were institutionalized at a psychiatric facility. David lampshades this in "Chapter 22."
David: Wow. This is how they met? My parents. In a mental hospital. I guess it just runs in the family.
Kubrick Stare: He excels at this.
Lack of Empathy: He ruthlessly exploits Switch's Time Travel ability (which is extremely taxing for her body) to the point where her teeth are falling out, her face is swollen, and by "Chapter 26", she's dying. He has zero regard for her well-being, and he continues to insist that she uses her power to help him even though she desperately needs to rest. Charles disapproves of David treating Switch like a tool instead of a person.
Charles: Who is she?
David: She's... no one. She's a means of getting here. Of reaching you.
Charles: Everyone is someone, David.
Love Makes You Evil: After learning that he really is mentally ill, and having Syd and all of his friends side with the Shadow King against him at the end of Season 2, David severs ties with all of them and escapes with Lenny.
Madness Mantra: "I'm a good person. I deserve love."
- David's split personalities point out to him that this is just his delusion. When he is imprisoned by Division 3, he repeats this, until he grows sick of having to defend himself, with no one taking his side, and breaks out.
Manchild: His schizophrenia is debilitating, so he's dysfunctional as an adult. He exhibits certain childlike behaviors, such as sleeping while his rocket ship lamp (which he had since he was a baby) is on, and its constellations-shaped lights seem to comfort him. In the scene where he's eagerly devouring waffles at his sister's house, Amy and Ben watch him warily as if they were parents who are concerned about how they should treat their emotionally volatile kid. In the series finale, Past Farouk ridicules David for his immaturity.
Past Farouk: David. The victim. A boy pretending to be a man. Always blaming others. Boo-hoo.
The Man They Couldn't Hang: It's implied that his suicide attempt is part of why he ends up in Clockworks. His psychiatrist mentions that although David was found with rope burns around his neck, no noose was found in David's apartment.
The Mentally Disturbed: He was diagnosed with schizophrenia as a child, and has been treated for it. He's only now beginning to learn that he was sane all along, and that all the weirdness that followed him is a result of his powers. And then it turns out that he really was sick, but with a mental parasite in the form of a "demon" rather than true mental illness. The Summerland crew's insistence that he isn't really sick only exacerbated his problems. Then Season 2 reveals David actually is mentally sick in addition to being controlled by Farouk, and that not all of his illness was due to the Shadow King's direct influence.
Messy Hair: It serves as a visual shorthand for his unstable mental state.
Mind over Matter: He displays a more crazed and destructive variant of telekinesis similar to Carrie or Tetsuo. However, once he frees his mind from Farouk, he can use telekinesis more calmly and efficiently.
Mind Rape: He's a powerful telepath, allowing him to invade the minds of other people and hurt them mentally.
- In "Chapter 18", he tortures Oliver, still believing that he is possessed by Farouk, to learn where Syd is.
- In "Chapter 19", he mentally blocks a part of Syd's memories after she tried to shoot him, and then in her confused state has mental sex with her. It's her calling him out on that, that makes him stop insisting for a moment that he is good.
Mr. Fanservice: He exposes a lot of skin during his sex scenes with Syd on the astral plane, including brief shots of male back nudity. He's required to be totally naked when he's floating inside Cary's amplification chamber, so later when David teleports away to a Division 3 hallway, Syd finds him au naturel and dripping wet.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In Chapter 4, the Devil with Yellow Eyes shows David what looks like Syd in mortal danger, and tricks him into teleporting there to save her.
Obliviously Evil: David doesn't realize that a lot of his actions are very questionable, until he gets called out for them at the end of Season 2. He lies, he tortures, he kills (and enjoys it) and the final nail in the coffin is that when Syd turns against him, he manipulates her memories and sleeps with her mentally, to get her to love him. David insists that he is a good person, but his personalities claim it's just his delusion and when no one in Division 3 takes his side, he has enough and leaves.
O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In "Chapter 5", after he escapes from the Astral Plane with Lenny's help, he arrives at Summerland showing more confidence and cockiness, with some dangerous Kubrick Stare and able to stand up more to everything, and is even more upfront with being with Syd, even creating a room in the Astral Plane where they can touch and sleep together for the first time. Lampshaded by Melanie, which remarks that David looks, sounds and acts different, less "fragile". These are all foreshadowing signs that David's mind is being co-piloted by Lenny/The Devil With Yellow Eyes.
Parental Abandonment: His biological parents gave him away for adoption. His adoptive father died before the series, but what happened to his adoptive mother is not known, as she is nowhere to be seen or even mentioned in the present.
Physical God: The head of Division 3 outright calls him one in "Chapter 3", when describing his power potential.
Melanie: You were right about David, you know. He's a world-breaker. And if you had killed him before he figured that out, then all your soldiers and guns and — what was it? United World Front? — all that would impress me. But now? Not so much.
Pretty Boy: His physical attractiveness is imbued with a boyish quality which includes Innocent Blue Eyes, which serves as a visual cue that he's an immature Manchild. Syd thinks he's cute, and Lenny describes him as "Such a pretty boy." When speaking to the rational side of his mind, David tells him, "I am pretty." Although David becomes a supervillain in the Season 2 finale, a residual cuteness in his visage in Season 3 reminds the audience that on an emotional level, he's a lost, little boy with severe abandonment issues who just wants to be loved and Desperately Craves Affection, especially from his biological parents.
Protagonist Journey to Villain: In Season 2.
Reality Warper: When he and Syd switch bodies in "Chapter 1", she loses control of his powers, seals herself and the other patients at Clockworks inside their rooms, and removes the doorways. Not just the doors, but completely walling them in. Poor Lenny gets Telefragged in the process.
Red Baron: In the future, David Haller will be known as Legion the world killer.
Roaring Rampage of Revenge: After Farouk kills Amy.
Rogue Protagonist:
- In "Chapter 5", the Shadow King takes over and causes David to kill almost all of Division 3 in his quest to rescue Amy.
- In "Chapter 19", he abandons his friends and flees Division 3 with Lenny.
Rule of Symbolism: The character Harold in the children's book Harold and the Purple Crayon that Gabrielle reads to David as an infant is emblematic of the type of person that David becomes when he's older. At its core, the story is about a boy who loses touch with reality because he's preoccupied with the imaginary world that he creates with his purple crayon. Harold is totally lost within his own mind, just like the mentally ill David is.
Sadist: In "Chapter 18", he realizes that he takes pleasure in imagining how he can kill Farouk. Farouk in the same episode also makes Syd believe that when David killed and tortured others, he visibly enjoyed it.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When Division 3 locks David in for the danger he poses in the future (for crimes he hasn't committed yet) and tries forcing him to receive medication and therapy again, he refuses. When they threaten to kill him if he doesn't comply and even Syd loses her trust in him, he breaks out of the containment field and leaves, taking the imprisoned Lenny with him.
Smart People Speak the Queen's English: His rational mind speaks with a posh English accent, which confuses David because he's an American. His rational mind's reply is essentially, "Of course I'm British, I'm the brains of this operation."
David's Rational Mind: I'm you, your rational mind.
David: And you're British?
David's Rational Mind: Like I said, I'm your rational mind.
Split Personality: As Cary points out, though, David suffers from literal schizphrenia — split mind. The Shadow King was inside David for 30 years. David also created a "rational" mind that helps him sort things out when he is stuck in a mental prison the Shadow King put him in. Then there are the other personalities he talks to...
Sweet Tooth: He's often seen eating or craving sweets. He adores cherry pie (he claims that he basically lives on it and it's everything he needs), gorges on waffles in various scenes, munches on strawberry Twizzlers, wants to eat a chocolate cupcake for his birthday (but a Clockworks security guard forbids him from doing so), and expresses interest in ice cream.
Superpower Lottery: The series has barely scratched the surface of what he's capable of, but it's clear he hit the jackpot so hard it even got him Blessed with Suck. Telekinesis, Telepathy, Teleportation, mental Time Travel, he can even traverse Alternate Universes with a thought.
Talking to Themself: He has multiple personalities in his head that "advise" him, them being the titular Legion. While in Season 1 his "rational mind" helps him in a positive way, in Season 2 it's portrayed as very disturbing when he is confronted by Division 3 and they see him talking to these personalities of his.
Telekinesis: On a potentially massive scale. A recurring memory is of him tearing apart an entire kitchen at once. He's also levitated himself and other objects, and hurled things across the room.
Telepathy: At least some of the voices he hears aren't in his own mind, and he's in fact reading the minds of those around him.
Teleportation: Best demonstrated in "Chapter 3", when he teleports himself, Melanie, and Ptonomy out of the chamber where they normally handle their memory work. He can also teleport things (and presumably people) away from himself, as he did with the MRI machine in "Chapter 2." Amy remembers David being able to suddenly appear in places he shouldn't have, such as turning up outside after she left him in the bath.
Took a Level in Badass: Over the course of the first season, he learns how to control his powers. By the end, he's able to non-lethally take down a platoon of Division 3 troops with a swipe of his hand, and manages to almost defeat the Shadow King on his own.
Trademark Favorite Food: Waffles.
Unreliable Narrator: His perception of reality can't be trusted because he's prone to delusions and hallucinations.
David: I'm insane, you idiot. This is my delusion. It's not real.
With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: His mutant abilities are so powerful they cause mental instability. David can't differentiate whether the voices he hears are just coming from his head or whether he really can hear other people. It's both.

Syd Barrett

Sydney "Syd" Barrett

Played By: Rachel Keller

An independent young woman who crosses paths with David at the Clockworks Psychiatric Hospital. Despite forbidding anyone to touch her, she becomes David's girlfriend, but when she is to be released and David impulsively kisses her, they switch bodies and chaos ensues. She is found and taken in by the Summerlanders and together they free David from Division 3 and try to help him figure out his powers.

