History Characters / Trainspotting

* AbusiveParents: In ''T2'', he shows traces of this towards his son, Frank Jr., showing contempt of his son's desire to go to college and into hotel management, swearing at him and belittling him when he threatens Frank Jr. to hit him and he doesn't.
* TheAlcoholic: Very much so, at least until ''Literature/TheBladeArtist''.
* AdaptationalSexuality: His actor and director both consider him a closet gay but this wasn't Welsh's interested toon when writing the book.
* ArmouredClosetGay: Oh dear God, yes. He wasn't originally written that way, but Creator/DannyBoyle saw traces of it in the book and decided to play that aspect up in his film. Creator/IrvineWelsh later agreed that it was a fair portrayal. However, the novel version of the character can easily be interpreted as straight (and straightforwardly so), including in the follow-up works.

* DiscoDan: In both ''Porno'' and ''[=T2=]'', he is shown to be very behind the times. In the former, he's taken aback by the gentrification of Leith and wonders why everyone suddenly has a mobile phone. In the latter, he wears the same kind of clothes, right down to the loafers with white socks, that he wore in the first film.

* HiddenDepths: Apparently has a great singing voice. And [[http://streetwise.org/2014/01/cover-story-irvine-welsh-he-aint-lager/ who would have guessed he could paint?!]] His artistic side actually goes back to his school days.

* ParentalAbandonment: In the movie, Begbie abandons his son shortly after he's born, and the same likely happened to him. Same goes for his sons Sean and Michael in the novels for the most part, and certainly this applies 100% for the unknown amount of bastard children he's fathered with random floozies over the years.

[[folder:Rab "Second Prize"
[=McLaughlin=]/[=McNaughton=]]]

* DomesticAbuser: An especially cruel one, who beats and kicks his pregnant girlfriend June in the groin. After she gives birth, he abandons both her and the child, never even mentioning them again. He also directly (albeit probably unintentionally) caused her to miscarriage from a violent shag. And that's not all; when she miscarriaged ''another'' time (likely due to alcohol and smoking) he utterly failed to comfort her, instead [[{{Squick}} rubbing the bloodied underwear in her face]] and calling her a murderer.

** He can't stand to see women beaten by abusive boyfriends... perhaps something of a projection of his own DomesticAbuser tendencies. It doesn't take much to get him to justify severly assualting his ex-wife, and he would have done the same to his new lassie Kate if not for a last minute change of heart.

* DomesticAbuser

[[folder:Rab "Second Prize"]]
[=McLaughlin=]/[=McNaughton=]

!!Simon "Sick Boy" David Williamson

[[folder:Tommy Lawrence ([[AdaptationNameChange Mackenzie in the film]])]]

* EvilParentsWantGoodKids: Double-subverted in ''T2''. When he first returns home, he sees his son, Frank Jr., as a chip off the old block, even down to naming him after himself and taking him along to burglary crimes, while his son wants to go to college. In their last scene together, [[PetTheDog Begbie hugs Frank Jr. and tells him he can be a better man than Begbie himself is]], implying he now accepts his son's decision to attend college.

!!Tommy Lawrence ([[AdaptationNameChange Mackenzie in the film]])

[[folder:Family Members]]

!!Davie and Cathy Renton

!!"Wee" Davie Renton

!!Billy Renton

!!Joe Begbie

!!Elspeth Begbie

** AscendedExtra: Was not even properly seen in any writings by Welsh until ''The Blade Artist'', and it's prequel short stories ''Elspeth's Boyfriend'' and ''He Ain't Water''.

!!Carlotta [=McCorkindale=] (nee Williamson)

[[folder:Drug Dealers]]

!!Johnny "Mother Superior" Swan

!! Raymond "Raymie" Airlie

!!Michael "Mikey/Miguel" Jacob Forrester

* CatapultNightmare: In the movie when realising he bought 2 kilogrammes if heroin the night before.

!!Craig "Seeker" Liddel

!! Michael "Skreel"

A Glaswegian junkie/dealer known for his unfathomably high level of skag consumption. Gets arrested for breaking out of rehab for a fix, and many years later helps Sick Boy with a scam.

* TooDumbToLive: If you're going to bust out of rehab and journey to Kirkaldy to get a fix, why bother returning to rehab? Why not head back to Glasgow or elsewhere, on the run, and guarantee further drug activity for yourself? By doing this, he guarantees himself a stint in prison instead.

[[folder:The Lads]]
!!Mark "Rents / Rent Boy" Renton

!!Danny Robert "Spud" Murphy

!!Francis "Franco" James Begbie (later Jim Francis)

!!Rab "Second Prize" [=McLaughlin=]/[=McNaughton=]

!!Matty Connell

!! Gav Temperley

!!Davie Mitchell

!! Keith "Keezbo" Yule

!! Brian "Nicksy" Nixon

!! Stevie Hutchinson

!! Nelly Hunter

!! Dawsy

!! "Juice" Terry Lawson

[[folder:The Bams]]

!!Larry Wylie

!!Alexander "Lexo" Setterington

!!Graeme "Ghostie" Gorman

!!Charles "Cha" Morrison

!! Donnelly

!!Davie "Fat Tyrone" Power

!!Anton Miller

!!Gary "Chizzie" Chisholm

!!Victor "The Poof" Syme

[[folder:Love Interests]]

!!Dianne Coulston

!! Nikki Fuller-Smith

!!Hazel [=McLeod=]

!!Kelly

!!Allison Lozinska

!!Lesley

!!Gail Houston

!!June Begbie (nee Chisolm/Taylor)

!!Melanie Francis

Begbie's new wife, a prison psychologist who sees something in him few others do and causes him to find redemption and a career in art. They move to her home state of California, where they have a beautiful pair of daughters.

