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1The characters of the book and movie ''Trainspotting'' and its related works, and their associated tropes.
2
3[[foldercontrol]]
4
5!!The Lads
6[[folder:Mark "Rents / Rent Boy" Renton]]
7->Played by Creator/EwanMcGregor
8[[quoteright:114:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/renton.png]]
9%%[[caption-width-right:114:some caption text]]
10
11-> ''"Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television, washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol, and dental insurance. Choose your friends. Choose DIY and wondering who the fuck you are on Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing, spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pissing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked up brats you've spawned to replace yourself. Choose your future. Choose life..."''
12
13The VillainProtagonist of the story. Mark is the voice of (relative) sanity among his friends, many of whom he actually hates. At the beginning, he's in the middle of his addiction to heroin. He is capable of fitting in well enough to common society, is relatively good-looking and of above-average intelligence, but is often socially awkward, and uses heroin as a means to withdraw into his own world. A self-loathing DeadpanSnarker extraordinaire who narrates everything from supporting his drug addiction to interacting with "the normal world" in a cynical way.
14
15* AdaptationalDyeJob: He has ginger hair in the book, though dyes it black at one point. In the film, he has short, cropped hair. In the sequel, he has brown hair.
16* AdaptationalHeroism: The play ends on an optimistic note, with him moving to London and swearing off drugs forever, omitting [[spoiler:him robbing his friends of the proceeds of a drug deal.]]
17* AdaptationalSexuality: His flings with men are absent from the film, but the relaxed attitude towards same sex relations remains in place, making him AmbiguouslyBi in the film.
18* AMFMCharacterization: He's a huge fan of Music/DavidBowie, as well as Music/IggyPop and Music/LouReed. In the book, he's annoyed to hear someone playing the ''Rock and Roll Animals'' version of "Heroin" as opposed to Music/TheVelvetUnderground's version, which breaks the junkie's golden rule.
19* AmbiguouslyBi: He contemplates this for a time, even giving another man a blowjob at one point (and receiving one in return, which he didn't really find a turn on) and wanking off his disabled younger brother (though more to ease his frustration than out of any sexual gratification on his own part), though decides against it.
20* BadPeopleAbuseAnimals: Was known for doing this as a child.
21* [[BrotherSisterIncest Brother Brother Incest]]: Billy once caught him masturbating their disabled brother Davie because he couldn't do it himself.
22* ByronicHero: Rents is a broody, self-loathing, and introspective man, he's also the anti-heroic protagonist of the story.
23* CharacterDevelopment: The novel is about, in part, Mark's development from heroin addict into the mature adult that appears in ''Porno''.
24* CompositeCharacter: Gets some elements of Spud in the play. Especially hilarious given that Ewen Bremner played Renton in the stage version.
25* DeadpanSnarker: Mark always has a snide remark at the ready, particularly in his narration.
26* EmbarrassingDampSheets: Due to Spud being AdaptedOut of the play, the infamous scene where he empties a shitty bed sheet over his girlfriend's parents is Mark instead.
27* EmbarrassingNickname: He's not thrilled with the nickname "Rent Boy".
28* EruditeStoner: In the book, he's constantly ruminating on his views on the world, quickly getting a grasp at psychoanalytical ideas when he is being examined and having an understanding on the overall ideas of Kierkegaard.
29* EvilVegetarian: Has no qualms killing animals, just hates the taste of meat.
30* FourPhilosophyEnsemble: The Cynic.
31* FourTemperamentEnsemble: Phlegmatic/Melancholic.
32* FriendToPsychos: This comes with the territory for any of Begbie's pals, but unluckily for Renton every ''other'' nutter seems to dig him, too. For what it's worth, he acknowledges that he indulges their peculiarities as they make life more interesting for him. [[DeconstructedTrope He later comes to regret justifying Franco's attacks on random folk and holds himself and the others in contempt for it.]]
33* GoingColdTurkey: Renton tries to break free of his heroin addiction this way, but doesn't go all the way. After his overdose, his parents lock him in his room and force Cold Turkey on him.
34* HeterosexualLifePartners: With Sick Boy prior to ''Porno''. [[spoiler: They reaffirm their friendship by the end of ''Film/T2Trainspotting'', in contrast to the ending of ''Porno'', where Renton burns his bridges with Sick Boy seemingly for good after finding out he intended to sic Begbie on him all along]].
35* {{Hipster}}: Mark was one even before the (modern version of the) term was coined. This is reflected in his cynical view of modern society, his refusal to seek or keep any kind of employment and his refusal to play along with the social norms in his "Choose Life" speech.
36* ImprobableAimingSkills
37--> '''Sick Boy''': For a vegetarian, Mark, you're a fucking EVIL shot.
38* InformedAttribute: He's, presumably, ''supposedly'' good at [[UsefulNotes/AssociationFootball football]]. We never really get to see his skills, but he does wear the sacred #10 jersey.
39* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: As immoral and cynical as he may be, Mark does have moments that show a sense of humanity. He feels genuinely bad about getting Tommy addicted to Heroin and guilty that it killed him and tries his best to be a good friend to Spud, to whom he leaves his share of the drug deal money.
40* KarmaHoudini: By the end of the story, he escaped any particular punishment, besides his life threatening withdrawal and his guilt.
41* KissingCousins: He attempts to hit on his teenage cousin Nina at one point in the book.
42* LaserGuidedKarma: You can consider [[spoiler: Veronica stealing his and Sick Boy's money and running off to Bulgaria]] in the second movie to be this given how Renton ran away with the heroin money in the first movie.