Abusive Parents:
- Syd mentions in relation to Ptonomy's memory sessions that her mother was "mean" to her. She brushes it off as irrelevant, but it seems to have influenced her more than she wants to admit.
- Downplayed in her childhood flashbacks though. Syd's mother was never really mean, but she noticeably pulled away from Syd over time out of uncertainty and the growing realization that she would never be able to physically express her love for her daughter. It's also unknown how much she knew about Syd's aversion to being touched being much more a mutant ability than a mere personality trait.
A Day in the Limelight: "Chapter 12" and "Chapter 25" focus heavily on Syd's character.
All of the Other Reindeer: Having grown up without a father and in general being a loner made Syd a target for bullying. Until she got sick of it and retaliated, that is...
An Arm and a Leg: The future incarnation of Syd, who warns David that he needs to help Farouk get his body back, is missing her left arm at or just above the elbow.
Antagonistic Offspring: Sydney seems very hostile towards her mother, probably due to her coldness during Syd's childhood. She tries to seduce one of her partners by switching bodies with her unconscious mother, seemingly unconcerned that this crosses boundaries both against the boyfriend and against her mother. She is also very antagonistic towards the maternal Melanie when it comes to David, although Melanie wisely refrains from responding in kind.
- Averted in "Chapter 25", when Syd, freshly erased from both her body and her original personality, re-lives her life in the astral plane with Melanie and Oliver.
Bed Trick: Used her powers to pose as her mom in order to have sex with her mother's boyfriend.
Canon Foreigner: Not seemingly based on anybody in the comics.
- However, her powers are similar to the Ultimate Marvel universe's version of David, who was combined with a body-swapping villain from the mainstream continuity named Proteus. Proteus, however, destroyed the host mind and took over the body until it withered away, whereas Syd just switches place temporarily. Her angst about being unable to touch people also seems to be imported from X-Man Rogue, who absorbs people's powers and memories by touch.
- Her powers seem based on the minor X-Force villain Devon Alomar a.k.a. Switch of the New Hellions.
Color-Coded Characters: Her outfits are usually orange and/or black.
Frame-Up:
- "Chapter 12" reveals that Syd was bullied by girls and hit on by boys in school, until one day she discovered that she could switch bodies and consciousnesses, and tried it on the body of the boy she just kissed... cue Syd using this opportunity to beat the girls up. Then when a teacher comes and asks what happened, she blames the boy who apparently hit the girls for no reason.
- In a way, her Bed Trick was also this. Syd obviously didn't reveal her abilities and, considering his shocked reaction, her mother's boyfriend also never would have consented, but Syd gets away with rape, while her mother's boyfriend is arrested for it.
"Freaky Friday" Flip: This is what Syd's ability causes. Anyone (including animals) Syd touches will switch bodies with her temporarily. Syd accidentally switching bodies with David triggered the events at the start of the series, as Syd quickly lost control of David's powers, which alarmed Division 3 and the Summerland mutants.
The Gadfly: During season 2, she develops a liking of taking over the body of a cat to practice her mutant power. Watch people's reactions when they try to talk to the cat who occupies Syd's body or, if they realize that she's the cat, try to talk to Syd, which makes it look weird when they talk to an actual cat. She also sounds more playful, carefree and arrogant while she's in a cat's body.
The Gloves Come Off: Syd literally takes off her gloves to turn the tables on the Eye.
Hates Being Touched: Due to the nature of her powers - she temporarily switches bodies with the people she touches and absorbs their powers (though this showed up as an intense aversion to human touch when she was born). Even when she's wearing gloves, she hates even so much as holding hands.
Syd: It's like ants crawling all over my skin.
Hypocrite: Quick to call David out on his use of Double Standard: Rape, Sci-Fi in the season two finale, but she too is a rapist. Pulling a Bed Trick on her mothers boyfriend when she was sixteen and is happy to let everyone who knows the story keep brushing it off to spite knowing what it's like to be on the other side.
Knight in Sour Armor: This pretty succinctly describes her worldview on life and love, as revealed in Chapter 12; Syd went through many painful life experiences because of her power, but this only makes her more emotionally tougher and adaptable to whatever life (akin to a "war") threw at her next. She does believe in the concept of love as well, but she doesn't believe that it saves humanity— they save it through pushing through life's trials and tribulations.
Let's Get Dangerous!: Syd's only power seems more like a liability than a strength, which would usually make her The Load. However, that theory goes out the window after the Eye ambushes the Summerland crew. He displays a variety of Psychic Powers - appearing to them as David's psychiatrist, walking calmly through a hail of gunfire, and rendering Ptonomy unconscious with a touch. But as he attempts to capture Syd, she switches bodies with him, knocks him out, and then takes custody of her captured friends. If David had not been convinced to attack Syd in the Eye's body, she would have single-handedly saved the Summerlanders and captured the scariest member of Division 3.
Manipulative Bastard: Future Syd pretends to care about David, and that he's a hero helping to avoid a world-ending catastrophe. This is so David helps Farouk and will end up being killed, thereby stopping preventing Future David end the world.
Ms. Fanservice:
- Actually averted in the real world, as she always wears modest clothing, which is a good way to avoid being touched.
- Played straight in the astral plane where she wears very revealing white dresses. Justified because it's created in David's mind and he's her boyfriend; that also happens to be the only place they can have (psychic) sex.
Named After Somebody Famous: She's named after Roger "Syd" Barrett of Pink Floyd, whose music influenced the series.
Only Sane Man: Possibly because of their mind-body switch, Syd is the only person other than David able to see the demonic figures that haunt him in his mindscape. She's so unnerved by the fact that she is the only one who can see what David fears that she starts to doubt her own sanity. It doesn't help that the World's Angriest Boy, knife in hand, appears to be stalking her in the real world.
Parental Abandonment: Syd grew up without her father, who is never mentioned. Her mother died of cancer before the series.
Power Perversion Potential: When she was 16 she swapped bodies with her passed out mother to have sex with her mother's boyfriend, since there had been a "flirtation" before. The switch lasted just long enough for them to get started, leading to her mother walking in on her partner apparently having sex with her daughter. Needless to say, the situation caused a major conflict, which is disturbingly the only thing Syd seems to find troubling about it.
Silk Hiding Steel: An inverse example — she's strong on the outside, but soft on the inside.
Strong Family Resemblance: Adult Syd remarkably resembles her mother.
Super Cute Superpowers: With Syd growing to accept her powers, she's begun practicing with them by swapping bodies with a cat. While in cat shape, she retains her sentience but takes on some of the cat's instincts, such as playing with dangling strings and enjoying being petted. It's as cute as it sounds.
Took a Level in Kindness: After Syd re-lives her life in the astral plane with Melanie and Oliver, who foster her better nature, she becomes much less prickly and cynical. She even regains faith that David can be saved in the past, though she still doesn't forgive him for the worse actions he did to her.

Melanie Bird

Played By: Jean Smart

David's therapist and a leader at Summerland, who's very compassionate and protective to those under her (unconventional) methods.

And Starring: Jean Smart gets the "and" billing in the end credits.
Anti-Hero: Her cause is genuinely good and she is one of the main protagonists, but her more selfish goals and insistence that David is perfectly sane cause a lot of problems and paint her as a morally grayer figure.
Canon Foreigner: She has some traits in common with Moira MacTaggert, who plays a significant role in David's story in the comics, and is also a bit like an older, more modest Emma Frost, but she's a totally new character.
Demonic Possession: Get possessed by the Shadow King before he regains his original body.
Love Makes You Dumb: She's so intent on getting Oliver back (and, once he is back, getting him to remember who she is) that she starts to endanger David and the team with her single-mindedness.
The Lost Lenore: She lost her husband Oliver to the astral plane years ago. Part of her motivation to help David is the possibility that his powerful telepathy might help her bring him back.
Put on a Bus: With Oliver in Season 3.
The Stoner: The stress of losing Oliver again after briefly getting him back causes her to spiral into one of these in Season 2.
Take My Hand!: How she presents herself to David after he escapes the facility. The Devil with Yellow Eyes punishes her for this by crippling her hand in David's dream space, though her real hand is unaffected.
Team Mom: Melanie is very caring with her charges, gently pushing them towards confronting even uncomfortable truths, while constantly supporting them. She stays like that even with overt hostility from David or Sydney.
Theory Tunnel Vision: She is so set on her view that David's mental illness diagnosis is a misinterpretation of the effects of his powers that she for a long time completely overlooks the possibility that David has both powers and mental illness.

Ptonomy Wallace

Played By: Jeremie Harris

A mutant with a photographic memory and the power to read other people's memories. He is a natural leader with a dry sense of humor.

Canon Foreigner: Albeit one with heavy influence from Prodigy AKA David Alleyne, an African American with ability to telepathically absorb other peoples' knowledge and a natural leadership streak.
Character Death: Dies after Farouk's psychic parasite leaves his body. His mind gets preserved by Fukyama and his Vermillons however.
Dark and Troubled Past: His mother dropped dead in front of him when he was playing in the kitchen, a memory which he constantly relives.
Hidden Depths: He quotes Sun Tzu when planning a mission. "Supreme excellence consists of breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting."
- His inner desire is to be totally amnesiac and carefree, suggesting that he partly views his photographic memory as a burden.
I Just Want to Be Normal: Has shades of this. Ptonomy in general sees his mutant ability as more of a burden than a gift; the prime example being his ability to remember his mother's death with complete clarity. When he is infected by the Catalyst, his personal maze is him in a hedge garden trimming the same rose over and over and retaining no memory of it. Cary and David even say as much when they enter the maze; Ptonomy's core desire is to be able to forget and live fully in the present. When Ptonomy comes out of it, he laughs as he's delighted to hear he doesn't remember at all what happened.
Out of Focus: In Season 3. The Mainframe is uploaded into a robot vessel that resembles him and so operates as Divison 3's computer; despite that, he does nothing of significance all season and doesn't even appear in the series finale.
Photographic Memory/No Infantile Amnesia: His memory is so perfect that he remembers his time in his mother's womb.
Psychic Powers: He has some degree of telepathy because he's able to enter people's memories.
Sharp-Dressed Man: Always dresses very stylishly, even when going to war.
Signature Headgear: Ptonomy wears a Ivy Cap complete with his dressed of style clothing, indicating that he has a higher form of education.
Telepathy: He's a psychic whose specialty is accessing a person's memory; he styles himself as a "memory artist."

Kerry Loudermilk

Played By: Amber Midthunder

An outspoken individual unafraid of the repercussions of her actions. She is constantly moving and doing, always looking to the next challenge.

