History Characters / TheRighteousGemstonesTheGemstones

* CoolUncle/EvilUncle: To the Gemstone kids, particularly back in his younger days. He spoils them, speaks to them like adults... but also manipulates them and uses them as tools to get back at their parents for any perceived slights.

* GreedyTelevangelist: They are a family of hypocritical televanglists who make a living exploiting religion for personal profit.

** Jesse and Amber's kids invoke the trope as well, with Giden as nice, Pontius as mean and Abraham as in-between.

* LovedByAll: Before and after her death, nary a soul has an unkind word to say about her.

* BadassPreacher: He definently ''wants'' to be seen as one. Sometimes, he succeeds.

* CoolUncle: To the Gemstone kids, particularly back in his younger days. He spoils them, speaks to them like adults... but also manipulates them and uses them as tools to get back at their parents for any perceived slights.

* WackyGameShowHost: [[spoiler: Becomes one when he finally convinces the Gemstones to fund Baby Billy's Bible Bonkers.]]

* NeverMyFault: In the ColdOpening of season 3, it's clear she blames the Gemstones [[spoiler: for what happened to Peter, despite it being at least partially her fault, as "Interlude III" reveals that her refusal to accept Eli's offer of financial help for her family is partially responsible for Peter's failed bank robbery attempt in a desperate act of providing for his family]].

* ArchNemesisDad: [[spoiler: Peter believes they or their mother ratted him out to the feds. This is later averted when he comes back to apologize for accusing them.]]

* WellDoneSonGuy: [[spoiler: Betray the Gemstones to win their father's approval.]]

* VitriolicBestBuds: A sibling example with Judy, during their younger years; they're constantly sniping at one another, but he's the only one who actually seems to enjoy her company, and she's extremely upset when he leaves home and spends all his time visiting with Amber.

* AmbiguouslyGay: He's the only one of the Gemstone children to not be involved with anyone at the start of the series, is very coiffed, and shares an eyebrow-raising relationship with Keefe, who moves in with him sometime between season 1 and season 2.

* BreakTheCutie: Returning to his more NiceGuy nature in season 3, he's put through an emotional gauntlet, resulting in [[spoiler: Keefe leaving him.]]

* OnlySaneMan: Kelvin is the most reasonable and level-headed of the siblings. He's consistently the only one who cares about breaking the law, even if he's frequently overruled.

* TheUnfavorite: Seems to have a chip on his shoulder due to being the youngest of the children and thus the one trusted with the least amount of responsibility.
* WellDoneSonGuy: He's eager to prove himself to Eli, who is mostly aggravated by his efforts and confused by his interests.

* CoolAunt: [[spoiler: She intends to rescue her niece and nephews from an armed militia single-handedly. Luckly, her great-nephew and a monster truck help out too.]]

* HypercompetentSidekick: Again, to Scotty, whose plan begins and ends with a failed blackmail attempt were it not for Gideon.
* LikeFatherUnlikeSon: He's a soft-spoken, nice kid who dreams of a career outside of the Gemstone empire, contrasting his boisterous {{Jerkass}} father who wants to lead the Gemstone family.

* TheDragon: Deliberately set up to seem this way when they're introduced, but then harshly averted. [[spoiler: Peter turns on them almost immediately and they flee. They go back to him, however.]]

* TokenGoodTeammate: Peter is an abusive dictator, most of his militia are fringe trigger-happy fanatics, and Chuck is a misogynistic jackass. Karl, on the other hand, is a sweet-natured man who's only really wrapped up in that group because of his parentage.

* MamaBear: Willing to risk jail [[spoiler: by violating the Gemstones' restraining order]] and face down armed militiamen to protect her sons [[spoiler: from their father.]]

* NiceMeanAndInBetween: When the Montgomery men show up together; Peter is FauxAffablyEvil enough that he comes off as the "in-between" even though he's undeniably more evil than his sons; Chuck, who's hostile from the start and still a belligerent jerk during Cousin's Night, is the "mean"; and Karl is definetly the "nice".

* StrawMisogynist: Probably due to his father's influence, Chuck dismisses Judy's opinion with "the menfolk are talking." He also tells Karl women are incapable of controlling their emotions.

