History Characters / TheGoodPlaceMichael

...[[TheReveal or so it seems]]. In reality, Michael is actually a Bad Place architect and the neighborhood is his personal pet project to psychologically torture small sets of humans (i.e. the main cast) for eternity. Once their repeated successes in figuring out the truth threaten to get Michael [[AFateWorseThanDeath retired]] he forms an uneasy alliance with them... and in the process finds himself getting more and more fascinated by humanity.

* OnlySaneMan: [[spoiler:In all of human history, he is ''literally'' the only angel, demon, or other celestial being who stops to think, hey, if no humans have gotten into the Good Place in over 500 years, ''maybe'' something ain't right.]]

* RefreshinglyNormalLifeChoice: [[InvertedTrope Inverted]]. [[spoiler: The final path of Michael's eons long existence is spending it as a normal human doing normal human things. Janet even intentionally gives Michael enough money on Earth so he can live comfortably but not extravagantly. He's also not going to get any special treatment regarding the afterlife system, and will go through everything in it the same way every human does. But the mundanity of his existence now is exactly what Michael wants; Michael's always loved the simple things about humanity, and he's clearly having a blast finally getting to experience them firsthand.]]

* MinionWithAnFInEvil: Downplayed. On one hand, back when he was still an evil demon, he did enjoy torturing humans and messing with the main four just for kicks. However, deep down, he has always been legitimately enthralled by humanity in ways that no other demon is. His personality is also pretty different from his co-workers, and he seems aghast that they don't respect his seniority or authority:

* NormalFishInATinyPond: While a cosmic being capable of building an entire dimension, Michael admits that this is his first real assignment and often implies that he's actually quite low on the celestial hierarchy.

* DemonOfHumanOrigin: [[spoiler:Inversed. In the series finale, Michael chooses to become human, making him the first and only demon/immortal being to do so.]]

** Even when he still worked for the Bad Place, he was a downplayed version of this. While he was certainly very cruel and did enjoy torturing people, but Michael's fascination with humanity was never part of the ruse - in fact, it was the very reason he created the fake Good Place to begin with. Michael has always loved humans, even when he was still an evil demon, and, deep down, his motive behind the entire neighborhood concept was because he was genuinely enthralled by humanity. Interacting with humans in a semi-normal manner and playing with fun human stuff like karaoke and paper clips was the entire point for him, and the neighborhood was his only socially acceptable way of doing that.

* TokenGoodTeammate: Of the Bad Place demons. Michael's fascination with humanity was never part of the ruse - in fact, it was the very reason he created the fake Good Place to begin with. Michael has always loved humans, even when he was still an evil demon, and, deep down, his motive behind the entire neighborhood concept was because he was genuinely enthralled by humans. Interacting with humans in a semi-normal manner and playing with fun human stuff like karaoke and paper clips was the entire point for him, and the neighborhood was his only socially acceptable way of doing that.

* SatanIsGood: He starts out as a LawfulEvil being with a knee-jerk contempt for humans who's job is to cause them misery. Out of fear of punishment from his boss Shawn (who is a SatanicArchetype played straight), Michael ends up siding with the humans out of preservation and soon develops a form of loyalty and fondess for them, unlike the actual {{Satan}} who started as a LawfulGood entity and became evil because of his contempt for them. [[spoiler: He eventually becomes an official AscendedDemon and becomes ruler of [[FluffyCloudHeaven the Good Place]] and his former boss's Good Counterpart]].

->'''Janet:''' That must have been hard for you. To go back there.
->'''Michael:''' It was. I don't like thinking about...who I used to be.

* IHatePastMe: By Season 3, Michael is very ashamed of how cruel he used to be. It gets to the point where he barely considers his past self and his current self to be the same person.

* InsistentTerminology: He's actually not a demon (and the Bad Place workers actually consider it racist), but since there's no other term that comes close he lets it slide.
* InternalizedCategorism: After he fully redeems himself and rejects the Bad Place, Michael struggles with the feeling that, because he's a demon, he is automatically an evil, disgusting creature and always will be. In the episode, "Employee of the Bearimy", Vicky guilts him by repeating these exact same insecurities and telling him he'll always belong to the Bad Place.

* {{Irony}}: Early on in Season 2, Michael coninually reboots the Neighborhood over and over again so he can find a way to effectively torture the humans ''without'' being found out... but in the end, this ends up really being torture ''for him''. When Vicky threatens mutiny, he's forced to team up with the humans just to break out of what would otherwise be an eternal stalemate.

* LargeAndInCharge: He's the head of the neighborhood and played by 6'3 Ted Danson.

* MinionWithAnFInEvil: Zigzagged. On the one hand, he likes torturing humans and messing with the main four just for kicks. But his personality is vastly different from his co-workers, and he seems aghast that they don't respect his seniority or authority:

* TransNature: The further along the series progresses, the less and less Michael wants to be perceived and regarded as a demon. Namely because demons are, by their very nature, supposed to be evil and cruel creatures that humans are disgusted and horrified by - which is the exact opposite of what Michael wants to be. [[spoiler: In the series finale, he officially abandons demon for good, choosing to become a human permanently.]]

* PinocchioSyndrome: A lot of his IntriguedByHumanity tendencies imply this, with him admitting he's always longed to know what it's really like to be human. [[spoiler:This is outright confirmed by the finale -- and he gets his wish, Eleanor even telling him, "You're going to be a real boy, Pinocchio."]]

* TokenGoodTeammate: Of the Bad Place demons. Michael's fascination with humanity was never part of the ruse - in fact, it was the very reason he created the fake Good Place to begin with. Michael has always loved humans, even when he was still an evil demon, and, deep down, his motive behind the entire fake Good Place concept was because he was genuinely enthralled by humans. Interacting with humans in a semi-normal manner and getting to do fun human stuff like karaoke and paper clips was the entire point for him, and the neighborhood was his only socially acceptable way of doing that.

* MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch: No other demon (or any immortal being, for that matter) has ever been fascinated with humans the way Michael is. The entire reason he created the fake Good Place to begin with was because he wasn't just satisfied designing a bunch of tortures and moving on. He wanted to ''be'' there with the humans, to closely observe and interact with them. Even after he rejects the Bad Place and becomes the only demon fighting to ''save'' humanity, his adoration and enthrallment of humans still remains unique. [[spoiler: Eleanor even helps convince the Judge to allow Michael to become a human himself by telling her that no other immortal being will ever want to do it.]]

* TokenGoodTeammate: Of the Bad Place demons.

* HumanityIsInfectious: After he teams up with the human cast, Eleanor remarks several times upon his increasingly human-like attitude and behavior. Eventually, they collectively name him an "honorary human", much to his delight. [[spoiler:Then he becomes one for real]].

* HumanoidAbomination: Michael looks like a man in a suit with a jovial demeanour, but as he tells the group in "Tinker Tailor Demon Spy", his real form is a demonic, squidlike monstrosity WreathedInFlames and with MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily.

* CompleteImmortality: He was born at the very beginning of time, and retirement will consist of spending eternity being tortured after having every ounce of his body split and individually placed upon a single sun. Despite this, he'll still be alive and conscious through all that. [[spoiler: He gives it up at the end of Season 4]].

* IAmAMonster: He struggles with this both emotionally and physically after his HeelFaceTurn. [[IHatePastMe He's horrified that he spent eons gleefully torturing people]], and avoids showing Eleanor footage showing how cruel he was. Later, he refuses to take off his skin suit, because he believes that if the humans were to see his natural demon form as a giant fire squid, they'd be so disgusted they wouldn't want to be friends with him anymore.