Action Girl: Takes an active hand in rescuing David from Division 3, and helps fight off the mooks pursuing them. In fact episode 4 reveals she can't sit still, and gets outright anxious when she's not beating heads together. The Shadow King uses her body to confront David for this reason, though he defeats and rescues her anyway.
The Ageless: Variant; Kerry doesn't age so long as she's inside Cary's body. Since she lets him handle all the "boring" stuff like eating and sleeping, she's significantly younger than he (Amber Midthunder is 22, while Bill Irwin is 66).
- Averted in the series finale. Merging with Cary to battle the time demons ages her to become at least as old as Cary, though she appears fine with it.
Badass Adorable: She's a pretty deadly fighter, but seeing her adjust to normal customs (eating, going to the bathroom, etc.) is sweet.
Badass Native: Kerry is Native American, always ready to fight, and casually mops the floor with Division mooks in episode 4 (at least until their reinforcements arrive).
Badass Normal: Actually doesn't have any combat-oriented mutant powers - Kerry's mutation is that she can merge into her brother Cary's body. Merging like this can help her recover from near-fatal injuries, but it isn't a fast process and not immediately useful in a fight. Kerry does prefer hand to hand combat and is a very skilled fighter, but it isn't a super-power: she's just a very well trained martial artist.
The Big Guy: Although still a svelt, pretty young woman, Kerry is by far the best fighter of the Summerlanders and the one who engages in physical fights.
Blood Knight: She's always itching for a fight, and gets real antsy when there's no action. She looks positively giddy in "Chapter 4" when a talky meeting with Dr. Poole turns out to be a trap.
Brains and Brawn: Kerry is the Brawn of her pair with Cary, and even describes them in these words.
Demonic Possession: Briefly possessed by the Shadow King in "Chapter 8", though she's freed with little trouble by the end.
Glass Cannon: She can send grown men flying with her kicks, but she's still as vulnerable to humans as everybody else. And in the Astral Plane she might as well be a Red Shirt.
I Just Want to Be Normal: Downplayed, but Kerry tearfully laments to Syd her self-doubts about her own existence when she notes that Cary handles all of the mundane day-to-day activities of their shared life, and she wonders whether she's even real.
Literal-Minded: She doesn't understand figures of speech.
Literal Split Personality: She's shared a body with Cary Loudermilk since they were children, shocking her parents when, instead of the Native American daughter they were expecting, her mother gave birth to a Caucasian boy.
One-Man Army: Able to take down multiple members of Division 3 on her own. However, she's not as effective against other superhuman individuals.
Nobody Poops: Literally. Due to being able to merge with her brother Cary's body when she's inactive, Kerry has preferred to skip all the "boring" parts of life such as sleeping, eating, and even using a toilet. She refers to it in Season 1 as "whatever it is people do in the bathroom". In Season 2 she gets locked out of her ability to merge with her brother and has to spend extended time living like a regular person - and has to figure out how to use a toilet as Cary talks her through it from the other side of the door.
Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Demonstrates this in the first episode, knocking out thugs with one or punches.
Synchronization: Kerry and Cary have a degree of this. When Kerry is fighting the Division's mooks in episode 4, Cary mimics her fighting from his lab, and responds whenever she takes a hit. And when Kerry is shot by The Eye while protecting David and Syd, Cary feels the pain.
Twofer Token Minority: Threefer - Native, female, and a savant.
Two Siblings In One: She shares a body with Cary. Notable because Cary is a nerdy white guy while Kerry is a Native American woman, and they were born to Native parents. So when Cary was born their father accused their mother of cheating on him. Kerry didn't even first appear until Cary was several years old.
What the Hell, Hero?: She is quite upset about Cary "leaving" her in the Astral Plane when the Eye was stalking her. She doesn't care that he was working on a way out with Oliver.
Waif-Fu/Cute Bruiser: Despite her tiny size, she's a competent fighter that uses a combination of Good Old Fisticuffs and more acrobatic and flexible movements as shown in chapter 4.

Cary Loudermilk

Played By: Bill Irwin

A brilliant geneticist. Although he seems shy, he is brave and funny.

Brains and Brawn: He's the Brain of his pair with Kerry, and she uses these exact words to describe their existence.
Chocolate Baby: His Native American parents split up when he was born. His father assumed infidelity with a white man rather than mutation.
Literal Split Personality: He's shared a body with Kerry Loudermilk since they were children, shocking his parents when, instead of the Native American daughter they were expecting, his mother gave birth to a Caucasian boy.
Nice Guy: He's very amiable and well-meaning.
Omniglot: He speaks German, Spanish and Japanese.
Third-Person Person: Cary seems to refer to himself in the third person to remind himself to do something later. Chapter 3 clarifies this a bit further: Cary's not talking to himself, but to Kerry, who is his Literal Split Personality (see above).
The Smart Guy: He handles much of Summerland's science and research.
Synchronization: Kerry and Cary have a degree of this. When Kerry is fighting the Division's mooks in episode 4, Cary mimics her fighting from his lab, and responds whenever she takes a hit. And when Kerry is shot by The Eye while protecting David and Syd, Cary feels the pain.
Two Siblings In One: He shares a body with Kerry. Notable because Cary is a nerdy white guy while Kerry is a Native American woman, and they were born to Native parents. So when Cary was born their father accused their mother of cheating on him. Kerry didn't even first appear until Cary was several years old.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: During the time demon attacks, Cary takes Jia-yi away from David's compound, intending to protect her from the time demons, but instead Division 3 chooses to seal her in a special case so that David can't find her, which leads him to believe that Division 3 kidnapped her, thus resulting in him going on a rampage to get her back.
Waistcoat of Style: Part of his standard attire.

Rudy

Played By: Brad Mann

A powerful telekinetic known for blasting objects and enemies hundreds of feet away with a thought.

Big Damn Heroes: He revives just in time to save Sydney and Kerry from being killed by the Shadow King.
The Big Guy: Thanks to his telekinetic powers, he acts as this alongside Kerry.
Chekhov's Gunman: He originally seems to have died, but manages to awaken at a crucial moment.
Dying Moment of Awesome: After the Eye is killed, Rudy is released from Walter's paralysis in the Astral Plane - Rudy's immediate response is to tackle the Shadow King in the middle of murdering Sid and Kerry, ultimately giving David the opportunity to return everyone to the real world.
Mauve Shirt: The only non-member of the main cast to join the mission to rescue David, and the first one to be taken out of it, stabbed by the Eye and left disabled in the astral plane. He does manage a Dying Moment of Awesome before succumbing to his wounds, however.
Not Quite Dead: He seems to have died from being stabbed by The Eye, only to revive in the astral plane and save Sydney and Kerry.
The Worf Effect: As shown in the first episode, he's a very physically powerful mutant, which is presumably why the Eye chose to put him out of commission first.

Oliver Anthony Bird

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/oliver_bird.png

Played By: Jemaine Clement

Dr. Melanie Bird's husband, whose physical body lies in a freezer underneath Summerland. His mind is seemingly trapped in the Astral Plane.

Amnesiac Lover: As well as forgetting vocabulary and concepts such as measurements of time, Oliver completely forgets Melanie, and the fact that he is even married. He remembers her moments before he is possessed by the Shadow King.
Big Damn Heroes: After everyone is trapped in the Shadow King's asylum on the Astral Plane, Oliver starts appearing to the Summerland crew to take them out of the mental prison.
Big Good: Melanie tells us that he founded Summerland (with Cary), meaning he was interested in understanding the Fantastic Science of mutants. While his first appearance doesn't seem to match his wife's rosy description of him, Oliver is the first person who is aware of TDWYE within David's mind without being told about it or seeing it firsthand. As of the first season finale, however, he is now a puppet of the Big Bad.
Cloud Cuckoo Lander: As if his name weren't enough to tip you off, Bird appears to be almost perfectly happy "living" in the Astral plane, although a bit lonely. It hasn't exactly done wonders for his own sanity, either, and he's become a bit eccentric, to put it mildly, as a result.
Creepy Old-Fashioned Diving Suit: Oliver's physical body is stored inside one of these while his mind is on the Astral Plane.
A Day in the Limelight: Gets plenty of focus in "Chapter 13", alongside Lenny.
Demonic Possession: Possessed by the Shadow King in the Season 1 finale. It uses him to escape Summerland.
The Hermit: He has been living in the Astral Plane for about 20 years, having become trapped when he spent too much time there.
Go Mad from the Isolation: While he's not outright mad, Oliver has definitely become a bit eccentric from his time in the Astral Plane.
Ignored Expert: Oliver tells David it might be good for him to figure some things out in the Astral Plane, where the Shadow King can't reach him, but David is too worried about his sister to stay. It doesn't help that Oliver is a bit eccentric, was a bit of an Absent-Minded Professor To begin with, and David is not totally aware of the threat that hunts him.
Mr. Exposition: He first appears addressing the audience. When David shows up in the Astral plane, Bird quickly deduces that the "monster" which stalks David is real, making him forget things, and a parasite.
Psychic Powers: Oliver is a powerful psychic with years of experience, capable of travelling to and manipulating the Astral Plane at will, as well as construct a psychic shield in the real world. This is presumably why the Shadow King chooses him as its next host.
Put on a Bus: With Melanie in Season 3.
- The Bus Came Back: Together with Melanie in the third to last episode of Season 3. Also counts as A Day in the Limelight.
Retired Badass: While he's decided to live a quiet, rural life in the Astral Plane with his wife, he can still put on his snazzy white suit and bust out some sick beats. Given how duels in the Astral Planes works this makes him the equivalent of an Old Master.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: He was just trying to help, but being in the wrong place at the wrong time allowed the Shadow King to escape from Kerry's body into his, giving it an avenue to freedom.

Division 3

As a whole

A government agency tasked with monitoring mutant activity and capturing (or eliminating) those deemed a threat.

Child Soldiers: They also employ them in Season 2.
Expy: Of similar organizations in the X-Men comic books, most notably Weapon X.
Evil Wears Black: Their mooks wear all-black attire.
Faceless Mooks: They wear face-concealing black-masks and goggles.
Government Conspiracy: They are a secret division of the United States Government.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: Their goal is to ensure the survival of regular humans in the face of the rise of mutants. So well-intentioned that, in fact, the protagonists end up cooperating with them.

Admiral Fukyama

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/legion_fukyama2.jpg

The Admiral and the Vermillions

Played By: Marc Oka

The leader of Division 3. He's actually a mutant that was recruited into the organization in his youth.

Big Brother Is Watching You: The basket over his head is actually a device connected to the cameras throughout Division 3, allowing him to spy on everyone there.
Canon Foreigner: Has no comic book counterpart.
Culture Equals Costume: Wears traditional Japanese clothes.
Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: He seems fairly ruthless and unfeeling, though not sadistic, and describes himself as a "machine that bleeds".
Cyborg: He tells David the he had a machine inserted into his brain and seems to be remote controlling the Vermillion.
Dramatic Unmask: Clark, under the influence of the Delusions, forces him to remove his basket at gunpoint.
The Faceless: He wears a basket over his head.
Facial Horror: Ptonomy thinks the reason he wears a basket over his head is because it looks like a grownup version of the monstrous baby chicks that begin to appear in Season 2. This was a Delusion; he actually looks like an innocent old man with facial scars.
Voice of the Legion: Sometimes seems to speak through the Vermillion, a group of Ambiguous Robots who tend to speak all at once in the same tone.

The Vermillion

Vermillion

A group of androids in service of Division 3.

Ambiguous Gender: They are anatomically androgynous, with somewhat female-shaped figures but mustaches on their faces.
Computer Voice: They speak in a pleasantly electronic monotone.
Girls with Moustaches: They are a group of identical women wearing skintight catsuits, pageboy haircuts and mustaches for no explicable reason.
We Have Reserves: Seems there's an endless supply of them.

The Eye

Walter / The Eye

Played By: Mackenzie Gray

An agent of Division 3, assigned first to the interrogation of David, and later his sister. His actual name is Walter.

