History Characters / LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnitCurrentMainCharacters

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* ItalianAmericanCaricature: Moreso in his initial characterization, which had him more as a working-class BrooklynRage type guy. His EstablishingCharacterMoment has him offering zeppole to Benson and Rollins. When his [[CharacterizationMarchesOn character mellows]], he still retains the stereotypes of being deeply devoted to his family, being the OnlySaneMan as the only son with three sisters, the team's TokenReligiousTeammate with corruption in the Catholic church as a BerserkButton, and food as a love language (particularly with [[ShipTease Rollins]], who he is frequently cooking for and foisting food upon). When we meet his mother in season 23, she embodies most of the female stereotypes listed, so he comes by them honestly.

* FairCop: She even provides the page image.

* [[UngratefulBastard Ungrateful Bitch]]: Angrily confronts Elliot and accuses him of betraying her trust when Elliot has a police detail placed outside her apartment. The reason? Because a dangerously unstable former suspect had targeted her for revenge.

* BoobsOfSteel: Olivia's cup size grew quite noticeably following Mariska Hargitay's real life pregnancy between seasons 7 and 8. However having a more ample bosom has done little to slow down Benson's character when it comes to chasing after and subduing perps.

* BlackAndWhiteMorality: Sees all offenders as scum, [[ReformedButRejected reformed or not]].

* LikeAnOldMarriedCouple: the sort of dynamic she develops with Barba over time.

* BerserkButton: As an A.D.A., watching the law he's sworn to uphold be perverted if not outright inapplicable to those with sufficient wealth and connections. To him, what's the point when said person can bribe even the judges?

* RatedMForManly: Compared to his snarky partner Munch, but most especially so after Stabler leaves amongst the new personnel introduced to the series.

!!! '''Played By:''' Molly Burnett

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Det. Amanda Rollins]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rollins_amanda_6890.jpg]]

!!!'''Other Appearances:''' ''Series/ChicagoPD'' | ''Series/ChicagoFire''
!!!'''Played By:''' Creator/KelliGiddish

A detective from Atlanta, Georgia, who moves to New York City to join the Special Victims Unit. Rollins appears to be a detective who is very anxious to do her job, often being told not to get ahead of herself by Detectives Benson and Amaro, and Captain Cragen.