43* MadeOfIron: Aside from surviving heroin use, in ''T2'', he [[spoiler: survives what is essentially a heart 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.]]
44* MiddleChildSyndrome: Caught between an elder brother in the army, and a younger, extensively disabled brother in a wheelchair. The former gets respect and earnings while the latter has constant doting attention from the family and close friends. Mark receives abuse from both: directly from Billy and his mates; indirectly due to people heartlessly insulting wee Davie in proxy to him.
45* MyBiologicalClockIsTicking: In the second movie Renton admits to Sick Boy that the fact that he and his wife were childless really bothered him.
46* NoMoreHoldingBackSpeech: He gets one at the end of the film. It's the closing monologue to the film that closely mirrors his opening monologue.
47* OnlySaneMan: Of his friends, though when your friends include a complete psychopath and an immoral pimp with delusions of grandeur, it doesn't mean much. Spud may rival him for understanding of himself and others, but the key difference is that Renton can actually function.
48* ParentalIssues: His heroin addiction has caused his relationship with his parents to become strained.
49* PoliticallyCorrectVillain: Renton is a very troubled and flawed person but he is not a homophobe as he is shown to be quite accepting towards LGBT people in the movie.
50* RecoveredAddict: In the movie, he gets NailedToTheWagon and eventually manages to stick with it.
51* SpeakIllOfTheDead: He isn't sad about either of his brothers being dead, with Billy being a BigBrotherBully and the handicapped Davie being an embarrassment who took all their mother's attention.
52* TallPoppySyndrome: {{Inverted}}. Begbie tells Renton that he should keep going to University so he can make something of himself. Allison cites Renton's self inflicted TallPoppySyndrome as one of the reasons she dislikes him.
53* TextualCelebrityResemblance: In the book, he's stated to be a dead ringer for Alex [=McLeish=].
54* TookALevelInBadass: In ''Porno'', he's been learning martial arts just in case he runs into Begbie again. This becomes a ChekhovsSkill, which he uses, ironically, to save Begbie from a RabidCop who has it in for him. Begbie is actually impressed by this.
55* TookALevelInKindness: In ''Porno'' as well as in T2 Trainspotting. In the movie, he genuinely tries to help Spud overcome his addiction and makes amends with Sick Boy as best he can.
56* TroubledButCute: {{Deconstructed}} by his on/off girlfriend Hazel:
57-->'''Hazel:''' ''"You just want tae fuck up on drugs so that everyone'll think how deep and fucking complex you are. It's pathetic, and fucking boring.''"
58* 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.
59* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: By stealing Tommy's sextape Renton accidentaly caused the destruction of Tommy and Lizzie's relationship causing Tommy to turn to heroin which results in his death from AIDS. Downplayed, as it is implied that even before the sex tape incident Tommy and Lizzie's relationship was already on the rocks and would probably still fail even without Renton's involvement.
60* VillainProtagonist: He has no ethics at all, and the only thing that matters to him is getting his fix. Sadly, this is how many real-life drug addicts think. He is also, after all, an amoral heroin addict who steals, sells drugs, and gets his friend addicted to heroin.
61** That does apply in the film, but it's less clear-cut in the book, where he disgustedly pulls Sick Boy up after he offers to pimp his girlfriend out to a grotesque and unsociable man. He is also protective of his mother, as much as she embarrasses him. Earlier, in ''Literature/{{Skagboys}}'', he was the member of a group of housebreakers who nevertheless unhesitantly led an attempt to save a maid's life, and was successful [[spoiler: because he knew how to remove drugs and fluids from a vulnerable person because of caring for his disabled brother, Wee Davie]]. In all three sequel media (''T2'', ''Porno'' and ''Dead Men's Trousers'') he's gone more "straight" (that is, sober and more in line with normal societal expectations of holding down a stable job, a girlfriend, a house etc) and his personality and actions reflect that, even though he still has elements of the former VillainProtagonist he was in the earlier film/novels.
62* VitriolicBestBuds: With Sick Boy.
63[[/folder]]
64
65[[folder:Simon "Sick Boy" David Williamson]]
66->Played by Creator/JonnyLeeMiller
67[[quoteright:235:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sick_boy.png]]
68%%[[caption-width-right:235:some caption text]]
69
70-> ''"Personality, that's what matters. What keeps a relationship going. I mean, heroin has a great fucking personality."''
71
72The {{Deuteragonist}} of the story, an Italian-Scots charmer who's obsessed with being the sexual alpha of the group and making money via cons without recourse to violence. Amoral, stylish and Mark Renton's oldest friend, Sick Boy is a borderline-sociopath and born exploiter who only feels disdain for his friends and for society. He has an obsession with Creator/SeanConnery, and enjoys showing off with his ability to casually use heroin and stopping without developing an addiction. Sick Boy considers himself superior to everyone else he interacts with. In the story, he represents cold and calculating pragmatism without any moral restraints.
73
74* AdaptationalDyeJob: He's TallDarkAndSnarky in the books with long black hair that others say reminds them of Creator/StevenSeagal, blond in the film. Although, in the drug trip sections in ''Dead Men's Trousers'' (pictured above), he's blond.
75* AdaptationalHeroism: [[spoiler: Ends up saving Mark's life in ''Film/T2Trainspotting'', and is overall much less of a sociopathic womanizer in the films, being more of a small-time sleaze and con-artist but generally not dangerous rather than the borderline sex criminal he is in the books, and his friendship with Mark is far more genuine with the second film putting far more emphasis on their mutual affection]].
76* AffectionatePickpocket: He'll remove purses from any random schemie girl he pulls, and as for guys, his friends and employers have to watch out or he'll snake a sly hand round for their wallets even as he's pretending to comfort/greet them, too.
