History Characters / BreakingBadGustavoFring

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[[caption-width-right:300:''[[DevilInPlainSight "I hide in plain sight. Same as you."]]'']][[caption-width-right:300:[[labelnote:As he appeared in 1989]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rjyhkbl.png ''"<I merely took the initiative. I meant no insult.>"''[[/labelnote]]]]

** At several points Gus expresses a dislike for civillians being hurt but he has no probelm with using Nacho's father against him and would have had Werner's wife killed if Mike didn't send her back to Germany.

* BlackAndNerdy: The nerdy part is {{Justified|Trope}} by the glasses and hyper-competent business acumen. A darker FourEyesZeroSoul variation.

* ItsAllAboutMe: He is pretty angry to find that Nacho was responsible for Hector's heart attack. It doesn't occur to him that Nacho's father's safety may be more important than Gus getting his revenge for Max's death, which was arguably a direct consequence of them making the decision to deal meth in Don Eladio's territory. In other words, "business as usual." Even before he had Mike's car bugged in case he had the audacity of trying to kill his mortal enemy and even snarks at Mike's sense of justice when his reasons are similarly petty. While viewing Max's death in ''Breaking Bad'' may have caused viewers to sympathize with Gus, his actions on ''Better Call Saul'' arguably makes him less sympathetic by showing how self-centered his revenge quest really is.

* AssholeVictim: He had it coming after he tried to kill Hank and threatened to kill Walt’s family if Walt interfered. The overall tense atmosphere the narrative has had since ''Crawl Space'' makes his demise relieving.

* ItsAllAboutMe: He is pretty angry to find that Nacho was responsible for Hector's heart attack. It doesn't occur to him that Nacho's father's safety may be more important than Gus getting his revenge for Max's death, which was arguably a direct consequence of them making the decision to deal meth in Don Eladio's territory. Even before he had Mike's car bugged in case he had the audacity of trying to kill his mortal enemy and even snarks at Mike's sense of justice when his reasons are similarly petty. While viewing Max's death in ''Breaking Bad'' may have caused viewers to sympathize with Gus, his actions on ''Better Call Saul'' arguably makes him less sympathetic by showing how self-centered his revenge quest really is.

* ItsAllAboutMe: He is pretty angry to find that Nacho was responsible for Hector's heart attack. It doesn't occur to him that Nacho's father's safety may be more important than Gus getting his revenge for Max's death, which was arguably a direct consequence of them making the decision to deal meth in Don Eladio's territory. Even before he had Mike's car bugged in case he had the audacity of trying to kill his mortal enemy and even snarks at Mike's sense of justice when his reasons are similarly petty.

* SeriousBusiness: Fast food quality of products and services. The restaurants might be a front but he maintains and demands excellence from them and their civilian employees. While it's partially meant to be a metaphor for stealing drugs, money, and machinery from his illegal narcotics network, the segment in his Loss Prevention employee training video about workers being tempted to "skim" fries from the meals they prepare for customers goes into elaborate detail about how unacceptable the literal act is for him (complete with a drooling chef and Gus tying him up).

* SignatureMove: Straightening his tie/changing his clothes in a dramatic fashion in general.

* ScarilyCompetentTracker: He's got his men bugging the cars of anyone who could become useful or are a liability to his organization. Additionally, as a child he once waited hours to catch an animal that had eaten the fruit he cultivated and sold to support his family, having tracked it and trapped it earlier.

* AxCrazy: Normally {{averted|Trope}} as Gus tends to be dismissive of excessively violent acts, but when he ''has'' to kill, he makes sure to give his victims a [[CruelAndUnusualDeath particularly cruel, drawn-out, and painful death]], as shown with Arturo and Victor. The tale about him torturing a coati instead of letting it die also hints at Gus having a more violent side since his childhood.

* CoolCar: Averted. His Volvo station wagon is a perfect representation of respectable executive car, which lack any "cool" qualities, being as boring and unimpressive, as possible.

** {{Averted|Trope}} with Don Eladio and the Juarez Cartel, which is ironic given they are the people Gus hates the most as well as one of the objects of his vengeance. While the poison Gus uses is incredibly potent, the victim dies relatively quickly without any sort of suffering being drawn out, though knowing who the Cartel is, Gus wanted to maintain his pragmatism as much as he could in that situation.

* HiddenInPlainSight: A big-time drug kingpin who runs a hugely popular chain of fried chicken outlets and is well-known as a major philanthropist in the ABQ area.