* AesopAmnesia: Rollins can't seem to stop herself from doing really risky investigative work without getting permission or at least notifying someone beforehand, no matter how many times it gets her and/or the team screwed over.
* ActionGirl: Just as much as Benson. Also, like Benson, graduates to ActionMom in the 17th season.
* BerserkButton: As much of a spitfire as she can be, she gets two of hers pressed '''hard''' in ''Post-Graduate Psychopath,'' when the perp (who she'd helped send to juvenile detention years earlier) stalks her and Jessie, and then stabs [[ImpliedLoveInterest Carisi]] to boot. She makes it a point to go to the psyche ward that he's been sent back to and pointedly tell him that if he ever goes near her family (Carisi included) again, [[IllKillYou "that'll be your last day on this Earth."]]
* BigScrewedUpFamily: Claims she's the [[OnlySaneMan only sane woman]] in her family and doesn't go home for Christmas (she does visit for Easter).
* BigSisterInstinct: Despite her younger sister being a mess, Rollins doesn't hesitate to protect her sister from bad men.
* BlackmailIsSuchAnUglyWord: Averted, as she [[spoiler:doesn't even bother with a euphemism when she blackmails Wilkes' wife into getting the charges against Amaro dropped.]]
* CainAndAbel: Her relationship with Kim is eventually revealed to be this.
* CatSmile: Rollins' slanted eyes only adds to her cat-like appearance everytime she grins.
* ChekhovsClassroom: One episode opens with the SVU team undergoing routine training. Rollins is established as an excellent shot, but also as having a blind spot about a female domestic violence victim who actually turns out to be aggressive. Later in the episode, [[spoiler:Rollins' [[ManipulativeBastard scheming]] younger sister Kim uses both of these traits as part of a BatmanGambit to get Rollins to kill her abusive boyfriend so that she (Kim) can collect an insurance payout on him.]]
* CoolBigSis: She's very protective of her [[ManChild younger sister Kim]], who takes advantage of this several times.
* CowboyCop: Dips into this at times. Rollins has a tendency to leap into action with her own ideas of what to do without permission... and it almost always ends up more harmful than helpful.
* DaddyIssues: Temporary Sergeant Murphy points out she's had "complicated" relationships with men, particularly if they're authority figures (see: her former sergeant who assaulted her and the Gamblers Anonymous sponsor who slept with her; this even extends to non-romantic relationships as she stuck up for Cragen after the dead hooker incident and is willing to give the benefit of a doubt a Creator/WoodyAllen (incest)[=/=]Creator/RomanPolanski (fled overseas)-type suspect).
-->'''Rollins''': My father was a gambler until mom nagged him out of the house.\\
'''Murphy''': Did you ever think she had a ''reason'' for doing that?
** This ends up being HilariousInHindsight when [[spoiler: she ends up getting pregnant by Murphy]]
* DarkAndTroubledPast: Her family of origin is a DysfunctionJunction, she's gotten in over her head with gambling debts, and she was sexually assaulted by a higher-up at her precinct in Atlanta.
* DeadpanSnarker: Mainly to Carisi when she's annoyed by him.
* DeconfirmedBachelor: A GenderFlipped example. She's extremely jaded on the concept of love and relationships, and takes a dim view on marriage in general--the result of growing up in a dysfunctional family riddled with addiction and violence. She jokes minutes before her RelationshipUpgrade with [[spoiler: Carisi]] that she doesn't cry at weddings, and if she does, it's only because she "knows how it ends." Yet, the season 24 fall finale sees[[spoiler: her and Carisi get married and Rollins considering changing her name.]]
* DeepSouth: Hails from Georgia.
* DirtyHarriet: Inherited this role from Olivia, having gone undercover as a drunk party girl in an effort to lure out a DirtyCop rapist.
* DontYouDarePityMe: This is frequently her response to squadmates attempting to help her with her gambling or family issues.
* EasilyForgiven: A Downplayed example. Benson has no problem chewing her out for dragging her gambling debts into her work life, threatening to transfer her to another unit for her behaivior. It takes a while before Benson forgives Rollins, and is outright snide towards her before that, but the fact that Amanda is never fired or given any reprimand more serious than a tongue-lashing is overly generous on Benson's part.
** It's a similar situation when her gambling is first revealed, but in that case it's {{justified|Trope}} both because it didn't have an impact on her work the same way and because it's Cragen, who's had his own struggles with addiction and recognizes that his own superior officer's decision to help him rather than punish him was what got him to turn his life around.
* EtTuBrute: Gets an absolutely brutal knife in the back from [[spoiler:her younger sister]].
* EveryoneLovesBlondes: She's pretty popular with the guys in-universe, both inside and out of the squad room.
* FairCop: Dem cheekbones. Dose eyes. Dat Hair. Even ''Stephanie March'' felt threatened. Rollins has also caught the eye of several male characters.
* TheFarmerAndTheViper: Learns the very, very hard way that kindness is wasted on her sister.
* FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling: Her sister Kim has substance abuse issues and an abusive boyfriend [[spoiler: who she set up to be shot by Amanda (she has a history of threatening him) for insurance money which she forged her sister's name to; she also knows about the gambling debts. When Amanda learns the whole truth and Amaro gets Kim on tape, she skips town along with all of her sister's possessions -- literally, the only things Amanda has left is her fridge, an ice tray, and Kim's goodbye note]].