77* AMFMCharacterization: He clearly prefers Music/LouReed's Music/TheVelvetUnderground work, finding his solo stuff average.
78* AmbiguouslyBi: He notes in ''Dead Men's Trousers'' that he wishes he could be gay, but he hates men. He's not averse to letting a woman use a strap on on him, though, as shown in both ''Skagboys'' and ''Dead Men's Trousers''.
79%%* AmbitionIsEvil
80* AscendedExtra: In ''Literature/{{Porno}}'', ''Literature/{{Skagboys}}'' and ''Dead Men's Trousers'' he gets more narration, especially in ''Porno''.
81* BadPeopleAbuseAnimals: Likes to shoot dogs from a distance to see if he can get them to attack their owners then runs over with a baseball bat, pretending to be a hero and saves the owner from the dog.
82* BatterUp: In the novel, he makes use of one to kill a dog who had attacked its owner (who had done so because Sick Boy [[GroinAttack shot him in the balls with an air rifle]]). He lampshades its use, noting that nobody on the east side of the Atlantic ocean keeps a baseball bat for playing baseball.
83* BullyingADragon: At the end of ''Porno'', he taunts a comatose Begbie while drawing penises on his face. The book ends with [[BolivianArmyEnding Begbie opening his eyes and grabbing Simon's hand.]]
84* ByronicHero: On Website/TheOtherWiki, he's described as a "combination of a Byronic hero and villain."
85* TheCameo: He has a small role in ''A Decent Ride'', which is set quite some time after ''Porno''. It reveals Sick Boy is still directing pornography.
86* TheCasanova: He ReallyGetsAround with women, often stringing several along at a time.
87* CharacterDevelopment: Over the course of ''Skagboys'' he develops from a LoveableRogue with a [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold heart of gold]] to the [[TheSociopath borderline-sociopathic]] pimp and pusher that appears in ''Trainspotting'' and ''Porno''.
88* CharacterFocus: Whilst he does narrate two chapters in ''Trainspotting'', he doesn't get much characterization. Whereas in ''Porno'' he is essentially the protagonist, and shares the role with Renton in ''Skagboys''.
89* TheChessmaster: He's always running scams, though he can end up being OutGambitted from time to time.
90* ChickMagnet: He's the biggest player in the group, and often seduces female tourists. Renton thinks, at one point, that he wants to keep Sick Boy as far away from Dianne as possible, not even mentioning him in conversation.
91* ComplexityAddiction: This proves to be his major flaw in ''Porno'', as he draws out his manipulations and scams instead of just running off with the money - which is what Renton does.
92* CoolShades: Wears them in the movie.
93* CopiouslyCreditedCreator: In universe in ''Porno'', he plasters his name over every part of the opening credits, including taking credit for Nikki and Rab's scriptwork. Comes back to bite him in the ass when the police raid him.
94* TheDandy: Downplayed but he's noticeably more concerned with his appearance than his friends, preferring bright colors and dying his hair.
95* DeadpanSnarker: Always has a snide remark at the ready, although he's not nearly as witty as he thinks he is.
96* DelusionsOfEloquence / SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: Often. ''Skagboys'' shows that he used to carry a dictionary around with him and look up a new word for each day. You can tell he does this to make himself seem more intelligent.
97* DemotedToExtra: Doesn't appear again in the play after the cot death. The same actor plays Tommy who gets more stage time.
98* DespairEventHorizon: When his baby daughter Dawn dies from neglect. After that, all good in him is broken forever.
99* {{Deuteragonist}}: In ''Skagboys''.
100* DisappearedDad: He tells Renton he has a son living in London with his "whore mother" whom he sees only once "every ten years."
101* DoesNotLikeMen: A rare male example. He considers other heterosexual males to be rivals and only tolerates them. He is delighted when his son comes out as gay, as it means he's not a rival for the affections of women in the way he was with his own father.
102* EmbarrassingNickname: He certainly thinks so in ''Porno''.
103* EmptyShell: After Dawn's death.
104* EruditeStoner:
105--> '''Renton''': He's always been lacking in moral fibre.
106--> '''Swanny''': He knows a lot about Creator/SeanConnery.
107--> '''Renton''': That's hardly a substitute.
108* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: Hates his womanising father for treating his mother the way Simon treats women.
109* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: He engages in various criminal enterprises and in ''T2'' plans to do in a returned Mark, but does care for Veronika and comes to repair his relationship with Mark and reveals he was and still is genuinely hurt by his betrayal in London not because of the money but because of their friendship. In the novel canon, it's also likely he loves his family (minus his father), even if he sometimes draws them into his awful scheming. He also did care very much about his daughter Dawn and her death and his guilt over it destroyed what little humanity he had left and pushed him towards his worse behavior.
110* {{Fanboy}}: Of JamesBond films and particularly the Sean Connery era.
111* FourPhilosophyEnsemble: The Realist.
112* FourTemperamentEnsemble: Melancholic/Choleric.
113* FriendlyEnemy: In contrast to his [[VitriolicBestBuds friendship with Renton]], Sick Boy has this mode of interaction with Begbie. He views Franco as a crass, vicious thug and tenapenny muscle for more dangerous scams. On Begbie's part, he's morally disgusted with Sick Boy's pimping and heroin related activities, but admires his scheming ways otherwise as it brings in money. Renton hates them both when they decide to socially gang up on him, stealing both female attention and parental affection, and when they pretend to be great mates in front of new people when really "all they generally did was get on each other's tits".
114* HandsomeLech: He's described as a handsome man, and he often [[ReallyGetsAround bangs anything that moves.]]