* MoralityPet: By the end of Season 2, both Eli and Jesse have gone from viewing him as a nuisance to treating him as something of a timid little brother. [[spoiler: When Judy cheats on him with Stephen, their first reactions are to express disgust at her for betraying him and Jesse even teaches him how to fight]].

-->The Gemstone's extended family on Aimee-Leigh's side.

-->The Gemstone's extended family on Eli's side, branching off from his younger sister Mary.

* {{Greed}}: Perhaps his greatest flaw in his relentless hunger for ''more'', to the point where he intentionally swallows up the congregation of smaller churches, getting them shut down in the process.
* LargeAndInCharge: With his towering height, Eli tends to command a room as thoroughly he does his empire.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: He is, ''relatively'', the calmest and most level-headed person in the family. In any other context he's a smug, arrogant, belligerent asshole, but the rest of his family is just so much worse that compared to them he's a rock of stability.

* SmugSnake: He certainly comes off as one in his dealings with the small town pastors, especially with Rev. Seasons who explicitly calls him out for trying to steal their congregations.

** "Interlude II" chronicles her responses to Baby Billy abandoning his wife and son as well as Eli's attempt to open and raise funds a new stadium size chapel.

* BigBrotherInstinct: While years of bickering and pettiness has lessened it, Jesse ''is'' protective of his siblings, particularly Judy. Shown by him [[spoiler: breaking into Judy's school to slap around a boy who embarrassed her]] during "Interlude III".

* EveryoneHasStandards: When he (erroneously) [[MistakenForGay believes his son Gideon is gay]] he is completely supportive and is more thankful that Gideon shared the "truth" than anything. He also chides Pontius for using homophobic slurs.

* KnowNothingKnowItAll: He considers himself something of a mastermind who will inevitably uncover the identity of his blackmailers, when in reality he's far too reactive, impulsive and outright foolish to get very far without help.

* TookALevelInKindness: At the end of Season 1, he picks up a shovel and does mission work with Gideon, with no ulterior motive besides genuinely loving his son. It seems to stick for the next two seasons, where he's still an arrogant bully, but consistently shows more respect to his wife and kids and at least tries to get along with his siblings. ''Tries'', doesn't always succeed.

!!Judy Leigh Gemstone

* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: Judy, being the most dysfunctional of the siblings, has her moments of his.

* BondageIsBad: Her and BJ's kinky sex life is played for gross-out laughs and is generally portrayed as bizarre, though more for how publicly they're willing to talk about it.

* NiceMeanAndInBetween: In general, Judy is mean, Kelvin is nice and Jesse is in-between.

The late wife of Eli Gemstone and sister of Baby Billy, Aimee-Leigh was a former child star who leveraged that fame into an adulthood career as a televangelist. She died sometime before the first season and her absence has affected the Gemstones greatly, particularly Eli.

* ADayInTheLimelight: Each season has a flashback episode, giving [[PosthumousCharacter Aimee-Leigh]] more screentime.

* NotSoAboveItAll: While in present day, she is remembered as nigh perfect, flashback episodes show that Aimee-Leigh does share in some of her family's bad habits. She's overindulgent of her manipulative brother, whose faults she sometimes seems willfully blind to, she doesn't seem to have great control over the kids as they bicker and can pick bad times to confront people (like when she called out Baby Billy for lying in the middle of opening Christmas presents.) She is a kinder and more moral person than anyone else in her family, but she is not perfect.

* OnlyFriend: He is by all accounts this to Judy, especially when they're young adults. No one else can handle or stand her.

* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: While she doesn't always treat him well, she genuinely does love BJ and will stick up for him to the rest of her family.
** Judy's season 3 [[spoiler: affair with her guitarist leaves her wracked with guilt, afraid BJ will find out.]]
* BondageIsBad: Her and BJ’s kinky sex life is played for gross-out laughs and is generally portrayed as bizarre and unhealthy.

* ImportantHaircut: Judy's hair was longer during high school, but she had to cut it to her signature shoulder length after [[spoiler: a boy she liked cut a chunk out of it to punish her for being obnoxious.]] Hair becomes a sore spot for her.