* TheGamblingAddict: Her mounting gambling debts get her into a lot of trouble with some very dodgy people. She's been attending Gamblers Anonymous per Cragen's orders.
* HereditaryHairstyle: She and her sister got their blonde hair from their mother, a trait both of Amanda's daughters would also inherit.
* HeroesLoveDogs: She has a pit bull named Frannie that has appeared and been mentioned in several episodes. Frannie even helped Amanda run down William Lewis after he flashed two tourists in Central Park.
* HisOwnWorstEnemy: Is quite prone to self-sabotage, particularly in her personal life, which leads her into relationships with men who are physically/emotionally unavailable, or just otherwise awful. She's self-aware enough to know this is an [[FreudianExcuse inherited issue]] from her mother, but it isn't until season 21, when she starts seeing a therapist, that she starts getting out of her own way. It doesn't stop Olivia from pulling her into her office in a season 23 episode to ask if her offer to be the HoneyTrap on a case isn't her doing this with [[spoiler: Carisi]]; Olivia expresses concern that there's a part of Amanda that "that thinks that you don't deserve to be happy."
* HoneyTrap: One of her specialties. She's volunteered herself as bait to catch more than one criminal and she's very good at it.
* [[HonoraryUncle Honorary Aunt]]: To Olivia's adopted son Noah, and specifically referred to this way in "Chasing Demons."[[note]]"Lucy" is Noah's regular nanny.[[/note]]
-->"Okay, so, Noah, Auntie Amanda is gonna take you to school, and Lucy is gonna pick you up."
* HumiliationConga: Between "Rapist Anonymous" and "Gambler's Fallacy," season 15 is this for her.
* IconicSequelCharacter: Doesn't make an appearance until the Season 13 premiere, but now holds place as the third longest serving member of the current main cast by Season 17.
* ImprobableAimingSkills: When the squad visits the shooting range for practice, she's the best shot of all of them.
* IronicName: Amanda means "having to be loved", "deserving to be loved" and "worthy of love", which are all poignant for a character who was awfully betrayed numerous times.
* JuniorCounterpart: Much like Liv during the series premiere, Rollins is the new transfer of the squad along with a male detective (Cassidy for Liv, Amaro for Rollns).
* KarmaHoudini: Deconstructed. ''So'' deconstructed. [[spoiler:Her gambling debts cause her to stumble into working for the owner of a sketchy gambling parlor, then rescued by an undercover cop working as the owner's enforcer, who gets her involved in the case. It backfires partially as the wife of an involved party gets raped, getting SVU involved and nearly blowing Rollins' cover; when the dust clears, the undercover cop commends Rollins for her work and tells her to stay clean, but a furious Benson, not happy with being put on the spot as a newbie squad commander (including lying to Amaro and Fin about what Rollins was up to), says that if SVU wasn't so understaffed, Rollins would be on her way to a new department.]] Borders on PyrrhicVictory, as a matter of fact.
* TheLadette: Compared to Olivia, especially after Olivia's personality mellowed out. While both women are "OneOfTheBoys" to an extent, Rollins is more overtly prone to profanity or recklessness, and has a number of stereotypically "masculine" hobbies and vices, especially gambling. She seems to have a habit of sleeping around, is occasionally seen smoking, and is also the closest thing the main team has to a resident computer geek.
* LikeBrotherAndSister: Arguably her relationship with Carisi at least at first, with Rollins's actress describing Carisi as like "her annoying younger brother." They bicker, but constantly have each other's back and Carisi is her daughter's godfather. It's somewhat more complicated than that, though: Carisi has a thing for her, and steadfastly supports her and her daughters to the point where he's essentially the only father figure Jesse and Billie have ever known. Amanda ''finally'' gets her LoveEpiphany at the end of season 22.
* LoveMakesYouDumb: Poor Rollins had this publicly exposed in "Rapist Anonymous." Additionally, [[spoiler: the blackmail stunt she pulled to save Amaro from prison time has a strong chance of turning out this way]].
* MamaBear:
** {{Inverted}}. Kim recalls how she threatened to shoot a guy in the knees if he bothered their mother again when they were kids.
** While Rollins hasn't been given a moment yet, she did state that she would ''kill'' anyone that tried to harm Jesse or Billie.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Has a heartbreaking moment of this when she realizes she's been manipulated by her sister [[spoiler:into killing a man.]]
* NewMeat: In season 13, along with Amaro.
* MsFanservice: Being the HoneyTrap expert, Rollins [[ExploitedTrope deliberately]] plays on this role to catch the perps.
* OffTheWagon: [[spoiler:She starts gambling again in "Rapist Anonymous", and it continues through to "Gambler's Fallacy", where it nearly gets her in serious trouble. She gets back on the wagon after that and appears to have stayed there since.]]
* OnceDoneNeverForgotten:: Her gambling addiction is this for Rollins, although somewhat deservedly as its consequences constantly pop up.