'70s Hair: Sports a very curly afro.
Combo Platter Powers: The Eye can see astral projections, disguise himself as others, and bullets can pass through him.
Cruel and Unusual Death: On the receiving end from the Shadow King, who wads him up like a piece of paper. It is not pretty. And to make it worse, he's made to suffer it twice — first in the astral plane, and then in the real world as soon as that's over.
Disc-One Final Boss: He survives the Division 3 massacre, but is killed by the Shadow King in the penultimate episode of the first season.
The Dragon: To Brubaker, the head of Division 3. After David wipes out Division 3, Walter becomes this to the Shadow King in a way. The Shadow King even mentions that Walter and it agree on some things.
The Dreaded: Melanie and Ptonomy are visibly disturbed when David reveals he's involved with the Division's attempt to find him.
Hunter of His Own Kind: He has mutant abilities of his own but hunts down other mutants on behalf of Division 3.
Eye Scream: One of his eyes pops out of its socket as the Shadow King crushes him to death.
Evil Former Friend: He was acquainted with Cary, Melanie and Oliver when Summerland was first created.
Implacable Man: Ptonomy shoots him from close range in episode 4, and can only stare at his gun in disbelief when The Eye keeps coming. He's only stopped when Syd uses her powers to swap bodies and knock him out while he's trapped in hers. Syd is then briefly knocked out when David causes the Division van to crash, not realizing she is now in The Eye's body.
I See Them, Too: The Eye is able to see David and Syd when they're using the Astral Plane to spy on the Division's interrogation of Amy.
Names to Run Away from Really Fast: He's called The Eye, and may be the most terrifying character outside of the Devil and the Angriest Boy. Even if you're on the Astral Plane he can still see you.
Psychic Powers: Appears to have this to some extent. Not only could he see David and Syd while being projected, he was also able to knock Ptonomy out with a touch, and successfully masquerade as Dr. Poole and Rudy.
Sadist: He takes great pleasure in inflicting pain, due to being bullied in his childhood for developing slower than the rest.
You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Somewhat. While the Shadow King keeps him around in the astral plane, the Eye really doesn't do much other than menace Kerry and Sydney before it decides to kill him anyway.
Your Mind Makes It Real: The Shadow King kills him by crumpling him up into a ball in the Astral Plane, which causes him to crumple up into a ball in the real world shortly after.

Clark

Played By: Hamish Linklater

An interrogator with Division 3.

Agent Peacock: He is impeccably dressed and coiffed, and openly gay. That said, he's respected enough by Division 3 that even after barely surviving his previous encounter with David, he's is given a compliment of soldiers to try and bring David in again.
Amusing Injuries: Averted hard. You know how superhero stories often show enemy mooks being casually blasted away by explosions - but skip the gruesome repercussions? The series shows the realistic aftermath of Clark being caught in an explosion when the other mutants rescue David: he's left hospitalized for months with third degree burns over 40% of his body, in agony and weak as a kitten, while his loved ones grieve over him. Moreover he doesn't just have a comic-book style recovery, but is left badly disfigured and partially crippled. He's not amused when he encounters David again.
And Starring: Hamish Linklater gets the "with" billing in the end credits of Season 2 before graduating to the "and" billing in Season 3.
Chekhov's Gunman: Returns at the very end of "Chapter 7" to throw a wrench into the heroes' impending happy ending, as well as inadvertently give Farouk a chance to escape Summerland.
The Determinator: Clark suffers through weeks of agony after his first encounter with David, but when the Division tries to reassign him to desk duty, he stands his ground and insists on returning to the field.
Handicapped Badass: Even after receiving third-degree burns over 40% of his body and forced to walk with a cane, he still is determined to catch David. He also tries to stop the Shadow King when Farouk tries to leave in Kerry's body by hitting her on the head with his cane.
It's Personal: After David's powers leave him severely burned, Clark vows to drag him back to Division 3.
Jerkass Has a Point: He makes some good points about humans having every right to fear mutants, especially ones as powerful as David, with Melanie and others' comments about the human race becoming extinct seeming very much like threats.
Killed Off for Real: As of the series finale, his original timeline self is permanently dead, though another version of him will exist in the alternate timeline David created.
Know When to Fold 'Em: After realizing that he's not going to take David by force and that the Division is ill-equipped to deal with the Shadow King, he decides to hold out an olive branch.
Post-Injury Desk Job: Defied. As soon as he recovers from his encounter with David he gets assigned to a desk job by Division 3, but refuses to take it, swearing to hunt down and capture the man who almost killed him.
Straight Gay: No hint of his sexuality is given until he is revealed to be married to another man with an adopted son in the last episode of Season 1.
Two-Faced: After being burned, he has severe scarring down the right side of his face.

Brubaker

Played By: David Selby

A member of Division 3 and superior to Clark and the Eye.

Disc-One Final Boss: He's set up initially as the Big Bad and main antagonist, only for the Shadow King to slaughter him and most of his men in Chapter 5.
Mythology Gag: His name seems to be a reference to Ed Brubaker, who was writer of Uncanny X-Men.
Non-Action Big Bad: Of the three members of Division 3 shown in Season 1, he has the most authority, but doesn't take action himself, preferring to act through the Eye and Clark.

Humans

Lenny Busker

Lenore "Lenny" Busker

Played By: Aubrey Plaza

A friend of David's, who, despite a life of drugs and alcohol abuse, knows that any day now, her life is gonna turn around, which gives Lenny the likable energy of the impossible optimist, despite her rough demeanor.

Accidental Murder: A victim of this when Syd is stuck in David's body, being overwhelmed by David's mutation.
A Day in the Limelight: Gets a lot of focus in "Chapter 13", alongside Oliver.
Ambiguous Gender Identity: Lenny is played by a woman, but the character is androgynous. Lenny was originally written as a man, but after Noah Hawley gave the role to Aubrey Plaza, she convinced him that Lenny should be gender-neutral, being inspired by David Bowie.
Aubrey Plaza: [Noah Hawley] really responded to that, so that was kind of where that unisex, androgynous kind of thing came from. I was interested in making Lenny a man and a woman at the same time, and not being tied down to anything gender-wise.
Ambiguously Bi: Only expresses interest in women until "Chapter 17", when Amy suggests that Lenny possesses feelings for David. She doesn't deny it. However in Season 3, Lenny shows no attraction to David whatsoever and is in a relationship with a woman, leaving it up to interpretation.
Ambiguous Situation:
- Whether Lenny was ever actually real, or was always just a projection of the Shadow King, or even a figment of David's imagination that Farouk took advantage of, is left unclear. Amy never knew her, but instead mentioned David was friends with a man named Benny, who we see inserted in several events from David's memories that Lenny had been a part of. However the other Clockworks patients in the first episode — Syd included — were aware of her. That Farouk continues using her form after latching onto Oliver just muddles the truth even further.
- The season two opener doesn't clarify any better, however we do see Lenny and Oliver both trapped together in Oliver's mind by Farouk, which supports her having been real at one point. The following episode finally confirms that Lenny was a real patient at Clockworks, with David meeting her there for the first time, and that Farouk is keeping her consciousness trapped in the astral plane to do his bidding.
And I Must Scream: Lenny was real and did die. The Shadow King then captured and trapped her mind in David's head to use as one of his disguises with her continuing to be trapped; first in David's mind, and then with Oliver in his.
Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: A side effect of being a junkie, she has an extremely short attention span, with David and Clark becoming visibly exasperated trying to keep her focused on the topic at hand.
Back from the Dead: Farouk uses a device Oliver stole from Division 3 to transform Amy's body into a new one for Lenny, before turning her loose.
Big, Screwed-Up Family: In "Chapter 13", we learn that her grandmother allowed her to drink vodka at age nine, her father was a porn addict and her mother neglected her after being unable to have many children like she wanted. It's little wonder Lenny turned out the way that she did.
Creepy Blue Eyes: Aubrey Plaza's large brown eyes are a very distinguishing feature, so when Lenny acquires blue eyes in Season 2, they look strangely wrong. They serve to indicate that her body is not her own, but rather Amy's.
Cruel and Unusual Death: By way of Tele-Frag. Made even worse in Season 2 when she reveals that she was completely aware of what was happening.
Dark and Troubled Past: Her awful childhood aside, she also resorted to prostitution to feed her drug addiction.
Dead Star Walking: An interesting subversion. She dies in the first episode, but continues to appear afterwards in flashbacks or as a disguise of the Shadow King before being resurrected in Season 2, albeit in Amy's body.
Driven to Suicide: Tired of David's manipulation of her, and in grief over the deaths of her girlfriend and newborn child, she stabs herself in the throat with a knife and dies moments later.
- Before that, when it is revealed the Shadow King has kept Lenny's psyche alive and trapped as part of him, we see she is ready to try to kill herself at the drop of a hat, all foiled by Farouk.
Eye Colour Change: Lenny's eyes are brown during her first life, but blue when she comes Back from the Dead, a fact that even throws Ptonomy, a mutant with perfect recall. It turns out that this is because she's in the body of David's murdered sister Amy, which has been reshaped to look like the old Lenny.
Foreshadowing: In the second episode, David has a memory of he and Lenny getting stoned and her suddenly turning into the Devil with the Yellow Eyes. It's the first hint that Lenny isn't who she appears to be.
Gender Flip: Prior to Plaza's casting, Lenny was a man in the original pilot script. In "Chapter 4", David's ex and previous doctor tell Syd and Ptonomy that there was no Lenny, but rather a man named Benny. We see him for a brief moment in "Chapter 5", when Shadow King-as-Lenny smugly flashes all his/her "identities" - King, the dog, the World's Angriest Boy, Benny, and Lenny - to Amy.
Gender-Blender Name: Lenny is generally a male name. She reveals in "Chapter 13" that her name is actually Lenore, after her grandmother.
Go Out with a Smile: Lenny dies this way in "Chapter 24", cracking one last joke to David before expiring.
The Hedonist: Her lifestyle pre-Clockworks. After escaping Division 3 in "Chapter 16", she intends on going back to it, referring to a boozy, drug-fueled sexual encounter as "a kid's birthday party compared to the Caligula shit I've got planned."
Hot Librarian: Or rather, psychiatrist. After the Shadow King forces her into trapping everyone in an alternate reality at Clockworks, she assumes this form, complete with glasses, black boots and turtleneck sweater.
Kill and Replace: It's not like she wanted this to happen, but Farouk used a part of Lenny's skin and used it to shape the body of Amy, David's sister, after Lenny and put Lenny's consciousness in the body.
Killed Off for Real: As of the series finale, Lenny-in-Amy's body is permanently dead, though another version of her will or already does exist in the new timeline David created.
Late-Arrival Spoiler: By Season 2 her association with the Shadow King is common knowledge.
Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: It's never made explicitly clear in Season 1 whether the Lenny that David knew at Clockworks was a real person, or an avatar of the Shadow King all along. "Chapter 10" confirms that Lenny was a real patient at Clockworks and that her physical body is dead, but her mind is being held captive in the astral plane by the Shadow King.
Messy Hair: Like David, it serves as shorthand for her unstable mental state.
Ms. Fanservice: Not while she's at Clockworks, but when the Shadow King uses her form, she's frequently wearing skimpy outfits, and is fully nude when she's resurrected. However, given the circumstances of these instances, there's definitely an element of Fan Disservice as well. She also has a fairly explicit lesbian sex scene in "Chapter 17".
Not-So-Small Role: She dies in the first episode; however, since Aubrey Plaza was listed as part of the main cast it clearly meant her story was not yet over. The fourth episode takes her character in a darker direction as it strongly implies the "Lenny" appearing to David after her death to be a manifestation of the Big Bad. Confirmed in the fifth episode.
Number Two: She becomes this as part of David's cult in Season 3.
Only Friend: To David before he met Syd. Even when her true allegiance is in question, they have a genuine camaraderie. Their relationship begins to sour in Season 3, when Lenny starts to become fed up with David's constant manipulation of her.
Plucky Comic Relief: A lot of her lines are hilarious and she provides many moments of levity when not under the Shadow King's influence.
Psycho Psychologist: Gives off this vibe when the Shadow King forces her to play psychiatrist in "Chapter 6", especially when talking to David, Syd, and Melanie.
Red Herring Shirt: She is David's comic relief friend who dies in the first episode. Her style of clothing also has a reddish choice about it. Then the Big Bad uses her as one of his many identities to manipulate David.
Sacrificial Lamb: Killed by Syd in the first episode, when she and David accidentally switch bodies.
Selective Obliviousness: “Why are the hot ones always crazy?” Lenny says this of Syd. Lenny is both hot and very very crazy.
She Cleans Up Nicely: At Clockworks she's rather disheveled with wild unkempt hair, and wears her rather baggy hospital clothes and gown. However, when the Shadow King takes her form she's very well-groomed and looks like Aubrey Plaza.
The Stoner: A lifelong junkie whose downward spiral began at age nine when her grandmother allowed her to drink vodka.
Sweet Tooth: She frequently snacks on strawberry Twizzlers, and later requests that Sydney mail her a new candy bar that has nougat, chocolate and a crispy wafer. A bit of Foreshadowing for comic book readers that she will become the Shadow King, as he was known for indulging in unhealthy food. In Season 2, when David visits the "new" Lenny, he smuggles in some Twizzlers for her.
Tele-Frag: How she dies in the pilot episode, getting phased into a concrete wall after Syd-in-David's body loses control of David's powers.
Toxic Friend Influence:
- During their initial friendship before the hospital, she usually seems the instigator of their drug runs, thus indirectly causing David's devastating telekinetic storm in his kitchen. She also persuades him to break into Dr. Poole's office.
- Later, when she becomes a figure inside his mind, she cruelly delights in tormenting him about the possible horrors Division 3 could inflict on Amy and Sydney. Turns out this Lenny is really the Shadow King, who has been doing this to David all his life.
Trademark Favorite Food: Twizzlers.
Villainous Crush: Subverted, throughout Season 1 she was very inappropriate around David, though with The Reveal that it was Amahl Farouk impersonating her, this becomes much more disturbing.
Walking Spoiler: It's rather telling that her death in the first episode is the least spoiler-y thing about her.
You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Cruelly inverted, as after the Shadow King no longer needs to use her as his avatar, he refuses to just let her die and leaves her consciousness trapped in his mind.

