History Characters / BioshockAndrewRyan

** He saw the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as madness and parasites trying to destroy what they couldn't claim. He apparently forgot that there has been a world war for the past six years that had already claimed the lives of at least ''50 million people'' by that point, and that the US government obviously wanted to end the war as quickly as possible. Not to mention that he truly expected for the nations to immediatly start nuking each other once everyone got access to nuclear bombs until the entire world was a radioated wasteland.

[[caption-width-right:100:''"I rejected those answers. Instead... I chose something different. I chose the impossible. I chose... Rapture."'']]

[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Andrew_Ryan_Portrait_1057.png]]
[[caption-width-right:200:''"I rejected those answers. Instead... I chose something different. I chose the impossible. I chose... Rapture."'']]

[[quoteright:200:[-[[labelnote:Click here for his in-game model]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/andrew_ryan_1.png ''"Would you kindly? Powerful phrase... Familiar phrase?"'' [[/labelnote]]-]]]]]

[[caption-width-right:200[[quoteright:200:[-[[labelnote:Click here for his in-game model]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/andrew_ryan_1.png ''"Would you kindly? Powerful phrase... Familiar phrase?"'' [[/labelnote]]-]]]]]

[[caption-width-right:100:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Andrew_Ryan_Portrait_1057.png]]


[[quoteright:200:[-[[labelnote:Click here for his in-game model]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/andrew_ryan_1.png[[/labelnote]]-]]]

* PsychopathicManchild: For all his success and refinement, Ryan's whole experiment never amounts to more than a glorified tantrum from a grown man incensed that he was expected to pay his fair share and choosing to abandon a game rather than submit to the same rules as everyone else. When running the city, he refuses to listen to criticisms of his methods, ignores problems from those he deems unimportant, treats anyone who opposes him as a "parasite" and removes those who beat him at his own game and destroys anything he has to cede any control over in the same manner as a child tossing a game aside when it becomes clear they are losing. In the end, he'd rather see all of Rapture burn than see it changed from his vision and it becomes clear his entire worldview was always completely self-serving.

* MisanthropeSupreme: For all his talk about leading humanity to a new golden age, Ryan seems to view basically anyone he deems a "parasite" (that is, anyone not fabulously wealthy and/or who doesn't serve him unquestioningly) with utter contempt and makes little effort to hide his disdain for the concepts of altruism, duty to one's fellow man and social responsibility as a whole and sees everyone not named "Andrew Ryan" as at best a necessary evil.

* SmallNameBigEgo: Andrew envisioned that his idea of an utopia wouldn't just outlast civilization on the surface, but even expand until Rapture became the capital of the world itself. However, he couldn't even make a city built on his ideals, which had less than twenty thousand people living in it, endure longer than 20 years without it eventually tearing itself apart. Even the USSR, that Andrew not only utterly despised but even saw as the epitome of madness, lasted around seventy years.

** For a man that apparently never went to college and that earned his first fortune by finding oil in his property ''by sheer luck'', Ryan sure acts like he knows how economy, society, and even civilization itself should function better than every government on Earth. And once his "utopia" starts falling apart, [[NeverMyFault he believes that it was because ''everyone else'' couldn't follow his example]].

* {{Ubermensch}}: A now-famous example of this trope: he rejected the world and its moralities entirely, and built the outrageous city of Rapture to have his way. {{Subverted}} in that for all of his keeping with appearances of sophistication and industrialist enlightenment, his [[{{UsefulNotes/Objectivism}} Objectivist]] ideals broke down under practical application and a citizenry that didn't fully embrace them. He also doesn't appear to be as intelligent as he thinks he is: while building Rapture was a miracle of engineering and enough of an undertaking to qualify as a world wonder, he had terrible people skills, which opened him up to easily to rivalry by charismatic troublemakers such as Fontaine or Atlas. He also embraced the hypocrisy of going completely, [[BlackAndWhiteInsanity uncompromisingly]] authoritarian without a hint of irony or self-awareness, bringing into question his integrity or his actual capacity for philosophy.