* OohMeAccentsSlipping: Seems to be ''inverted'' - sometimes, she'll slip ''into'' a southern drawl that she (and her actress) doesn't normally have. Note that her mother and sister ''do'' have southern accents so it's implied to be something that she trained herself out of but reverts to when she gets emotionally riled.
* OutOfCharacterMoment: Tried to provoke Amaro into hitting her in "Spousal Privilege", apparently because she wanted to [[BreakTheHaughty call him out on his pride at being better than the abusers while ignoring his own anger management issues]] (she saw him yelling at Maria over the phone on top of the suspect of the week being her weakness, an abusive authority figure). Amaro doesn't take the bait and leaves. She may have been drunk (this took place in a bar) and the next several episodes focus on their traumatic pasts.
* PregnantBadass: [[spoiler:Is revealed to be pregnant with Declan Murphy's child as of Season 17, not that this slows her down in her police work. Also a case of RealLifeWritesThePlot , as the actress was pregnant in real life.]]
* ProperlyParanoid: She is the first to seriously suspect William Lewis of being NotSoHarmless, even when the SVU squad doesn't officially have anything to hold him on. On the flip side, in "Dissonant Voices," Rollins [[spoiler:is the only person who suspects the allegations against the music teacher are false, and is unsympathetic to the other characters' MyGodWhatHaveIDone reaction when they realize she's right and they've ruined his life]].
* RapeAsBackstory: [[spoiler: She left Atlanta after being raped by her chief.]]
* ShipTease: Has had plenty of it with Fin. And with Amaro in season 15. In one episode, Benson opines that they should GetARoom and another character asks Amaro if he's the boyfriend (a single scene and a couple of references after the fact reveal that TheyDo, at least briefly). And then there's a lot of it with Carisi, who is shown to be very much in love with her. It's heavily implied that she reciprocates but she CannotSpitItOut, [[spoiler:at least until the finale of Season 22, when they finally have a BigDamnKiss.]]
* SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan: Rollins originally was a bit loose and wasn't seeking anything serious, having fathered two kids from two different men, and even refused a proposal from one of those two. Then she, despite herself, [[spoiler:falls for the one guy who's been her rock and a father figure to her kids: Carisi.]]
* SouthernFriedGenius: Rollins is the squad member most likely to be seen [[BuffySpeak doing computer stuff]] during investigations.
* TallPoppySyndrome: Kim regards her horrible treatment of Amanda as justified at least in part due to her seething resentment over Amanda having made something of herself.
* TheOneWhoMadeItOut: Of her dysfunctional family and their hometown in Georgia. Kim shamelessly uses accusations that Amanda now thinks she's "too good for them" to [[ManipulativeBastard manipulate]] her.
* TheyDo: [[spoiler: With Amaro, though probably not for very long.]]
** [[spoiler: And then with Carisi. This'll probably last way longer than with Amaro. Particularly since they're married, as of season 24]]
* ThickerThanWater: She worries over her little sister's fate even after it's clear Kim has catapulted herself waaaaaay over the MoralEventHorizon.
* TrappedByGamblingDebts: Rollins initially gets out of the debts she owes due to the guy going to prison, but even after that she's haunted by them, most notably [[spoiler:when Kim uses her gambling problem as part of her FrameUp of Rollins, and then later in Season 15 when she falls OffTheWagon and gets sucked into Murphy's undercover operation as a result.]]
* ThatOneCase: A rapist she'd tracked along the eastern seaboard resurfaces in New York in one episode.
* {{Tsundere}}: She's always a spitfire, but she is very much a tsundere [[spoiler:to Carisi. Naturally, she ends up falling for him.]]
* TheUnfavorite: Her sister Kim is clearly the apple of their mother, Beth Anne, who supports Kim even when she's on the run. When Kim is arrested for drugging a john who then raped a woman under the influence and for shooting her pimp, Beth Anne actually blames ''Amanda'' for not helping her sister out and that she shouldn't return home until she "figures out how to be a real family."
* UpThroughTheRanks: Averted. While Rollins has been described as having an ambitious go-getter personality, she's explicitly stated she's not interested in climbing the rank ladder from where she currently stands.
* WhiteSheep: In a family with a alcoholic, gambler father, an alcoholic mother and a drug-addicted, criminal sister, Amanda is the only member of her family who has gotten her act together by becoming a police officer. Slightly subverted though as she has had a previous history of getting into gambling debts.
* {{Workaholic}}: Really, ''really'' resents being placed on desk duty even when its within reason. When she gets pregnant, she dodges every order to take it easy until she ''faints'' and is forced into bedrest, obscenely close to giving birth. [[spoiler: And then she basically repeats this when she gets pregnant a second time, staying on active field duty long after she probably should despite everyone else's recommendation. Although thankfully this time she actually eventually admits when she needs to rest]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:A.D.A. Dominick "Sonny" Carisi, Jr.]]
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!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit''
!!!'''Other Appearances:''' ''Series/ChicagoPD''
!!!'''Played By:''' Creator/PeterScanavino