* MeaningfulName: Judith is a hero in a religious text that has spurned debate as to its inclusion in Biblical canon. As a result, Protestants largely ignore the Book of Judith. Much like Judy's family ignore her.

** She also protective of Tiffany after Baby Billy temporarily abandons her.

* SmallNameBigEgo: There's a little bit of this to her character. She resents the fact that she's relegated to lower work in the church than her brothers, and feels that it's because she's a woman in a man's world. While she's not entirely wrong to think so, it's also worth remembering that her mother was an important and respected leader in the church, suggesting that it's not just patriarchy at fault here and that Judy isn't quite as capable as she thinks or wants to be.

* BreakTheHaughty: Becomes more arrogant in season 2 after creating the God Squad but gets humiliated through the course of the series. First is an embarrassing incident in which him and the God Squad fall from a human pyramid. Next he has his fingers broken by Eli in front of them. And lastly his leadership is usurped and becomes the group's servant.
* GoshDarnItToHeck: Swears the least of any of the siblings.

* ManChild: Has a room full of arcade games and other toys, and proudly shows off a soda machine with a touch screen interface he was given.

* OddNameOut: He and Aimee-Leigh are the only ones in the immediate family that doesn't have a Bible-adjacent name.
* OnlySaneMan: Kelvin is the most reasonable and level-headed of the siblings. He's consistently the only one who cares about breaking the law, even if he's frequently overruled. Outside of the Gemstones, he still comes off weird.

* TookALevelInJerkass: After starting the God Squad, his Messianic delusions get worse and as a result he becomes more of a dick.

* HiddenDepths: He presentation as a good Christian housewife hides a deadly proficiency with firearms and, in later seasons, what seems to be a genuine love of helping people with struggling marriages.

* MoreDeadlyThanTheMale: A better shot and more ruthless business woman than Jesse.

* PoliticallyIncorrectHero: She appears to be a nice lady but has a very backwards view of Haiti, convinced they are full of cannibals, referring to the story about "that Rockefeller boy who went to New Guinea."
* PowerHair: After finding out about the blackmail tape, she starts doing her normally wavy, shoulder-length hair into a high french twist.
* RaisedByGrandparents: "Interlude III" implies that Amber was raised by a strict grandmother in Kentucky.

* TookALevelInJerkass: In season 2, when she starts actively scheming with Jesse.

* AntagonisticOffspring: Along with Scotty and Lucy, Gideon concocts a plan to blackmail his father out of resentment for how he was treated and disdain for Jesse's hypocrisy. However he gradually loses enthusiasm for the plan and ultimately chooses not to go through with it.

* BadassDriver: His role in season 3 as his Granddad's wheel man.

* MusclesAreMeaningless: He's muscled but quite lean, which doesn’t stop him from kicking ass due to his martial arts experience. He beats the much stockier and stronger Scotty in a fair fight twice, and later jousts one of the cycle ninjas off their bike.
* OutOfFocus: A primary character in season 1, but more of a support character in season 2 and 3.

* ParentalFavoritism: It seems like him and Jesse get along the best of any of the kids.

Judy's husband, a fairly normal optometrist whose more liberal values and middle class origin puts him at odds with the rest of the family.

* SoProudOfYou: He's proud of his son, even if he thinks all his wealth and excess is inappropriate for a pastor.

Aimee-Leigh's self-absorbed younger brother who performed in a children's singing duo with her. He's now a washed up former child star with a handful of ex-wives left in his wake.

* ConsummateLiar: Lying is second-nature for Billy, who lies to ''everyone'' and often does so convincingly.

* FormerChildStar: Baby Billy rose to fame alongside his sister as child performers, but unlike Aimee-Leigh, Baby Billy never transitioned from successful child star to successful adult televangelist. He ruthlessly claws at his legacy with reunion tours, but knows that his target audience are largely seniors who are on their way out. The song he sings with Aimee-Leigh in "Interlude I" makes sense when sung by children but not by a grown man.