Amy Haller

Played By: Katie Aselton

David's sister.

Back for the Dead: She didn't make an appearance in Season 2 until its fifth episode (besides her actress voicing one of Fukyama's Vermillions), in which she shortly appears only to be killed by Farouk and making Lenny take over her body.
Big Sister Instinct: Seems to be protective of her younger brother. When David accidentally destroys a lamp she takes all of the gardening tools from downstairs just to make sure he doesn't risk harming himself. She also worries when he disappears and goes looking for him at the Clockwork facility. In "Chapter 14" we see several different timelines showing the paths David could have taken in life and the one constant is that Amy is caring for her brother in all of them.
Canon Foreigner: While David's counterpart in the comics does have paternal half-siblings as in Xandra and Charles, he doesn't have any full siblings.
The Conscience: Seems to serve as one to Lenny, after Lenny took over Amy's body.
Cruel and Unusual Death: Amy dies in Chapter 13, after Oliver/Farouk uses her body to shape her after Lenny and put Lenny's consciousness in.
Damsel in Distress: Gets kidnapped by Division 3 to serve as bait for David.
A Death in the Limelight: Inverted. She dies in the previous episode, but "Chapter 14" is one for her, showcasing timelines where she lived and was helping David with his problem.
Living Emotional Crutch: Amy was always the one constant in David's life. In multiple possible timelines, she is always the one on David's side. Her death devastates him and is the final push that makes him want to murder Farouk. He gradually gets mentally worse after her death.
Out of Focus: After serving as the Damsel in Distress early on and motivating David's confrontation with Division 3, she mostly disappears from the narrative and has no real role in the last few episodes. As of Season 2, she is no longer a part of the main cast. However, she ends up returning to the fold in a big way in the second half of the season, when she becomes a vessel for the newly-resurrected Lenny.
Psychic Dreams for Everyone: Just before her murder she tells her husband about a dream where she was part of Vermillion, although she doesn't use that name. This despite never having been inside Division 3.

Dr. Kissinger

Dr. Dennis Kissinger

Played By: David Ferry

A psychiatrist at Clockworks Psychiatric Hospital who treats David, Lenny and Sydney.

Being Tortured Makes You Evil: The torture suffered at the hands of Division 3 leaves him seriously disturbed.
Un-person: Division 3 erases all records of him after they kidnap him in his attempt to track down David.

Dr. Poole

Dr. Henry Poole

Played By: Scott Lawrence

A psychiatrist that treated David before he was admitted into Clockworks.

What Happened to the Mouse?: It is unknown what happened to him after being attacked by David; when Syd, Ptonomy and Kerry go looking for him they only find The Eye glamoured to look like him.

Gabrielle Xavier

Played By: Stephanie Corneliussen

A Romani Holocaust survivor who is married to Charles Xavier and is the biological mother of David Haller.

Adaptational Nationality: The comic book character is an Israeli Jew, but her TV iteration is Romani with no fixed abode.
Adaptation Dye-Job: In the comics, she's raven-haired with brown eyes, whereas on the show, she's brown-haired with green eyes.
Adaptation Name Change: Her maiden name is never mentioned onscreen, but it's unlikely to be Haller because she's Romani in the show instead of Jewish like in the comics, and David's surname Haller has been changed to be from his adoptive family. After Gabrielle marries Charles Xavier, her name becomes Gabrielle Xavier (and Switch addresses her as such in the series finale).
Broken Bird: Because she's a Romani Holocaust survivor who had witnessed her entire family being slaughtered by Nazis and she was also a prisoner in a concentration camp, she is extremely pessimistic. Although she's not suicidal, her conversation with Syd in "Chapter 26" strongly hints that she feels that she's merely existing (rather than truly living) because of a basic survival instinct, but otherwise she's not keen about life. Gabrielle loves her husband Charles and their infant son David, and Charles has provided them with a lovely mansion in a safe, idyllic suburb, yet her new comfortable environment cannot erase the horrors that she has endured, nor heal the psychological wounds that they've inflicted.
Gabrielle: It bothers you because you think you matter. That people matter.
Syd: What's the point of living if not?
Gabrielle: Have you ever seen a mass grave? All people, with names, with families... now just a pile. What's the meaning of that?
Syd: But you're here. You have a child.
Gabrielle: All animals fight to live. Whether they want to or not.
- In "Chapter 27", Gabrielle once again brings up her bleak outlook.
  Gabrielle: What is happening?
  Syd: The world's ending.
  Gabrielle: My world ended a long time ago.
Color-Coded Characters: Her wardrobe consists mostly of green clothing and accessories (e.g. high heels).
Commonality Connection: When she socializes with Charles for the first time, they bond over their love for cherry pie and their struggles with their mental health issues.
Gabrielle: I'm not well, you know.
Charles: Neither am I.
Dumb Struck: She is so traumatized from her experience during World War II that she becomes catatonic and has to be institutionalized at a psychiatric hospital.
High-Class Gloves: After she becomes Charles' fiancée, she wears pretty green gloves◊ as she's leaving the hospital and when she's slow-dancing in their new home to add flair to her splendid attire. As the future wife of an affluent Englishman, the gloves reflect her new social status.
In the Blood: In "Chapter 26", she discloses to Syd that insanity runs in her family, and Syd concludes that Gabrielle's son David got his madness from his mother.
Gabrielle: My grandmother had the sickness. She was, uh... vrăjitoare. ^noteRomanian for "witch." Spells, moods, she spoke in tongues. I remember her eyes. Miserable and giddy, like a happy death. My mother was 16 when the sickness hit her. In the witching hour, she woke up laughing. Didn't stop for 14 days.
Syd: You're talking about mental illness.
Gabrielle: Such a clinical name for something so raw. Like an animal with its heart on the outside.
Syd: It's so odd, I never thought of that. It's hereditary, what's wrong with [David]. Why he's like this.
Sole Survivor: She's the sole surviving member of her family; all of her relatives were exterminated by the Nazis.
Sweet Tooth: She has a voracious appetite for cherry pie and eats it so quickly that she would take the half-eaten slice that Charles (who's fond of it, too, but he's a slower eater) has without asking. When he tries to grab another bite, she's unwilling to share.

Mutants

Amahl Farouk

The Shadow King

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/farouk_navid_negahban.jpg

The Shadow King

^{Click here to see him as The Devil with Yellow Eyes}

^{Click here to see him as The World's Angriest Boy in the World}

Played By: Navid Negahban, Quinton Bosclair (The Devil with Yellow Eyes), Aubrey Plaza (Lenny form), Kirby Morrow (Benny form), Devyn Dalton ("Angry Boy" form)

A mysterious figure that seems to haunt David, appearing as something resembling The Blob but much more horrifying. He is later revealed to be the show's version of Amahl Farouk, a.k.a. the Shadow King.