When Detective Nick Amaro is briefly reassigned to Queens, Carisi is transferred to the Manhattan Special Victims Unit on a temporary basis. He eventually becomes a permanent member of the squad. Boasting experience in Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island, he takes a while to grasp the complex sensitivity required for SVU cases, as he'd previously been involved with Homicide. He attends law classes at Fordham Law night school until season 17, when [[spoiler: he passes the bar exam]]. In the Season 21 premiere, he leaves the NYPD and joins the District Attorney's office, becoming the A.D.A. in charge of prosecuting the squad's cases.
----

* HereditaryHairstyle: She and her sister got their blonde hair from their mother, a trait Amanda's daughter herself would inherit.

** While Rollins hasn't been given a moment yet, she did state that she would ''kill'' anyone that tried to harm Jesse.

** [[spoiler: And then with Carisi. This'll probably last way longer than with Amaro.]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/svu_season_23_1.PNG]]
[[caption-width-right:350:The cast as of season 23[[note]]From left to right: Det. Amanda Rollins, ADA Dominick "Sonny" Carisi, Capt. Olivia Benson, Sgt. Odafin "Fin" Tutola, and Det. Joe Velasco[[/note]]]]

* EvenTheGirlsWantHer: Not just because of the LesYay with Alex; in several episodes, women blatantly hit on her. When girls who are watching just to perv on Stabler start making comments about her chest, you know this trope applies.

--->'''Fin''': No one expects you to be Wonder Woman
--->'''Olivia''': I do!

* OneOfTheBoys: Except when called upon to be TheChick by the plot. One early episode even had Olivia walk into the men's bathroom along with several other men to have a discussion over a case and no one bat an eye.

** Episode 9 of season 24 has her outright admitting to Amanda that Stabler is the love of her life. Amanda refused to pursue it further because he was married.

* InformedAttribute: She's frequently cited as being an extraordinary detective, and while some episodes do showcase this, more often she's displayed as a StrawFeminist or just an outright incompetent cop. She often refuses to consider the possibility that a suspect has been falsely accused, and overall spends more time focused on playing victim's advocate than on actual police work. She's also broken plenty of departmental rules and outright broken the law on several occasions(see KarmaHoudini below).

* TheDulcineaEffect: Whenever Benson screws up and an innocent person is hurt, she starts to feel guilty, which immediately results in everyone rushing to reassure her about what a great cop she is. Taken UpToEleven in "Justice Denied" when she finds out she coerced a confession from an innocent man and sent him to prison for a crime he didn't commit. The innocent man's lawyer reassured her that she was a good cop.

* ParentalSubstitute: To Rollins' daughters, Jesse and Billie -- he's the closest thing to a father they've ever really known.

* HisOwnWorstEnemy: Is quite prone to self-sabotage, particularly in her personal life, which leads her into relationships with men who are physically or emotional unavailable, or are just otherwise awful. She's aware enough to know this is an [[FreudianExcuse inherited]] issue, but it's not until she starts therapy she starts getting out of her own way. It doesn't stop Olivia from pulling her into her office in season 23 to ensure that Amanda offering herself as the HoneyTrap for a case isn't this with [[spoiler: Carisi,]] because there's a "part of you that thinks that you don't deserve to be happy."

* InnocentlyInsensitive: He sometimes makes outdated or ignorant comments, and he's about as tactful as a brick to the head, but it all comes from genuine misunderstanding and ignorance -- never malice. One good example is when he openly admits he doesn't "get" being transgender, but once Rollins explains it to him, that's that. Even before then, he doesn't treat the trans victim any different than he would if she were cis.

* LikeBrotherAndSister: Arguably with Rollins. See her entry.

* FairCop: With Amaro gone, he's now the resident handsome cop in the squad.

* {{Meganekko}}: She's occasionally seen wearing a pair of reading glasses these days, and it's not a bad look for her at all.