115* HatesTheirParent: Hates his father for the way he treats his mother.
116* HeterosexualLifePartners: With Renton prior to ''Porno''. [[spoiler: They reaffirm their friendship by the end of ''Film/T2Trainspotting'', in contrast to the ending of ''Porno'', where Renton burns his bridges with Sick Boy for good after finding out he intended to sic Begbie on him all along]].
117* {{Hipster}}: Even more than Mark as seen in his high view of himself and his cultural snobbery.
118* HumiliationConga: In ''Porno'', and '''how'''. Having spent the entire novel, no, his life [[TheChessMaster scamming, fucking over, using and otherwise pissing off a great many people]], [[LaserGuidedKarma it all comes crashing down on him]]. Trying to phone Renton from the Cannes porn festival, he realises with shock that Rents has cleared out the joint production bank account (in which were the embezzled earnings of dozens of Rangers supporters, to the tune of over £60,000) and stolen the prints of the film. He tries and fails to catch Renton via Begbie, and in doing so causes the latter grievous injuries in a car crash. Embarrassing himself in front of his friends and Nikki, he just barely misses Renton at the airport. To pour salt on his wounds, he learns that the authorities have found out he illegally produced the porno in the UK and is named and shamed in the paper. He's now forced to do a runner with Nikki, only to find... that she's left him to run away with Renton and Dianne. He headbutts himself in the mirror in self loathing yet decides to get one tiny victory over the comatose Begbie by taunting him at the hospital. But to cap it all off, [[spoiler: Franco wakes up and grabs his arm with ferocious intent]]...
119** Well and truly justified, because apart from everything else, he had always been intending to sic Begbie on Renton like he did on Spud.
120** HoistByHisOwnPetard: He actually made his arrest for making the porno ''worse'', on account of having replaced his name over everyone else on the crew. As a result, the police are only looking for him.
121** It gets to the point where he has literally nine different suspects (and counting) as to who got the cops on him, because he didn't realise how badly he antagonised certain people.
122* InformedFlaw: He's supposedly an extremely disgusting human being, but compared to Francis Begbie and Alan Venters, he comes off as just a LovableRogue. [[spoiler:He does become a lot worse in the sequel. He's not above blackmailing city officials and pimping out girls for his own ends.]]
123** Subverted when you look at the quadrilogy overall. Sick Boy ''wants'' you to think of him as a loveable rogue, all the better for him to manipulate you. He's fooled his friends, anyone he can get business off of, his mother and sisters, Renton's parents (and they are also taken in by Franco and Billy's public personas so [[HorribleJudgeOfCharacter clearly aren't the best judges of character]]) and of course the innumerable women he's been with. He only had two narrated chapters in the original, but got many more in ''Literature/{{Skagboys}}'' and ''Literature/{{Porno}}'' which go a very long way to show you what a scumbag he really is. Combined with other characters narrating about finding out sooner or later about his true nature, the reader is in no doubts he that is an extremely ropey, unlikeable individual. [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation It was to his benefit that Renton and Spud could have been interpreted as giving him a bad press]] in the original.
124* ItsAllAboutMe: By the end, he is pimping young girls. Renton notes that he's become "untainted by compassion or conscience."
125** ''Skagboys'' reveals that he was doing this when he first started using smack, with a sixteen year old girl and keeping her wrapped round his little finger [[HookersAndBlow with dope, no less.]]
126* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Initially sort of started off as this in ''Skagboys''. The 'heart of gold' part slowly erodes away over the course of the book though, especially with what he does to Maria. He actually admits at the end that he's done terrible things and that Mark's better than him. [[DespairEventHorizon However, all the good in him seems to disappear after Dawn's death]]. He may have always been a JerkWithAHeartOfJerk, but there are a few instances that say otherwise.
127** JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: Most of the time he's just exploiting people for his own benefit.
128* KarmaHoudini: At various times over his life. If he's to be believed during his police interview at the end of ''Dead Men's Trousers'', then notably, despite enduring the ''massive'' HumiliationConga detailed above, he's only faced charges twice in his life, and somehow managed to displace suspiscion about the whole production of ''Seven Rides'' from not only the cops, but the tax authorities too.
129* LackOfEmpathy: By the time of ''Trainspotting''. He did seem to have a degree of empathy in ''Skagboys'', though his opportunistic side usually got the better of him. Examples are him genuinely being shocked at Coke's death, comforting Renton before his brother's funeral, actually intending to kill Maria's father's murderer, and internally begging Nicksy not to jump to his death, as Nicksy "has been sound" by putting him and Mark up in his flat.
130* LaserGuidedKarma: Apart from his personal disaster in the third novel, in ''Skagboys'' he's milking a rich London girl Lucinda for all she's worth. Hoping to marry and bairn his way into the family fortune, he almost gets away with it, until Nicksy causes [[spoiler: a scene with his attempted suicide]]. As a result, the Jamaican-Cockney bint he's been shafting gleefully tells Cinders about his infidelity, and the scam goes kaput big time.
131** Doubly justified because [[HookersAndBlow he got Lucinda started on smack]], and who knows how badly it would have progressed if not for his case of bad luck.
132* LikeFatherLikeSon: His dad messed his mother about with various girls, just as he's been wont to do ever since puberty. But unlike the old man, he's had a measure of success with scams in other fields and has travelled Europe, showing his wider aspirations.
133* LovableRogue: How he'd like to be seen by those around him. The reality is far less impressive as pretty much everyone sees him for the small time waster with an outsized ego that he actually is.
134* ManipulativeBastard: Very much so, albeit not nearly as good at it as he imagines himself to be.