** For a man that apparently never went to college and that earned his first fortune by finding oil in his property ''by sheer luck'', Ryan sure acts like he knows how economy, society, and even civilization itself should function better than every government on Earth. And once his "utopia" starts falling apart, he believes that it was because ''everyone else'' couldn't follow his example.

* NeverMyFault: After building up his own mob of Splicers, he blames them for their own deformities, citing their "carelessness" in overusing his Plasmids. Same goes for the Little Sisters. Ryan has become completely boxed in by the tenets of his philosophy, is unable to admit that his costly experiment has failed, and finally embracing delusion rather than confront what he's become. ''Literature/BioShockRapture'' delved into this even more as he views any (very serious and economical) complaints to him as people "refusing to be self-sufficient" when it's his own rules that are keeping many of the less fortunate people from getting ahead in Rapture and his refusal to make concessions to help them.

* {{Hypocrite}}: As the civil war gets worse and worse, he starts betraying his stances, citing it was for the good of the city. But pretty much everyone who knew him could tell he was becoming not any better (and in some ways, no different) than the people he was fighting against.

** He claimed to allow freedom of speech, but unions were banned and you can hear public announcements informing you that in Rapture, gatherings of more than four people in a public place is an offence. This is actually a real law in some dictatorships that by its nature outlaws strikes, protest rallies and even restricts the reporting media (since multiple people are needed to broadcast any event, with more if you want to interview a bystander).

* KnowNothingKnowItAll: For a man that apparently never went to college and that earned his first fortune by finding oil in his property ''by sheer luck'', Ryan sure acts like he knows how economy, society, and even civilization itself should function better than every government on Earth. And once his "utopia" starts falling apart, he believes that it was because ''everyone else'' couldn't follow his example.

* FaceDeathWithDignity: In the end, Ryan gracefully accepts his end, calmly tearing down Jack for what he is and dying on his own terms via PsychicAssistedSuicide rather than try to escape his fate.

* UndignifiedDeath: Despite choosing to FaceDeathWithDignity, it still stands that Jack killed him with a freaking ''golf club''.

*** For that matter, he stated to Bill that he had no respect for quitters, mentioning those that wanted to leave Rapture after growing disillusioned with its system, and even began a policy of executing anyone that attempted to do so. However, one of the main reasons that made Ryan want to build Rapture was because the United States didn't turn out to be the perfect society he expected, and so he decided to abandon it and create his own.

** When Bill [=McDonagh=] suggested banning plasmids due to the problems it was causing, Ryan rejected it, saying that the Prohibition didn't work, so banning plasmids wouldn't either. This is despite the fact that Ryan already forbade all sorts of goods from the outside world in Rapture, therefore creating a black market of smugglers for them. This becomes even worse once it's revealed that most of Ryan's expensive belongings, such as his drinks and furniture, all came from outside of Raptture.

** He was furious when he found out that [[spoiler: Jasmine sold his child to Fontaine and murdered her in cold blood]]. This coming from the guy that started kidnapping children, even attempting to kidnap the daughter of Bill, his friend and most loyal employee, all to create new Little Sisters and increase the plasmid production.

* IfICantHaveYou: Did this to a ''forest'' that he owned, burning it to the ground when the government tried to nationalize the land and turn it into a public park. [[spoiler:He tries doing this to Rapture itself to prevent Atlas from taking control of it. Fortunately Jack stops him in time.]]

** When Bill [=McDonagh=] suggested banning plasmids due to the problems it was causing, Ryan rejected it, saying that the Prohibition didn't work, so banning plasmids wouldn't either. This is despite the fact that Ryan already forbade all sorts of goods from the outside world in Rapture, therefore creating a black market of smugglers for them.

* {{Irony}}: Creates an Objectivist utopia, but subverts it as soon as he realizes he's being beaten in fair competition with a "parasite".