Adaptational Attractiveness: In the comics, Farouk looks like this.◊ In Legion, he's a suave, handsome, multi-lingual man. It's definitely an upgrade.
- The Devil with the Yellow Eyes is a much more faithful to the comics look.
Adaptational Badass: While the comics version is an extremely powerful telepath, he does not have the telekinesis and outright Reality Warping powers rivaling David's that this version has.
Adaptational Nationality: The original Amahl Farouk is Egyptian, whereas the live-action character is Moroccan.
Adaptational Nice Guy: He is not nice by any stretch of the imagination, but at least this Shadow King turns out to be capable of something resembling a Heel–Face Turn, which is more that can be said of the comics version.
Adaptation Personality Change: This version of Farouk is a lot more sophisticated and complex and than the Card-Carrying Villain he was in the comics.
Adaptational Ugliness: Inversely, his mental projections are much less straightforwardly intimidating than the fanged, strapping, shadow monster he usually uses in the comics, ranging from the corpulent Devil with Yellow Eyes to the hilariously grotesque World's Angriest Boy in the World.
Arch-Enemy: For David's birth father, Charles Xavier in the past, and David in the present.
Badass Boast: To David, after David tried to challenge him mentally.
David: I don't trust you.
Farouk: I don't need you to trust me. But you will respect me. I'm not some cockroach that you can step on with a boot. Je suis le soleil. La lune. ^TranslationI am the sun. The moon.
The Bad Guy Wins: In all three seasons!
- Season 1: He holds David's mind hostage in the astral plane until he gets the chance to escape Summerland in Oliver's body.
- Season 2: Mere hours before his trial, he manages to turn everyone against David, forcing Haller to go on the run.
- Season 3: Farouk convinces his past self to abandon his vendetta against David and Charles and forms a truce with them to grant David a normal childhood while he escapes with no repercussions for his actions.
Being Evil Sucks: In the Grand Finale, the modern-day Amahl confesses to Charles that corrupting David and ruining his life has not really made him any happier. He's also grown disgusted with his past self's cruel behavior, embarassed at watching his past self use his vast powers to play king in a poor country. He thus proposes a deal with Charles, wherein he agrees to reform his past self's petty ways (and thus prevent the possession of David) in exchange for Charles and David leaving him in peace.
Big Bad: The primary antagonist of the first two seasons, though he ends up a Disc-One Final Boss in the Season 2 finale, with David easing into the role of Villain Protagonist for the latter half of the episode.
Big Bad Friend: Syd and Ptonomy learn from Philly that David hung out with a man named "Benny" back when he was a junkie. He also might have had a friend called Lenny at Clockworks. Both "Benny" and the Lenny we see most of the first season are revealed to be forms of the Shadow King, although the Lenny that David knew at Clockworks was a real person.
Body Surf: Shadow King escapes David's mind in the Season 1 finale, first by using Syd's power to move from David to Syd to Kerry, then by his essence flooding into Oliver after David purges Kerry.
Canon Character All Along: He's referred to as the "Devil with the Yellow Eyes" throughout much of the first season, but in the penultimate episode he's revealed to be Amahl Farouk, the Shadow King.
The Chosen One: In a horrific, hysterical sense of irony, it turns out Farouk himself is the only one who can save the world... from David. Future-Syd manipulated everyone, including Farouk and David, to ensure an outcome where his necessity would not be lost on Division 3, made all the easier when factoring in David's Moral Event Horizon and Farouk undoing his mind wipe on Syd. When Farouk learns of this, he is positively giddy that despite all the horrible things he's done and have been said of him he just might be The Hero of the story. How he proceeds from there... well, he is the Shadow King, so who knows.
Color Motif: Yellow. When Lenny appears to David in his boyhood room in the fourth episode, the room is colored yellow, signifying Lenny's association with the Devil with Yellow Eyes. Red is also used to let the audience know when he's about to make an appearance, such as when he appears at Clockworks or in David and Syd's hideout in the astral plane.
Creepy Long Fingers: As the Devil with Yellow Eyes, his arms and fingers are massively long and thin, almost skeletal, which, combined with his grotesquely obese body, looks even more surreal and unsettling. Even his fingernails are disgustingly long.
Decomposite Character: Sort of. In the comics, the Shadow King is a grotesque, overweight, mustached Moroccan man with Creepy Long Fingers who tends to wear nice suits. In the show, the Shadow King takes the form of (among other things) either a grotesque, overweight man with Creepy Long Fingers (the Devil with Yellow Eyes) or a mustached Moroccan man who tends to wear nice suits (his true form).
Depraved Bisexual: Farouk hits on David while in Lenny's form, and comments that wrestling with him is 'homoerotic'. But we see him surrounded by giggling girls in a flashback, and Lenny says he raped her repeatedly, suggesting that he goes both ways. As for the 'depraved' part... well, consider the rest of this page.
Devil in Plain Sight: It only appears to David (and maybe Syd), but it also makes David forget about it. David's memories seem to indicate that David sees it like the audience does on a few occasions, only for the Shadow King to wipe David's mind again and hide those incidents from Ptonomy. He later stops caring who sees him and readily makes his presence known whenever possible.
Dirty Old Man: Practically everything he did in Lenny's body was in some way inappropriate, ranging from simply wearing Fanservicey outfits to practically molesting David.
The Dog Was the Mastermind: Quite literally, since David's childhood dog "King" is one of the forms he takes.
- In the Halloween flashback, it's the dog that leads David to encounter the World's Angriest Boy.
The Dreaded: The driving force behind Season 2 is that the heroes cannot let him reunite with his original body or they're all screwed. When he finally does so in "Chapter 18", the Vermillion calculate they have 0% chance of victory and promptly flee the scene.
Enemy Mine: He seems to be cooperate with Division 3 to capture David, seeing as he is not restrained at all at the end of Chapter 19.
Even Evil Has Standards:
- Even the Shadow King himself is apparently disgusted to learn that David raped Syd and then wiped her memories of it. Though given that he is Amahl Farouk, he quickly takes advantage of the situation to turn his own bad spot around.
  - Also extremely hypocritical, considering he has committed Mind Rape on David for over thirty years and murdered his sister in a truly brutal manner. Perhaps he was disappointed that David sees himself as a good person when they have more in common.
Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Does not seem to understand why humans even bother with such things like love, friendship and reproduction. The only thing that he desires is greater control and power.
Shadow King-as-Lenny: Do you know what love is? A chemical. Electrons in your brain sending signals. Are you familiar with Ophiocordyceps unilateralis? It's a fungus that infects ants. It's amazing, really. The spores take over their central nervous systems and force them to climb to a high point, and then the fungus begins to grow up, bursting from the tops of their heads like a branch. And it kills them, of course. All so it can spray new spores over the jungle, infecting more ants. When people say love, that's what I think of.
Evil Sounds Deep: When he speaks in his "The Devil with the Yellow Eyes" form, his voice is preternaturally deep.
Fat Bastard: As the Devil with Yellow Eyes.
Faux Affably Evil: Speaks in a very relaxed and civil manner that does well to conceal the giggling maniac he is underneath.
Femme Fatalons: As the Devil with Yellow Eyes. He's never seen using them to attack, but his fingernails are disgustingly long.
A Form You Are Comfortable With: The Shadow King's most common form is Lenny, a real friend of David's at Clockworks, and initially appears to David as her to lower his guard. He also appeared to David during his early childhood in the form of a dog.
Gender Bender: He most commonly appears to David as Lenny, who is a female.
A God Am I: He's very powerful and he knows it. He also sees similar power in David and calls the two of them "gods", those who shape reality at their will.
Happy Dance: Does one in "Chapter 6", to celebrate his dominance of David's mind.
The Hedonist: His main goal in life seems to be simply enjoying it to the fullest. Which would be fine, if his way of enjoying it wasn't what you would expect from a sociopathic Sadist with a God complex.
Heel–Face Turn: ...Sort of. He doesn't really turn good (something that, as one can see in the rest of his tropes, would be next to impossible), but, having come to love David in his own way, he decides to change the past by letting him have a normal, happy life with his biological parents.
Hypnotic Eyes: How he hides his existence from everyone, except David and Syd in the brief moments before he makes them forget they ever saw him.
I Have Many Names: King, The World's Angriest Boy, The Devil with the Yellow Eyes, Amahl Farouk, The Shadow King — they're all one in the same.
Karma Houdini:
- By the end of Season 2, he is considered by Division 3 as The Chosen One to save the world from Legion, despite him being the one mainly responsible for turning David into such a mentally unstable threat to begin with.
- Even worse, at the end of Season 3, after Charles stops David from killing Farouk's past version, due to coming to an agreement with his present-day version, he is essentially allowed to continue as if nothing happened, despite the horrible treatment of his subjects. He even jokes to David that they might rule the world together in the future.
Knight of Cerebus: Things turn dead serious whenever he shows up.
Laughably Evil: Whether giddily slaughtering his way through Division 3 soldiers while possessing David, or literally dancing his way through others' memories in his Lenny form, the Shadow King is obviously getting a kick out of his evil acts, and it's hard to not enjoy how childish he is about it all.
Make Way for the New Villains: The show initially sets up Brubaker and Division 3 as the main antagonists, with the Devil with the Yellow Eyes as a bigger fish lurking in the background. But in Chapter 5, the Devil takes control of David's body and immediately curbstomps Brubaker and his goons off-screen, reducing them — save the Eye — to the status of Disc-One Final Boss. Until Chapter 7, when the Eye is also done away with, and the Devil/Shadow King's bearing on the plot is further elaborated upon, revealing him to be the cause of David's pain since childhood.
Man of Wealth and Taste: Farouk manifests as a man of Middle Eastern ancestry with a French accent who speaks multiple languages, wears stylish old suits from the '60s, perpetually wears sunglasses and daintily sips on coffee or cocktails.
Manipulative Bastard: Disguised as Lenny, he tricks David into attacking Syd while she occupies the Eye's body. This gets the both of them out of the Astral Plane, sows even more self-doubt in David, and allows the Eye to escape.
Meaningful Name: David's childhood dog is named King and is revealed as one of the forms taken by the Shadow King.
Names To Run Away From Very Fast: The Shadow King.
Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: When it gets rid of the Eye, the Shadow King unwittingly releases Rudy from the paralysis which Walter put him under. This allows Rudy to distract the SK, and lets David reassume control of his mind.
Nightmare Face: While posing as the World's Angriest Boy and as the Devil with the Yellow Eyes.
Obviously Evil: As The Devil with the Yellow Eyes.
Omniglot: The first time David sees his true form, Farouk taunts him in several different languages, including French, German and Farsi. He directly explains that his love of languages, and etymological history of specific words and terms, is due to his powers' focus on the mind: language is how our minds apply meaning to the world around us, and in turn language shapes our minds and concepts. FX even put out a behind-the-scenes featurette explaining his use of foreign languages in some depth. Partially, it's just to give a sense of how old and intelligent he is - given that his consciousness has been alive for centuries. Moreover, the scripts even worked out which languages he uses to match certain moods:
- English - straightforward conversation.
- Farsi (Persian) - when he gets philosophical, talking about power, immortality, etc.
- French - when he's feeling playful or making a mischievous remark.
- German - when he's angry, or when he's eager for direct action (i.e. exclaiming, "Finally, we dance!" in German when he engages David in psychic combat for the first time).
Real After All: Up until fully revealed, it was honestly a question whether or not the Shadow King existed in any form. Eventually, it's confirmed that he is a very real mutant with powerful psychic abilities.
Sadist: Has been feeding off of David's pain since childhood and relishes every opportunity to make him suffer.
Sharp-Dressed Man: The first time he is willing to show David how he really looks like, he appears in a very nice suit.
Slasher Smile: His default expression. He gives an extremely unsettling one in Chapter 7 when he is about to kill Syd and Kerry.
The Sociopath: Yeah. Case in point, he seems to genuinely believe that turning the body of David's sister into a host body for someone else is doing him a favour. His reasoning? She was a puny human who committed the sin of believing that David was someone who needed professional help, instead of a superior being who should be revered. David must have hated her for it, and if it turns out he really hasn't? Well, in that case, loving someone like that was a weakness on his part that needed to be eradicated.
Spared by the Adaptation: In the physical sense; in the comics his original body has long since died after being killed by his battle with Xavier. In the show his body is apparently still alive or at least still inhabitable and he is actively searching for it because once he returns to it, his power will increase considerably.
- Ends up being a two-fer in the end; He leaves altogether after reforming his past self to leave David alone, effectively weakened but alive. Contrast the comics where his last appearance ended with him apparently being put down for good by Psylocke in Charles' stead.
Supernatural Gold Eyes: He's not called "The Devil with Yellow Eyes" for nothing.
Token Evil Teammate: He joins Division 3 in hunting David, who has gone rogue, at the end of Season 2.
Un-person: As the Summerland crew explores David's mindscape, they encounter unusual blocked and erased memories. To the audience, it quickly becomes apparent that TDWYE has been using his memory-control to conceal his existence from David (and others) for unknown reasons.
Villain: Exit, Stage Left: The Summerlanders manage to exorcise him from David, but he still possesses Oliver and leaves for parts unknown at the end of Season 1.
Voluntary Shapeshifter: He has been appearing as many forms to David since birth.
Wicked Cultured: In Season 2, Farouk is portrayed as deeply intelligent, displaying a great depth of knowledge on a variety of subjects.
Would Hurt a Child:
- Played straight with David, whom he mentally tortured and almost drove to suicide for nearly 30 years.
- Subverted in Chapter 10, when "Oliver" breaks into Division 3 and he kills every guard standing in his way with a flick of his finger. When three children appear to oppose him, he instead spares them and tells them to run away.
Yellow Eyes of Sneakiness: Farouk sometimes invokes this by appearing as a grotesque monster with gold irises, leading to his getting the nickname "Devil with the Yellow Eyes."