135* ManlyTears: In the film, he sheds them when Baby Dawn is found dead from starvation and neglect (because he was the father). No one else does, though they are all in utter shock.
136* MeaningfulName: As Renton notes in the first chapter of ''Trainspotting'', Sick Boy is named as such not because he's always sick from heroin withdrawal, but rather because he's a "sick cunt".
137* TheMovieBuff: He knows a lot about James Bond movies and in the second movie his apartment is littered with DVD boxes.
138* MrFanservice: He spends a decent portion of T2 in a vest that shows off his physique and that he's gotten quite buff in the intervening years.
139* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Very briefly has a moment like this towards the end of ''Skagboys'', though he lies to Renton about what it is he's done exactly.
140* {{Narcissist}}: His defining characteristic.
141%%* NeverMyFault
142* NietzscheWannabe: How he sees himself as illustrated by his "unifying fact of life" that everyone is doomed to lose whatever makes them great at some point.
143* PetTheDog: Has a few moments, mostly in the prequel. An example would be when he gives Spud money, despite Spud having not asked for any. As his heroin addiction grows these moments get more rare, and [[JerkWithAHeartOfJerk begin to be more manipulative in nature]]. He also has far more KickTheDog moments.
144** He gets a few more in ''Dead Men's Trousers'', notably being delighted when his son comes out as gay. Though this is less acceptance of his sexuality and more relief that his son won't be a competitor to him when it comes to women.
145* PoliticallyCorrectVillain: He's surprisingly accepting of gay people, mainly because he sees gay men as not being competition for the affections of women, and is completely accepting of his son coming out.
146* ThePornomancer: He has so many women on the go in ''Porno'' that he has three mobile phones that he uses for different levels of "relationship".
147* ReallyGetsAround: He always has women on the go, though often for his own ends.
148* RealMenWearPink: One of his few legitimate jobs was as a hairdresser. His employer didn't even mind that he was sleeping with customers, so long as they kept coming, but he eventually gets the sack for stealing from the till.
149* SeriousBusiness: Creator/SeanConnery.
150-->'''Renton:''' "He's always been lacking in moral fiber."
151-->'''Mother Superior:''' "Well he knows a lot about Sean Connery."
152-->'''Renton:''' "That's hardly a substitute."
153* SmallNameBigEgo: Sick Boy thinks of himself as an effortlessly charming ladies man, an intellectual and a criminal genius who can run circles around everyone. The reality is that he's little more than a small-time conman and pick-up artist who even his friends regard as a sleaze not to be trusted and his schemes tend to backfire badly on him much of the time.
154* SmugSnake: He's nowhere near as clever or charming as he clearly thinks he is.
155* TheSociopath: Borderline. Whilst he displays many of the qualities associated with sociopaths, it's left up to interpretation as to whether he truly is one.
156* SociopathicHero: He's a borderline NominalHero who doesn't give a damn who he hurts along the way, so long as he gets what he wants. But he is capable of genuine humanity at points and he goes up against people who are way worse than he is.
157* StartOfDarkness: This is his main arc in ''Skagboys''.
158--> ''Sick Boy perceives himself as prisoner of his own lying lips. Standing every day at the shaving mirror, watching those eyes grow colder and more pitiless in face of drug's dictates and the world's brutal coarseness.''
159* STDImmunity: Seemingly, given his disdain for wearing condoms during sex coupled with the [[ReallyGetsAround amount of girls he sleeps with]].
160* StickyFingers: To the point where even his own friends have to keep an eye on their wallets around him.
161* SympathyForTheDevil: After his daughter dies.
162* TattooedCrook: In the second film, he's as untrustworthy as ever and has picked up Jonny Lee Miller's real extensive tattoo collection.
163* TextualCelebrityResemblance: Nikki in ''Porno'' says that he looks a bit like Creator/StevenSeagal.
164* TooCleverByHalf: He's clever and has a way with words and thinking on his feet that lets him pull off small-time scams but he's not nearly the effortless charmer and criminal genius he thinks of himself as and has a bad habit of getting in over his head as a result.
165* TookALevelInJerkass: Throughout the course of ''Skagboys'', and in ''Porno'', where his already huge ego has expanded.
166* {{Troll}}: Anonymously sends "poof's porn" to an incarcerated Begbie regularly, for no reason other than to fuck with his head.
167* TheUnfettered: "He doesnae care. Because he doesnae care, he cannae be hurt. Ever."
168* UngratefulBastard: In both the literary and movie canon. In ''T2'', even though Renton gave him his £4000 share of the original £16000, he's still angry because it didn't come with interest, and giving him the money after twenty years won't get rid of the fact that Renton stole it in the first place.
169* VillainousBreakdown: See HumiliationConga above.
170--> ''I'm in shock. It's like everything good's gone, and the rest's been turned upside down.''
171* VillainProtagonist: In ''Porno''.
172* VitriolicBestBuds: With Renton.
173* WhatDoesSheSeeInHim: He's disgusted at his mother for taking his father back in ''Skagboys''.
174[[/folder]]
175
176[[folder:Danny Robert "Spud" Murphy]]
177->Played by Creator/EwenBremner
178[[quoteright:130:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/spud.png]]
179%%[[caption-width-right:130:some caption text]]
180
181-> ''"Ah suppose man, ah'm too much ay a perfectionist, ken? It's likesay, if things go a bit dodgy, ah jist cannae be bothered, y'know?"''
182
183One of the stalwart members of the crew, he's by far the most gentle and pleasant to be around, albeit a major [[StickyFingers tea leaf]]. After being made redundant from his furniture removals job, he applies his skills in a more ropey fashion in houses across Edinburgh city limits. Unfortunately, he also falls into heroin with the rest of the gang for the greater part of his life. Yet when he and Allison fall in love, things start to look up...somewhat.