* LatinoIsBrown: Averted; despite being Hispanic and Creator/GiancarloEsposito being light-skinned enough to potentially pass as ambiguously Mestizo, Walt specifically refers to him as black when asking about his whereabouts early on. This may indicate that he's specifically intended to be [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afro-Chileans Afro-Chilean]], despite them making up a very small minority of Chileans ([[AmbiguousSituation assuming his claims about being Chilean are even true]]).
* LegitimateBusinessmensSocialClub: ''Very'' heavily averted with Los Pollos Hermanos, which is a popular and well-respected restaurant in the community that is known for supporting local charities and law enforcement. When Hank starts to suspect the business is a drug front, his colleagues at the DEA initially dismiss his claims as wild speculation.
** The laundry is a little closer to this trope, but still stays under the radar until Hank starts investigating Gus' businesses more closely.

** Averted in the physical regard too. While he couldn’t break free of Bolsa, in Better Call Saul, he was able to physically subdue Arto with ease thanks to the aid of surprise, and restrain him with machine like efficiency.

* RealMenCook: He's often seen cooking more than fried chicken in his home.

* LegitimateBusinessmansSocialClub: ''Very'' heavily averted with Los Pollos Hermanos, which is a popular and well-respected restaurant in the community that is known for supporting local charities and law enforcement. When Hank starts to suspect the business is a drug front, his colleagues at the DEA initially dismiss his claims as wild speculation.

* CulturedBadass: Gus is one of the most intelligent and cultured characters in the series. He also gets himself AloneWithThePyscho that is Lalo Salamanca, makes him drop his guard and then personally shoots him after a chaotic, intense gunfight. It also takes balls to poison himself to take down the Cartel leadership. An episode before ''that'', he walks straight into sniper fire, daring Gaff to kill him.

* {{Sadist}}: {{Downplayed|trope}}. He doesn't really gain pleasure from the pain of others, and dislikes the Cartel's StupidEvil brutality, especially when innocents are involved. ''But'', if you cross him, even if you didn't mean to, he ''will'' make you suffer. His very drawn-out murder of [[spoiler: Arturo]] stands out as one the cruelest deaths in ''{{Series/BetterCallSaul}}'' , and if his story about the coati is to be believed, he has been seeking prolonged vengeance on his enemies since he was ''seven''.

* CulturedBadass: Gus is one of the most intelligent and cultured characters in the series. It also takes balls to poison himself to take down the Cartel leadership. A few episodes before ''that'', he walks straight into sniper fire, daring Gaff to kill him.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Gustavo has many standards and moments given his ethics and ideals of professionalism.
** Invoked in "[[Recap/BreakingBadS3E13FullMeasure Full Measure]]" when he gets offended at the implication that he ordered the death of a child. Though it's later subverted as he threatens to kill Walt's entire family, including his son and his infant daughter, and shows no qualms with doing so.
** He finds Hector's decision to take his restaurant hostage to be a bit excessive. Given those are ''his'' employees, this is understandable. The tone of his voice when meeting Mike, later on, suggests even he found Hector's ruthless killing of a civilian distasteful.

** How does Gus react when Nacho is proving incapable of prying Lalo for more information? He gets his goons to take him on a road trip in the middle of the night, then shows him he's on the verge of murdering his father.

* LackOfEmpathy: Somewhat PlayedWith. Gus is very good at manipulating people because he ''can'' read people's intentions, but that doesn't mean he ''understands'' them. While he is able to bring Walt back into the meth business by exploiting his ego and desire to provide for his family, he cannot grasp why [[EvilCannotComprehendGood Walt would want to save his partner,]] who Gus views as a "contemptible junkie". Later on, he also cannot understand Jesse's (the guy he wanted dead not too long ago) desire to keep Walt alive, only recognizing this as a minor obstacle to his plans. Basically, Gus empathizes with people only when it suits his interests. When it doesn't, he just doesn't care.

* ALighterShadeOfBlack: Make no mistake, Gus is one evil dude. He runs a massive meth empire, cares little about civilian casualties, and has a single-minded devotion to his plan to destabilize the cartel. He's also a BenevolentBoss, fairly reasonable and polite to his workers, and is willing to be both pragmatic and sympathetic to the people working under him. This makes it very easy to root for him against the [[AxCrazy bloodthirsty and psychotic]] Salamancas.