Switch

Jiayi / "Switch"

Played By: Lauren Tsai

A time traveller who joins David's cult.

Ambiguously Human: The Grand Finale reveals that she and her father are something way beyond human.
And Starring: Lauren Tsai receives the "with" billing in the end credits of Season 3.
Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence: In the series finale.
Audience Surrogate: Her introduction to the series also serves as an introduction to the new status quo of the series after season two.
Big Fancy Apartment: Lives in one, which apparently contains hundreds of robots.
Body Horror: She loses a tooth after travelling too far back to save David.
Cunning Linguist: Is at least trilingual, speaking English in David's group, Japanese with her father, and Chinese on the Astral Plane.
The Fashionista: Dresses in a bright, peppy "2 days from now" style.
Lonely Rich Kid: Her father only speaks with her via TV set. Although that's because he is a four-dimensional being living in the timestream, not because of him being neglectful.
Only Known by Their Nickname: Due to her isolation, no one addresses her as anything until Squirrel names her Switch.
"The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gives an awesome one to Farouk on the astral plane.
Reset Button: She's a living example of this trope via her time travel ability. It ends up saving David's life multiple times when Division 3 comes knocking.
Time Travel: Her mutant ability.
Token Good Teammate: Of David's cult. While none of them are bad people, per se, Switch is the only one who doesn't worship the ground David walks on.

Charles Xavier

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/legion_harry_lloyd_02.jpg

Played By: Harry Lloyd (young)

A powerful psychic-mutant and David's biological father who three decades ago gave him up for adoption after realizing that the Shadow King intended to come after his newborn son.