184
185* AdaptedOut: Isn't in the stage play. Ironically, Creator/EwenBremner played Renton in that production.
186* AMFMCharacterization: He loves Music/FrankZappa.
187* BewareTheNiceOnes: He'll only recourse to violence as a last resort, if you attack one of his mates, or else if you ''really'' infuriate him.
188** You also have to push his buttons pretty damn hard to get him to curse.
189* BunnyEarsLawyer: Played with. He comes across as a bit weird due to him still being a junkie, but he's skilled in construction, forging signatures and writing, and that last one even impressed Begbie.
190* ButtMonkey: Poor, poor Spud. He always screws up.
191* CoolShades: Attempts to invoke this during the drug deal in the movie. Key word being "attempts".
192* DisappearedDad: In ''T2'', he becomes one to his son with Gail, Fergus, after losing custody of him.
193* TheDitz: Poor Spud isn't the brightest tool in the shed, and is constantly mucking things up.
194* DrivenToSuicide: In ''Porno'', he tries to trick Begbie into killing him.
195** In ''T2'', he tries to hang himself, convinced that he's a burden.
196* EmbarrassingDampSheets: Wakes up in his girlfriend's bed and realized he's drunkenly pissed, shat and vomited all over the sheets. Everyone's all right about it until he accidentally empties the contents of the sheet over her parents.
197* FourPhilosophyEnsemble: The Optimist. Except when he gets brought down by despair and considers suicide.
198* FourTemperamentEnsemble: Sanguine/Phlegmatic.
199* HiddenDepths: Spud is surprisingly well-read and insightful about both himself and his friends for an unintelligible heroin addict. In both ''Literature/{{Porno}}'' and ''Film/T2Trainspotting'', he writes a book.
200* InterruptedSuicide: Mark conveniently walks in while he's hanging himself in ''T2''.
201* IShouldWriteABookAboutThis: Writes a book about the history of Leith in ''Porno'' but it's rejected by the publisher. In ''T2'' he's strongly implied to be [[RecursiveCanon writing the original Trainspotting novel]].
202* KarmicJackpot: When Renton steals the money from the heroin deal at the end of the movie he takes Begbie and Sick Boy's cuts for himself but makes sure that Spud gets his cut as Renton felt bad for him because he was the only one in the group who has never hurt anybody.
203** This happens ''again'' in ''T2'' when [[spoiler: Veronica transfers half of the 100000 pounds she stole from Renton and Sick Boy to Spud's family]].
204* KilledOffForReal: [[spoiler:Complications from the MeatgrinderSurgery to remove his kidney and a bag of skag in ''Dead Men's Trousers'' results in him suffering a fatal heart attack.]]
205* KindHeartedCatLover: As many bad things as you can say about Spud, one thing you can't is that he doesn't love cats.
206* MeatgrinderSurgery: Ends up on the receiving end of this twice in ''Dead Men's Trousers''. The first time, Victor Syme has a bag of heroin placed inside him to smuggle into Berlin. The second time is in Berlin itself where Sick Boy removes the skag along with his kidney with the aid of ''a [=YouTube=] video'', a [[OpenHeartDentistry podiatrist]], and a [[BackAlleyDoctor dodgy former veterinary anaesthetist]]. [[spoiler: Complications from this result in him suffering a fatal heart attack.]]
207* MoralityPet / MoralityChain: Acts as one to Renton. See ThrowTheDogABone, below.
208* MotorMouth: Whilst on speed.
209* OlderThanHeLooks: He's aged extremely badly and looks ancient by the time of ''The Blade Artist'' to the point Begbie doesn't recognize him until he talks.
210* StickyFingers: Well known as a burglar, something he took to after he lost legitimate employment.
211* SuicideByCop: Tries to manipulate Begbie into killing him in ''Porno''. Frank persuades him that he has plenty to live for then says he's going to kill him because he doesn't like being manipulated. Luckily they get interrupted.
212* TeenyWeenie: When Gail looks at Spud's penis while he's passed out she remarks that "it's not much".
213* ThrowTheDogABone: [[spoiler: At the end, when he rips off the others after the drug deal Spud is the only one Renton does right by, giving him his full share of the proceeds.]]
214* TheUnintelligible: It's hard to understand him if you're not an Edinburgh native. Even in the book, his chapters are narrated in a thick Scottish mush.
215* VerbalTic: Tends to describe people as cats and runs the full gamut of feline metaphors, from "wee sexy kittens" for attractive girls to "jungle cat" for Begbie and his nutter mates. Miaaaawwwow.
216** Also, "likesay" or in other words, "know what I mean?". Other character occasionally use it but no way near as much as him.
217[[/folder]]
218
219[[folder:Francis "Franco" James Begbie (later Jim Francis)]]
220->Played by Creator/RobertCarlyle
221[[quoteright:100:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/begbie.png]]
222%%[[caption-width-right:100:some caption text]]
223
224-> ''"Are ye sorry for being a fat fuckin cunt?"''
225
226The only one of the main characters who doesn't do heroin (though in the original book and its sequel he does speed and cocaine). He [[SexIsViolence does people]], and regards junkies as the lowest forms of life; well, after peadophiles, that is. An ex-convict from prison, Begbie is extremely sadistic and frequently terrorizes his "friends" who are wary around him. In the past, he was much more like them, but after being in jail he has come to believe in his own (and their) propaganda about him being the baddest guy in town. Begbie views himself as a straight-up guy, a leader, and a heroic badass who everyone should respect.