* SnakeOilSalesman: In the midst of the pandemic, Baby Billy [[https://youtu.be/dD2WT8SeOSw starts hawking a scripture-based scientific "health elixir"]], which he testifies can cure "colds, flus, streps... even Covids" and claims that he's doing it purely out of the good of his heart, since the lab manufacturing costs eat up any potential profit margin. It's very transparently just branded jugs of coconut water.

Baby Billy's young wife, at least his fourth, a girl from a poor, rural part of West Virginia.

* CoolAunt: She desperately wants to be one to the Gemstone kids, despite being closer in age to Nephew Kelvin than she is her own husband.

* {{Pride}}:
** If her big brother's chief sin is Greed, May-May's is Pride. Despite desperately needing help, living in squalor and in terror of her ex, it took her boys being in danger for her to reach out to Eli, too proud to ask her brother for anything.

* StayInTheKitchen: Mostly averted. She's a housewife in season 1, but she and Jesse appear to be equals when it comes to their attempted business ventures in season 2. She goes into business on her own in season 3, and Jesse's frustrations about it are less about her "knowing her place" and more about [[DumbassTeenageSon Pontius being out of control.]]
* TookALevelInBadass: After she finds out that Jesse let Gideon take the fall for the blackmail tape/heist, she takes a gun, watches him run and fires a shot in his ass.

* UglyGuyHotWife: She is a gorgeous redhead with a trim figure that she loves to show off in clinging but modest sheath dresses while Jesse is an older looking, pudgy man with a graying (at the sideburns) perm.

* ButtMonkey: Virtually everyone but Judy treats him with contempt, though they do soften on him as the seasons go on.
* ExtremeDoormat: Takes most of the abuse leveled at him without much of a fuss. The few times he attempts to stand up for himself, he backs off at the slightest pushback.

* TookALevelInBadass: When Peter Montgomery threatens the family and tries to get the cousins back under his thumb, BJ is among the people at the table who pulls a gun on him. Later in the episode, he fearlessly rebukes the aggressive Stephen.

* MamaBear: Willing to risk jail [[spoiler: by violating the Gemstones' restraining order]] and face down armed militia men to protect her sons [[spoiler: from their father.]]
* MyBelovedSmother: She's (maybe justifiably) overly fussy and concerned about her adult sons safety after [[spoiler: their father is released from prison]] much to Chuck's annoyance.
* NeverMyFault: [[spoiler: In the ColdOpening of season 3, it's clear she blames the Gemstones for what happened to Peter, despite it being at least partially her fault.]] "Interlude III" sheds light to this when it's revealed that [[spoiler:her refusal to accept Eli's financial help for her family is partially responsible for Peter's failed bank robbery attempt in a desperate act of providing for his family]].

* {{Pride}}: If her big brother's chief sin is Greed, May-May's is Pride. Despite desperately needing help, living in squalor and in terror of her ex, it took her boys being in danger for her to reach out to Eli, too proud to ask her successful brother for anything.
** May-May's pride directly led to Peter's StartOfDarkness. [[spoiler: Her refusal to accept anything from her more successful brother, even if it was just a refund for things Peter had made the decision to buy, leads a desperate Peter to decide to try and rob a bank.]]

* TookALevelInKindness: Year 2000 May-May is nothing but contemptuous of Eli and Aimee-Leigh, slaps her teenage sons around and is more concerned with principle than the well-being of her family. The last 20+ years does seem to have softened her, and now she simply wants protect her sons and reconnect with her brother.

May-May's husband and Eli's brother-in-law, a doomsday prepping militia man with an ax to grind.

* TheDragon: Deliberately set up to seem this way when they're introduced, but then harshly averted. [[spoiler: Peter turns on them almost immediately and they flee.]]

* GentleGiant: Karl seems to be a sweet natured guy, horrified by violence despite being a hulking behemoth of a man.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Chuck is an angry asshole who shares a lot of his father's toxic views, especially about women. However, he's also fiercely devoted to his [[BigLittleBrother little brother]] and warms up to his uncle and cousins when they stick their neck out for the two. In general, a lot of his asshole traits can be explained by a lifetime of abuse and instability; but once you've proven you're not against him he can be a sweet guy.

* StrawMisogynist: Probably due to his father's influence, Chuck dismisses Judy's opinion with "the menfolk are talking."