Abled in the Adaptation: The TV character (who's a paraplegic in the comics) lacks any disability and is always seen walking.
Adaptational Attractiveness: This series maintains the Progressively Prettier direction that Charles Xavier, who's bald and plain-looking in the comics, has undergone since the X-Men Film Series. The TV iteration has hair and is blessed with Harry Lloyd's Pretty Boy features.
Adaptational Nice Guy: Carrying on a tradition that started with the X-Men Film Series, Charles is a sympathetic Nice Guy who lacks the unpleasant Good Is Not Nice and Manipulative Bastard traits of the original comic character.
Adaptation Dye-Job: In the comics, he's blue-eyed and was blond before he went bald, but his TV counterpart has green irises and dark brown hair. The latter is a deliberate nod to the X-Men Film Series, where the younger Professor X is a brunet as well.
Alternate Self:
- Because this series is set in its own universe which is distinct from the X-Men Film Series, the Charles Xavier portrayed by Harry Lloyd has a different life from the Patrick Stewart-James McAvoy version. He's a full-blooded Englishman instead of being half-British, half-American, he was a young adult instead of a child during World War II and fought as a British army officer, plus he got married and had a son instead of remaining a bachelor and childless. The most glaring deviation is that he never establishes the X-Men.
- Once the Alternate Timeline kicks in near the end of "Chapter 27", Charles is committed to being a Family Man and take care of David. This is a big change from the previous timeline where he gave up his son for adoption. It's also hinted that he'll be the founder of the X-Men in this new future.
  Gabrielle: I can't do this without you. [David] needs us both.
  Charles: No more travel. No more bloodshed. You know, I've always wanted to become a teacher.
Badass Bookworm: He is a scientist and a World War II veteran who beats Farouk in a psychic battle by literally severing the latter's mind-body connection.
Beware the Nice Ones: He is sweet and gullible, so he's easily Lured into a Trap set up by Farouk. However, the latter makes the mistake of underestimating the former's telepathic skills when they get embroiled in a Battle in the Center of the Mind because Charles vanquishes Farouk by ripping out his foe's consciousness from his body.
Brainy Brunet: Just like in the X-Men Film Series, Harry Lloyd's Charles Xavier is a brown-haired scientist.
Commonality Connection: When he socializes with Gabrielle for the first time, they bond over their love for cherry pie and their struggles with their mental health issues.
Gabrielle: I'm not well, you know.
Charles: Neither am I.
Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: He gave David up to keep the Shadow King from latching onto him as revenge.
The Faceless: In Season 1, the only indication of his identity is thanks to a memory of Amy's which shows a brief shot of a wheelchair wheel with an 'X' in its design.
Gentleman and a Scholar: He's an upper-class English gentleman with impeccable manners who's always well-dressed, and he's a scientist who also dabbles in the arts. Although his academic field of study isn't specified onscreen, the fact that he can invent and construct the Cerebro machine on his own indicates that he has an engineering background.
The Ghost: There was absolutely nothing besides hopes from the fans that he even existed in the Legion universe, the first hint being in "Chapter 6" when we get a glimpse of a familiar wheelchair wheel with an 'X' in its design. His first full appearance on the show didn't even come until "Chapter 22".
Greater-Scope Paragon: He was the one to defeat the Shadow King three decades ago, to the point where the latter is still in a weakened state even after feeding off of David's abilities for 30 years. In the series finale, it's hinted that Professor X will open that Superhero School he's so famous for...
Charles: You know, I've always wanted to become a teacher.
Idle Rich: He is sufficiently wealthy that he doesn't need a job, so he has the luxury to pursue his own personal interests. He spends his time building Cerebro in the hope that he can telepathically locate other mutants around the world. When he discovers one living in Morocco, he travels there at a moment's notice and stays there for an extended period of time because there are no constraints on his schedule, plus money isn't an issue.
I Just Want to Have Friends: He's so desperate to befriend other mutants that when he finds one in Morocco with Cerebro (which he designed and assembled with his own hands in order to search for mutants globally), he travels halfway across the world just to meet a fellow telepath. He even ignores how afraid he was when he first sensed Farouk's mind, which should've been a warning to Charles that Farouk is extremely dangerous. Harry Lloyd clarifies on the loneliness that his character feels:
Lloyd: He always imagined himself as a freak. This guy has this telepathic ability. And it's raw and I use it for good as much as possible, but I keep a lid on it and it's local. To then find someone else who has exactly the same thing to feel that you're part of a breed. There is some horror or something dark connected to it. But he goes out looking for a friend or a brother. He actually, only then, is honest about quite how alone he's been his whole life. Even now married and with a child. And as soon as he finds a connection on that level, which I think he resigned himself to never having, he has to explore it.
Living Emotional Crutch: He is this to his wife Gabrielle, who is emotionally fragile, and she's only stable when he's present. When he goes on a trip to Morocco on his own, she's left at home with their newborn son. Her mental health starts to deteriorate, and she eventually relapses into a catatonic state.
Gabrielle: (to Charles) This world makes no sense when you're not in it.
Living Lie Detector: He reminds David that telepaths can always tell if someone is stating a falsehood.
David: And what are we supposed to do, take him at his word?
Charles: We're telepaths, we never have to take anyone at their word.
Martial Pacifist: He's trained in combat because he was an officer in the British army during World War II, but he's first and foremost a man of peace, so if possible, he'll seek a diplomatic solution. For him, violence should only be used as a last resort.
Mind Control: He employs his Psychic Powers to "convince" everyone at the psychiatric hospital that he and Gabrielle are cured of their mental disorders, so naturally the couple's departure from the facility is hassle-free.
Mind over Manners: He explains to Gabrielle that he doesn't dig too deeply when he reads other people's minds because he wishes to respect their privacy. However, he does skim their surface thoughts without permission.
Charles: I can hear thoughts. Memories. But it occurred to me that there should be rules. People deserve their privacy. So I don't pry when I'm in there.
Nice Guy: He's kind-hearted, polite and soft-spoken. It's his compassion which coaxes Gabrielle out of her catatonic state, and it's his tenderness which leads her to fall in love with him.
Past Experience Nightmare: He seems to be calm and collected on the surface (which befits his high-class English background), but as a World War II veteran, he's haunted in his sleep by a traumatic memory where he almost died at the hands of a Nazi soldier.
Platonic Declaration of Love: In the series finale, he reassures his son David that he does love him even though David in this timeline was given up for adoption. Now that an Alternate Timeline is being created, Charles vows that he'll raise David and be the father that he should've been.
Charles: David. I wasn't there for you. You needed me, your mother, and we gave you away. I can't imagine doing it, but I adore you, David, and that will never change. I could only have done it to protect you.
David: I was a baby.
Charles: I'll never know what that's like, the pain of it, to be abandoned. But I am here now, and I want to make it right. So, please, my darling boy, let me be your father.
Precious Photo: He keeps a photograph of his wife and son in his suit jacket.
Pretty Boy: He has elegant facial features, gentle green eyes, a gracefully long neck and a slim build. His good looks, along with his empathy and kindness, accentuate his image as a romantic figure when he courts Gabrielle, his Love Interest who later becomes his wife. Because they do get married on the show (unlike in the comics), the showrunners wanted to avoid the Ugly Guy, Hot Wife trope by presenting Charles as one half of a very beautiful couple. ^note For viewers who don't read comic books, Charles' prettiness helps them to identify the character as David's biological father when he first appears in Season 3, and it further reinforces the Like Father, Like Son connection.
Progressively Prettier: Although this show takes place in an Alternate Universe which is separate from the X-Men Film Series, the showrunners nonetheless continue the trend that began with X-Men: First Class of prettying up the young Charles Xavier in comparison to the original comic book depiction, who's bald and average-looking at best. The TV character has a head full of hair and is a Pretty Boy.
Pstandard Psychic Pstance: He doesn't need to perform this gesture when he activates his telepathy (as shown in the scenes at the mental hospital), but it helps him to concentrate when he has to probe another mind more deeply than just scanning their surface thoughts. Harry Lloyd confirms this.
Lloyd: There's been a little bit of rubbing at the temples, which I feel he just does when he's turning it up to like 11. If I close my eyes, it's at level two, but if I touch my temples, it's an 11. That's when he's really focused.
Psychic Radar: He constructs Cerebro in his basement, which vastly enhances his telepathic range so that he can detect any mutant on the planet.
Rule of Sexy: After Harry Lloyd was given the part of Charles Xavier without having to go through the audition process, the actor was informed by Noah Hawley that he would get to keep his hair instead of aiming for the iconic bald look of the comic book character. Just like with James McAvoy in the X-Men Film Series (who was also instructed to not shave his head), the bigwigs at the network wanted the younger Professor X to be attractive, and Lloyd's casting was obviously inspired by how McAvoy's role was originally depicted.
Rule of Symbolism: The character Harold in the children's book Harold and the Purple Crayon that Gabrielle reads to her infant son symbolizes Charles, whose actor is Harry Lloyd (Harry is the diminutive of Harold). Gabrielle's narration "Harold was over his head" is heard when Charles puts on the Cerebro helmet for the first time, and it foreshadows that Charles is in over his head when he finds Farouk. In the book, Harold "made a very small forest, with just one tree in it," and Charles creates the exact same thing in the astral plane when Farouk introduces him to it.
Seeing Through Another's Eyes: In "Chapter 26", David tells Charles to use his telepathy in order to determine his identity. While probing a memory in the stranger's mind, Charles then sees himself and his wife Gabrielle standing over David's crib from David's perspective, who was a baby at the time. Charles immediately realizes that the man before him is his son.
Sharp-Dressed Man: He's Mr. Fancy-Pants because he follows the fashion trends of upper-class Englishmen in the 1950s, so he's often dressed in chic suits from the era that highlight his elegant frame, and he appears quite dashing in them. To elevate his aura of refinement, he has a different-coloured trilby (a hat that was popular among rich British men) for every suit that he owns. He dons a black trilby when he exits the mental hospital, a grey one when he travels to Morocco, and a beige one when he reconciles with Gabrielle.
Single-Power Superheroes: He has Telepathy and nothing more, unlike the Superpower Lottery winners Farouk and David. However, in the astral plane, Charles is stronger than either them because he triumphs over the Shadow King in a psychic duel, and David is unable to stop Charles from "pulling" him into a Blank White Void, away from Past Farouk (whom David was on the verge of murdering) despite activating his power (as demonstrated by David's glowing fingers). Even though Charles is a novice to the astral plane, neither Farouk nor David can gain the upper-hand on him in a Mental World irrespective of their Combo Platter Powers, which is a testament to how supremely talented Charles is as a telepath.
Skilled, but Naive: He's much younger and inexperienced compared to Farouk, and the former is even a newbie to the astral plane when the latter introduces him to it. Charles is a Wide-Eyed Idealist who's far too trusting, so Farouk is able to manipulate him at first. Yet Charles is such a gifted telepath that when they brawl in a psychic battlefield, Charles trounces Farouk quite handily, tearing the Shadow King's consciousness away from his body.
Smart People Speak the Queen's English: He has an upper-class English accent; Farouk recognizes him as a scientist, and there's a scene where Charles is building Cerebro from scratch in his basement.
Sophisticated as Hell: When Gabrielle asks her husband, "Are you gonna kiss me?", Charles (an upper-crust Englishman) enthusiastically answers, "Abso-bloody-lutely." "Bloody" is a British expletive, and it's the only time in the entire series where Charles — who's otherwise a courteous gentleman — swears, so it fits the "Slang delivered innocuously in a formal speech, especially from someone upper-class" example.
Superpowerful Genetics: In "Chapter 22", he expresses his concern that his telepathic ability might be passed down to his infant son David, knowing full well how isolating and dangerous it can be.
Charles: What if I pass it on to him? And he ends up like me?
Sweet Tooth: He loves cherry pie, and after Gabrielle (who's a faster eater than he is) "steals" what remains of his portion, he playfully fights her for the last piece. While he's conversing with David within the latter's own mind, David feeds Charles a slice of a three-layered red velvet cake that contains knowledge, and Charles enjoys its taste before he's overwhelmed by the information.
Telepathy: He's an immensely powerful psychic who is capable of separating the Shadow King's consciousness from its human body during their Battle in the Center of the Mind.
Unreliable Narrator: In "Chapter 26", he's in a state of bewilderment once he arrives at Farouk's Moroccan palace, being uncertain if he can believe his eyes. For instance, the chauffeur (who was behind Charles and standing next to the car) seems to magically appear from behind a curtain at the front entrance, yet Charles never saw the chauffeur run past him to enter the palace while Charles was walking from the car to the doorway. These odd moments continue throughout the episode and enhance his sense of disorientation (e.g. Charles is eating dinner across the table from Farouk in the dining room, and then suddenly Charles is seated next to Habiba at the palace's theater while still chewing his food). As Harry Lloyd elaborates in this interview:
Lloyd: Charles, suddenly, is now in the realm of someone else with seemingly even greater powers than he. He's constantly waking up in a different place, and he feels like he's in a dream. You realize, watching Dan Stevens' performance, from the first two seasons, there are so many times when he seems to be reacting to something that's not there, and it's very staccato and confused, and it's almost like he's in a dream. I found this Charles, who was quite composed in [Season 3] Episode 3, suddenly becoming more like his son, in terms of how he's reacting to baffling situations.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: He inadvertently sets in motion a chain of events which would gradually lead to his son David's descent into supervillainy. Charles travels to Morocco to meet Farouk, who turns out to be a malevolent entity, so they engage in a Battle in the Center of the Mind. Charles defeats Farouk by pushing the latter's consciousness out of his body, but Charles fails to kill his opponent. A formless Farouk then finds his way into baby David's mind, latching on to it like a parasite. Charles is unaware that Farouk had already infected David's psyche, and fearful of what a vengeful Farouk might do to his infant son, Charles gives David up for adoption, believing that Farouk will not be able to find him (and thus keep David safe). Farouk then poisons David's mind for decades, and the latter becomes increasingly unstable as he gets older, with little to no control over his vast array of mutant powers. To make a long story short, insanity and winning the Superpower Lottery are a terribly destructive combination, and David will bring about the end of the world. All of this could've been avoided if Charles had simply remained at home, caring for his wife and son.
Waistcoat of Style: When he travels to Morocco, he sports a grey waistcoat that matches with his suit. Being a high-class British gentleman in the 1950s, he wants to look his best even though his sojourn is an informal one, and the Moroccan heat would make wearing an extra layer of clothing uncomfortable. Once Charles is at Farouk's palace, he pats the sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief, so he's overdressed for the weather.
Weak, but Skilled: In comparison to both Farouk and David, which speaks volumes about how insanely powerful both Farouk and David are if Charles Xavier is the weak one in the equation. He might not have their wide range of powers or their sheer psychic might, but he's a much more polished telepath and rather handily deals with both of them by being just that much better at using what he has in much more creative ways.
Wide-Eyed Idealist:
- "Chapter 22" affirms that he's idealistic compared to the more cynical Gabrielle.
  Charles: We can change.
  Gabrielle: People don't change.
  Charles: I don't believe that.
  Gabrielle: That's sweet.
- In "Chapter 26", he admits to David that wanting to see the best in people made him vulnerable to Farouk's deception.
  Charles: You're right, it's my fault. I've been naïve. [...] See, I came here for friendship. Because I've been to war, David. I've seen what people do. But this Farouk, he... He's a monster.

Other

Jerome

Jerome / The Wolf

Played By: Jason Mantzoukas

Melanie and Oliver's quirky neighbour in the Astral Plane.

Anthropomorphic Personification: Of the Astral Plane's dark side.
Beware the Silly Ones: He is a Jason Mantzoukas-played character who loves howling like a wolf and talking to little girls about things like chlamydia, so yes, he is silly as hell. Doesn't make him any less dangerous.
The Corrupter: He aims to destroy Astral!Syd's innocence, and successfully convinces another girl into abandoning her loving adoptive family to become a drug addict.
Fairytale Motifs: He models himself after the wolves of the Little Red Riding Hood and The Three Little Pigs stories, which is appropriate because he essentially plays the same symbolic role in Astral!Syd's story.
Nightmare Fetishist: He absolutely loves dark and unpleasant topics. The more gruesome the better.
Tom the Dark Lord: For some unfathomable reason, the Anthropomorphic Personification of the Astral Plane's dark side is called Jerome of all things.

Characters / Legion (2017)

Edit Locked

Summerland

David Haller

Played By: Dan Stevens

Sydney "Syd" Barrett

Played By: Rachel Keller

Melanie Bird

Played By: Jean Smart

Ptonomy Wallace

Played By: Jeremie Harris

Kerry Loudermilk

Played By: Amber Midthunder

Cary Loudermilk

Played By: Bill Irwin

Rudy

Played By: Brad Mann

Oliver Anthony Bird

Played By: Jemaine Clement

Division 3

Admiral Fukyama

Played By: Marc Oka

Vermillion

Walter / The Eye

Played By: Mackenzie Gray

Clark

Played By: Hamish Linklater

Brubaker

Played By: David Selby

Humans

Lenore "Lenny" Busker

Played By: Aubrey Plaza

Amy Haller

Played By: Katie Aselton

Dr. Dennis Kissinger

Played By: David Ferry

Dr. Henry Poole

Played By: Scott Lawrence

Gabrielle Xavier

Played By: Stephanie Corneliussen

Mutants

The Shadow King

Played By: Navid Negahban, Quinton Bosclair (The Devil with Yellow Eyes), Aubrey Plaza (Lenny form), Kirby Morrow (Benny form), Devyn Dalton ("Angry Boy" form)

Jiayi / "Switch"

Played By: Lauren Tsai

Charles Xavier

Played By: Harry Lloyd (young)

Other

Jerome / The Wolf

Played By: Jason Mantzoukas

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