227
228While he has beaten up people that deserve it and maybe fallen into at least one of those aforementioned qualities at some point at irregular intervals, it doesn't apply... He seems to try to believe he has morals, though he still loves having an excuse to beat someone up, no matter how [[DisproportionateRetribution disturbingly minor]] said excuse is. The best defence against him is not being in the same room as him, as that poor guy with the bag of crisps can attest.
229
230By the time of ''Literature/TheBladeArtist'', Franco has gone through the prison cycle once again but this time actually reformed. He educated himself in art, literature and poetry and has become a respected shock-artist/sculptor in California, married to an American prison therapist who turned his life around. They have two lovely young girls, but "Jim Francis" as he's now known has cut almost all ties with Leith. But he's forced to return after a family bereavement and to come to terms with the past... or rather, make it and it's occupants come to his terms.
231
232* AbstractApotheosis: Said to be a personification of the brutal nature of Leith itself (in the pre- gentrification era anyway), perhaps moreso than any other nutter. May also apply for his softer, more jocular side vis-a-vis the district.
233* 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. In the original novel - and glimpsed in the film sequel - we learn his father is an abusive, womanizing alcoholic who abandoned his family, too.
234* TheAlcoholic: Very much so, at least until ''Literature/TheBladeArtist'', where he has given up drinking.
235* AdaptationalSexuality: Creator/RobertCarlyle and Creator/DannyBoyle both consider him a closet gay but this wasn't Welsh's intent when writing the book.
236* AMFMCharacterization: He loves Music/RodStewart and won't accept any talk about him being gay.
237* ArmouredClosetGay: 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.
238* AxCrazy: He gets physically aroused from violence and hurts people for no reason. In the book, this is a result of both his own sadistic aggression and due to his friends "painting him as the ultimate psychopath" so they'll look cooler by hanging out with him. Interestingly, Renton remembers how Begbie was much more mellow and easy-going as a teenager (when he wasn't yet the toughest guy in the neighbourhood).
239* BerserkButton: Begbie has so many of these that having a conversation with him is akin to walking through a minefield. Child molesters and threatening his most beloved family members seem to be the top two.
240--> ''Renton has learned over the years that the worst thing you can do is to make Frank Begbie feel isolated, so he feels it politic to join in on his side.''
241** Has significantly mellowed by the time of ''The Blade Artist'' but threatening or harassing his wife or daughters is a death sentence.
242* BloodKnight: Revels in the fight. In the movie, Renton notes that he "didn't do drugs, he just did people" just before he starts a massive BarBrawl.
243* BullyingADragon: How his friends mock him when his back is turned. They do so with great amusement but also paralysing fear of him actually catching on.
244* BumpIntoConfrontation: More or less every time he goes to a pub.
245* CatchPhrase: "End ay fucking story!" and delivering a firm statement followed by "mates or nae mates", "fitba or nae fitba" etc.
246* ChaoticStupid: Begbie strays into this territory frequently, given that he insists not only on being a violent and often sadistic brawler, but often doing it within plain sight of people who are liable to call the police or remember his face. At one point in the movie, after kicking in a man's head, glassing him and accidentally slicing open Spud's hand, he stands right in front of the bar and various shocked witnesses and demands that Renton take at least a minute to "bring me doon a fukken ciggareh" before even considering leaving — or taking his injured friend to a hospital. He's also been known to attack bystanders for eating crisps too loudly. Neutral AxeCrazy might be a better description of his alignment, come to think of it.
247** ''Porno'' implicitly justifies this by suggesting that for example, when he [[spoiler: murders Chizzy]] in the pub, he's relying on the fact that it's in one of his local pubs and that the witnesses are an old (if now teetotal) friend, a reliable if disgruntled barman and elderly drinkers who know him and are either nonchalant about it or else cowed into not grassing on him, like the culture of fear the Kray Twins were able to leverage to avoid public witnesses to their crimes from coming forward at least for a time. Indeed, he seems to get away [[KarmaHoudini scott-free with this crime]]. However, the movie depicts the aforementioned assualt in a London pub, away from his usual stomping grounds (aka territory) and with witnesses who don't know his bad reputation; he's also committing the crime after a highly publicised robbery he participated in, no less.
248* CharacterDevelopment: Has gone through some by ''The Blade Artist'', becoming more well-read, amicable and accepting of others, [[spoiler: though his violent, psychopathic tendencies and urges - apparently stemming from what American analysts diagnose as intermittent explosive disorder - tend to resurface]].
249* ClusterFBomb: You rarely go more than eight or so words without a "fuckin", "shite", [[CountryMatters "cunt"]] or other hard curse stabbing in through Begbie's thoughts/speech.
250* CombatPragmatist: Relies on random tools and beer glasses to batter his enemies into submission. Failing that, he'll throw in a sneaky headbutt, quick one-two punches and multiple bootings while the guy is helpless on the deck.
251* DaddysLittleVillain: In the second movie Begbie attempts to turn his son, Frank Jr., into this but Frank is not very interested in criminal activities which frustrates Begbie.
252* {{Determinator}}: In ''T2'', he's been nursing a grudge against Renton for twenty years and will stop at nothing to settle the score.
253* DisappearedDad: In both canons. In ''T2'' was one to his son, Frank Jr., while he was in prison, until he broke out and made his way home. Same goes for his (known) sons, Sean and Michael, for much of their lives in the novels. Again this is mainly due to doing time, but also because he hates June and is indifferent about his offspring. Bear in mind he's also gotten other girls pregnant in one night stands and entirely forsaken responsibility as a parent, making him a Non-Existent Dad for these unfortunate children. Averted with his two young girls with Melanie, because he's rehabilitated and out of prison and discovers he actually loves having daughters much more than sons.
