History Characters / BurnNotice

* ChivalrousPervert: No problem wooing his way into a woman's heart or pants...so long as she's single. In one episode, just as he was about to seal the deal with a lady, he got wind that the woman was married and ended it right there and then.

* DeliberatelyBadExample: In much of the first 2 seasons or so, Nate tends to show what would happen if a normal person tried to do what Michael does. It tends to end up with him getting death threats by bad guys, beaten up, or being a DistressedDude a lot.

* ProfessionalGambler: In the beginning. While he had the perpetual financial problems associated with the former, he also had some of the skills associated with the latter. They [[ChekhovsHobby came in useful]] on one of Michael's jobs.
* RecklessSidekick: In some episodes Nate takes a direct role in helping Michael and is decently skilled, but a little too impulsive for Michael's taste and doesn't seem to get the principal of KnowWhenToFoldEm. All of this gets a LampshadeHanging in the season six mid-summer finale. [[spoiler:Michael spends the episode chewing Nate out for doing the wrong thing in a spy op, then weeps over his body after Nate falls to a sniper.]]

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: [[spoiler:Even though they were just recently divorced, Nate's wife Ruby was nowhere to be seen at his funeral.]]
** Season 7 offers slight handwaves [[spoiler:for her absence: an offhand comment talks about Ruby having fallen OffTheWagon entirely, hinting that an addiction may have been kicking in just after, or even before, Nate's death. Furthermore, the very next episode sees Madeline having to confront one of Nate's old bookies, because he couldn't find Ruby to shake down.]]

* ParentalAbandonment: [[spoiler:Not exactly Nate's fault, but Ruby dropped him off in foster care before [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse taking off.]]]]

!!Olivia Riley (Sonja Sohn)

* SimpleYetAwesome: Michael's fighting style avoids flash moves and is built around taking opponents down as quickly as possible, using moves from Shotokan Karate (in which Jeffrey Donovan is a real-life black belt), Aikido, Muay Thai, Sambo, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Jeet Kune Do and Krav Maga.

A CIC agent sent in ostensibly to investigate Michael in season 1 when Michael is freshly burned, but really to convince him to sit down and shut up about wanting his job back. Michael eventually puts together information to blackmail Bly into leaving him alone, although Bly attempts to return the favor in season 2, at which point the two call a truce. He reappears again in season 6.

%%* NeverMessWithGranny

* GeniusBruiser: He's an outstanding tactician, investigator and operative who is skilled in a variety of areas such undercover work, intelligence gathering, stealth missions, adopting cover identities, improvising plans on the fly, detective work, assessing opponents quickly and using everyday items for schemes as well as a brutally efficient combatant.

* GeniusBruiser: He's an outstanding tactician, investigator and operative who is skilled in a variety of areas such undercover work, intelligence gathering, stealth missions and using everyday items for schemes as well as a brutally efficient combatant.

* MeddlingParents: Maddie starts out as this. It does not help that Fiona encourages her. She's gotten a lot better, though. Of course, with Jesse around, she picks it up again due to Jesse's HonorBeforeReason tendencies.

* BadassInDistress: A couple times over the course of the show, most notably in the S1 finale.

** Hurting children.

* HawaiianShirtedTourist: Always wearing one unless he needs to get cleaned up.

* LanternJawOfJustice: naturally, it is ''Creator/BruceCampbell'' after all.

* NiceGuy: Very much so and usually the only one around.

* WouldHitAGirl: But only after she tried to take away his shotgun and beat him up.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: He's an out of shape middle-aged man who takes part in a massive gunfight between his mooks, Team Westen, and Vaughn's men. Regardless of how much he's been built up as a potential BigBad, [[spoiler:it makes sense that he'd be dead by the end of the fight. (Although he ''almost'' managed to escape.)]]

* TheChick: When undercover, she tends to play the role of "damsel" and a distraction when sex appeal needs to be used. Otherwise, she pulls double-duty with Sam as [[TheBigGuy the muscle]], with her being the primary due to her inclination for guns, bombs and violence.

* AmbiguouslyBrown: The actor who plays Jesse is bi-racial. Based on the picture of his mother that he showed to Maddie, Jesse may not be. The showrunners mentions that this is in part intentional; since you really can't peg Coby Bell as one thing or another, this allows him (and by proxy, Jesse) to play different sorts of characters.

* [[DistaffCounterpart Spear Counterpart]]: [[spoiler:Of Carla]]. Made especially apparent when it's revealed by Simon's tape to Michael [[spoiler:that Vaughn, despite him claiming earlier in the season he had nothing specifically to do with Michael's burn notice, told Simon in a recorded conversation that they would be replacing him with Michael "and if he doesn't work out, there'll be another", just like how Carla lied to Victor about being responsible for burning him and killing his family]].

-> ''"[[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident I feel a rash of heart attacks coming on.]] The wife? Dead! The kid? Dead! The drug dealer? '''[[KillEmAll Dead!]]'''"''

* KillEmAll: His ''modus operdani'' when he can, and his usual fall-back if things go wrong as well.

* WeaponOfChoice: Sig-Sauer P228 and later a Heckler And Koch P30. As far as blades go, he tends to favor his [[KukrisAreKool Emerson Karambit]].

* WeaponOfChoice: Commonly uses a Walther PPK and various shotguns.

* WeaponOfChoice: A Beretta 92FS and various sniper rifles.

%%* WeaponOfChoice: Sig-Sauer P226.

* PoisonousFriend: Even when he's being helpful to Michael, Team Westen tends to regard him as this. [[spoiler:They were very much right to do so]].

* ShesGotLegs: Fiona's wardrobe is mostly miniskirts, short shorts and cocktail dresses slit to the waist. Intentional and justified; The showrunners said that Gabrielle Anwar (Fi's actress) picked out much of her own wardrobe. It's likely she knows she has great legs and wants to show them off. It's also helpful in-universe, as normally people look at a woman dressed like that and don't expect her to be so particularly dangerous—especially in Miami, where most women her age and younger dress somewhat loosely anyway because it's so hot and humid.

* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Yogurt, particularly the blueberry-flavored kind....to the point where he did a job and accepted a lifetime of free yogurt at a yogurt shop as his payment. Also tuna tahini, though is mentioned less frequently.

->''"My name is Michael Westen. I used to be a spy."''

* {{Oireland}}: Casually violent, anti-authoritarian, IRA connection, played by a British actor... it's like they were ticking off a list.

* RealityEnsues: Nate tries to kick his addictions multiple times, but never succeeds. The fact that his brother returns to his life and brings his high-stress, incredibly dangerous spy-life back with him just makes it that much worse. Addiction is incredibly difficult; bring Mike's burn notice into it and Nate was bound to spiral.

* KnightTemplar: Is a true believer in the Family's cause. He's willing to kill a child if necessary, and even kills himself to further the cause.

* NobleDemon: He's serving a violent extremist organization, but he will do whatever it takes to protect his people, including sacrificing his own life.

%%* NobleDemon