* CharacterDevelopment: The first time around, both book- and movie-wise, Dianne is portrayed as a sex-crazed, club-hopping teenager; by the time ''Porno'' comes up she's toned her recreational drug use down and she matured into a pretty well-adjusted university student, working on her thesis and being more than capable to hold her own in a conversation. She still loves to party, though.

* DrowningMySorrows
* HeelFaithTurn

* MySisterIsOffLimits: Elspeth is a real honey, but [[CaptainObvious this trope goes way beyond saying for any of his mates]]. Or indeed, for almost anyone else. Unfortunately, nobody told her new boyfriend that, or that Franco doesn't like to be slapped on the back even while choking on a chickenbone. He slowly comes to grudgingly tolerate Greg, however.

* YoungerThanTheyLook: Mark Renton meets her in a club, then goes to her house where they have sex. Immediately after the act she kicks him out of her room and he sleeps on a sofa. In the morning it's revealed that she's underage. She even threatens to report him for sex with a minor if he doesn't see her again[[note]]Renton is either unaware of, or too drugged-up to realize, the fact that meeting her in a club pretty clearly indicates that she ''should'' be of age, or else not have been allowed in. A public defender (or whatever the Scottish equivalent is) 10 minutes out of law school would get him out of any trouble she tried to get him in. However, this is mitigated by the fact that Renton is hungover, panicking and just wanting to get away from the situation; in the book he can't stop thinking about how Begbie ''hates'' peadophiles and the fact that if Renton ends up in prison, he won't be safe even there from Begbie's wrath, so his reasoning is clearly overwhelmed by paranoia. Sleeping with her again ''after'' he knows her true age, on the other hand . . .[[/note]].

* YoungerThanTheyLook: Mark Renton meets her in a club, then goes to her house where they have sex. Immediately after the act she kicks him out of her room and he sleeps on a sofa. In the morning it's revealed that she's underage. She even threatens to report him for sex with a minor if he doesn't see her again[[note]]Renton is either unaware of, or too drugged-up to realize, the fact that meeting her in a club pretty clearly indicates that she ''should'' be of age, or else not have been allowed in. A public defender (or whatever the Scottish equivalent is) 10 minutes out of law school would get him out of any trouble she tried to get him in. Sleeping with her again ''after'' he knows her true age, on the other hand . . .[[/note]].

* CatapultNightmare: At one point in the movie.

* MadeOfIron: Aside from surviving heroin use, in ''T2'', he [[spoiler: survives what is essentially a hard attack, getting beaten up by Simon (including a head-first collision into a wall), getting his entire arm slashed by Begbie, and ''being hanged'' until the edge of death.]]

* TheUnfavorite: To his parents. Especially due to throwing his chance as a university student away to become a dole mole heroin addict. Especially ironic since he winds up as the only surviving sibling. His dad warms to him more in the later books, though.

* AbusiveParents: In the film's sequel, he shows traces of this towards his son, Frank Jr., showing contempt of his son's desire to go to college and into hotel management, swearing at him and belittling him when he threatens Frank Jr. to hit him and he doesn't.

* AxCrazy: Oh most definitely.

* TheFriendNobodyLikes: Tommy's thoughts on Begbie sum it up perfectly.

* HairTriggerTemper: A normal conversation with Frank Begbie is like walking through a minefield.

** Says he'll never poison his body with drugs because of all the chemicals while drinking and smoking away

* InSeriesNickname‎: The Beggar Boy, [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Generalissimo Franco]]

* {{Sadist}} / TortureTechnician: As part of his CharacterDevelopment in ''The Blade Artist'', Begbie has adopted a more controlled, cold-blooded way of unleashing his violent impulses, [[spoiler: such as torturing Davie "Tyrone" Power in the end before leaving him to die in a blaze]]. He also maims sculptures of famous celebrities as a form of shock art and venting out via percussive therapy.

* BrokenAce: Second Prize is popular, handsome, and a star football player with skills that could rival professionals - but he's also a massive alcoholic with a need to prove himself in fights. He ultimately wastes his talents.

* JerkAss

* DemotedToExtra: Makes a small appearance in the first film, and he's only mentioned by name in the sequel.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Not much of a JerkAss, but he does have his moments. Nevertheless, he's one of the nicer lads in the group.

* CompositeCharacter: In the book it was him, not Spud, who had the humiliating "Traditional Scottish Breakfast" episode.

* YoungerThanTheyLook: Particularly as she's dolled up on the night out.

* AdaptationalDyeJob: He's TallDarkAndSnarky in the books, blond in the film.

* WordOfGay: Creator/RobertCarlyle believes that he's secretly gay and in love with Renton because he can't understand why else a man who hates drugs would hang around with an addict and follow him to London then also because he doesn't beat or kill the woman he gets off with who turns out to be a man. This reading appears to be moot in the novels, especially in the later ones, as much as Sick Boy would love to believe otherwise.

* ImproperlyParanoid: Makes a cameo in ''Literature/{{Filth}}'' where the protagonist says that Begbie's so paranoid that if you asked him where he was when Creator/JohnLennon was shot, he would say he was playing pool in The Volley and had loads of witnesses.

* AssholeVictim: He gets Spud, Sick Boy, and Euan mixed up in the illegal organ trade. So, nobody is really bothered when [[spoiler: Begbie]] brutally murders him.

* AlphaBitch

* CompositeCharacter: Gets some elements of Spud in the play.

* SirSwearsALot