** He drops his stoic nature when he talks about a bullet to Hector's head being far too humane when meeting Mike for the first time.
** He absolutely can't stand Lydia's nervousness, and his response to her complaining to him about Mike is to tell her "Then I suggest you give the man a badge" with a very no-nonsense tone.

* FrozenFace: The most striking difference between Gus the restaurant manager, and Gus the drug kingpin, is that he completely ceases showing [[TheStoic any emotive tendencies]] so as to not give any psychological advantage to his enemies. When Walt first meets Gus, his transition from one persona to the other is communicated by the gradual relaxation of his day job's expressive facial features, and [[ContraltoOfDanger his voice lowering by quite a few octaves]].

* NonActionBigBad: Like Walt, he seems far from any kind of physical threat. Even when he was younger and driven by adrenaline and rage, a middle-aged mobster was able to restrain him without much trouble. He doesn't bother to carry a weapon, either. [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness Usually.]] Eventually, he is revealed to be quite capable in the gunfight, albeit still understandably nervous from the near-miss.
** Averted in the physical regard too. While he couldn’t break free of Bolsa, in Better Call Saul, he was able to physically subdue one of the Salamanca’s muscle with ease, and restrain him with machine like efficiency.

* NonActionBigBad: Like Walt, he's far from any kind of physical threat. Even when he was younger and driven by adrenaline and rage, a middle-aged mobster was able to restrain him without much trouble. He doesn't bother to carry a weapon, either. [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness Usually.]] Eventually, he is revealed to be quite capable in the gunfight, albeit still understandably nervous from the near-miss.

* ItsAllAboutMe: He is pretty angry to find that Nacho was responsible for Hector's heart attack. It doesn't occur to him that Nacho's father's safety may be more important than Gus getting his revenge for his friend's death as a direct consequence of selling meth in Don Eladio's territory. Even before he had Mike's car bugged in case he had the audacity of trying to kill his mortal enemy and even snarks at Mike's sense of justice when his reasons are similarly petty.

[[Characters/BreakingBadWaltsFamily Walt's Family]] ([[Characters/BreakingBadWalterWhite Walter White]]), [[Characters/BreakingBadHeisenbergsEmpire Heisenberg's Empire]] ([[Characters/BreakingBadJessePinkman Jesse Pinkman]], [[Characters/BreakingBadSaulGoodman Saul Goodman]]), [[Characters/BreakingBadDEAAndPolice DEA and Police]], [[Characters/BreakingBadJuarezCartel Juarez Cartel]], [[Characters/BreakingBadSalamancaFamily Salamanca Family]], [[Characters/BreakingBadLosPollosHermanos Los Pollos Hermanos]] ('''Gustavo Fring''', [[Characters/BreakingBadMikeEhrmantraut Mike Ehrmantraut]]), [[Characters/BreakingBadMadrigalElectromotive Madrigal Electromotive]], [[Characters/BreakingBadAryanBrotherhood Aryan Brotherhood]], [[Characters/BreakingBadOtherCriminals Other Criminals]], [[Characters/BreakingBadOtherCivilians Other Civilians]]-]]]]]

[[Characters/BetterCallSaulLawyers Lawyers]] ([[Characters/BreakingBadSaulGoodman Jimmy [=McGill=]/Saul Goodman]], [[Characters/BetterCallSaulKimWexler Kim Wexler]], [[Characters/BetterCallSaulChuckMcGill Chuck McGill]], [[Characters/BetterCallSaulHowardHamlin Howard Hamlin]]), [[Characters/BetterCallSaulLawEnforcement Law Enforcement]], [[Characters/BetterCallSaulCartel Juarez Cartel]] ([[Characters/BetterCallSaulNachoVarga Nacho Varga]], [[Characters/BetterCallSaulLaloSalamanca Lalo Salamanca]]), [[Characters/BetterCallSaulLosPollosHermanos Los Pollos Hermanos]] ([[Characters/BreakingBadMikeEhrmantraut Mike Ehrmantraut]], '''Gustavo Fring'''), [[Characters/BetterCallSaulOmaha Omaha]], [[Characters/BetterCallSaulPettyCriminals Petty Criminals]], [[Characters/BetterCallSaulOtherCharacters Other Characters]]-]]]]]

* BlackAndNerdy: The nerdy part is {{Justified}} by the glasses and hyper-competent business acumen. A darker FourEyesZeroSoul variation.

* TheCorrupter: He takes both Gale and Jesse under his wing in order to turn them into his ideal subordinates: loyal, grateful, and beholden to no one but him.