254* DiscoDan: In both ''Porno'' and ''[=T2=]'', he is shown to be very behind the times (lampshaded at least in the novel as due to spending so much time in prison). 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.
255* DisproportionateRetribution:
256** He glasses a man, possibly fatally, for the crime of bumping into him and spilling his beer.
257** He beats another with a pool cue for opening a packet of crisps and distracting him from taking his shot on the pool table. From the other end of the bar. While facing the opposite direction.
258** In the sequel, he tells Renton that he killed a man for looking at him funny.
259** In ''Dead Men's Trousers'', he [[spoiler: murders a Hollywood star, Chuck Ponce, by pushing him off a cliff, and for only using Begbie as a character/dialogue coach whilst in the slammer, and ignoring his calls throughout much of the period since getting out]]
260* DoesntLikeGuns: ZigZagged. Not out of morality, he just thinks they're boring (The UK's notoriously strict firearm laws also likely make practicality an issue). In the film, he's not above using a replica firearm as a WeaponForIntimidation. Same thing for an actual handgun in ''Dead Men's Trousers'', although he doesn't end up firing it.
261* DomesticAbuse: 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.
262** For what it's worth though, on the last one he might have shown some remorse in the form of a tear. Or Alison might have been mistaken.
263** Notably never laid a finger on his later girlfriend Kate, although he threatened to.
264** Has entirely abandoned this behaviour by ''The Blade Artist'' onwards, with the possible exception of the fact that [[spoiler: he doesn't tell Melanie about most of his crimes since "going straight", albeit this could also be interpreted as a loving guesture]].
265* TheDreaded: Everyone is absolutely terrified of Begbie, particularly his friends, and with ''very'' good reason.
266* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: In ''T2'', he has a wife, June, and son, Frank Jr., at home. He even named his son after himself and sees him as a chip off the old block, even though it's not true. By the time of ''The Blade Artist'' onwards, he has a wife and two daughters in America, far away from his dark past and all of the villains it contained.
267* EvenEvilHasStandards: Has a variety of aversions to sins he considers beyond the pale, despite having his own hypocritical flaws relative to each.
268** Despises paedophiles with every fibre of his being, and incurred more jail time for his beatings on them. But his hatred of sex offenders hardly makes him [[ParentalAbandonment any better of a father]] when you consider his neglect, poor parental advice and occasional violence against his sons.
269** Has a measure of respect for the elderly. But he still kicks in his auld Uncle Dickey for forcing him to choose between loyalty to him and the advancement of his criminal reputation. Also abused his Grandpa Jock during their last ever meeting by kicking out his Zimmer frame.
270** He can't stand to see women beaten by abusive boyfriends... perhaps something of a projection of his own domestic abuser 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.
271* 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.
272* FauxAffablyEvil: On a good day, such as when the guys pull off their successful drug deal, Begbie can be good company and fun to be around and possesses a natural charisma and good humor that can almost make you see why the guys are still friends with him. But his violent rages are never very far away and can emerge over ''any'' perceived slight.
273* FishOutOfTemporalWater: In ''Porno''. He's spent most of The Nineties in prison and everyone has mobile phones when he gets out, much to his chagrin. Also, his furniture store he owned with [[Literature/MarabouStorkNightmares fellow bam Lexo]] has been converted into a Thai restaurant/cafe and he's not best pleased with the poxy payoff given as remuneration. And Sick Boy and Spud can hardly be bothered to play card games with him and the other nutters!
274-->''"Wits fuckin wrong with ivray cunt?!"''
275** There's also shades of this in ''The Blade Artist'' because Leith just keeps gentrifying and reinventing itself, but because he's undertaking an investigation with specific objectives rather than indulging in the usual Begbie brand of self-destruction, he doesn't let it throw him off his game this time.
276* FootballHooligans: In ''Skagboys'', he's revealed to be one of these, which should come as a surprise to no-one. In fact, it went back further than that to when he was a teenager, when he, Joe, Tommy, the ''Glue'' lads and some others participated in a casuals infiltration of the Rangers end and carried out a succesful sneak attack on the Huns.
277* FourPhilosophyEnsemble: The Apathetic.
278* FourTemperamentEnsemble: Choleric/Sanguine.
279* FreudianExcuse: He grew up in rough circumstances with an abusive, alcoholic father who abandoned the family when Begbie was young. He also struggled greatly in school where he was bullied a lot and held back multiple times due to undiagnosed dyslexia which caused his parents and teachers to simply write him off as stupid, leaving Bebgie with little choice to reinvent himself as a "hard man" in order to survive and eventually becoming the violent unstable man he is as an adult.
280* TheFriendNobodyLikes: He clearly terrifies his "friends" with his HairTriggerTemper. When Renton flees his former lifestyle, Begbie tracks him down and becomes TheThingThatWouldNotLeave.
281--> '''Tommy''': Begbie's fuckin' psycho, man! But he's a mate, so... what can you dae[[note]]means "do"[[/note]]?
282* GoodSmokingEvilSmoking: Most definitely evil smoking. Gives it up by the middle of TheNewTens.
283* HairTriggerTemper: He's almost as dangerous to his "mates" as he is to everyone else, flying into explosive violent rages over the slightest thing. Renton even outlines a number of Begbie's myths that the gang must play along with, so as not to get beaten up.
284* HateSink: Despite his humorous qualities, there is almost nothing redeemable about Begbie's personality, and almost every scene involving Begbie portrays him to be little more than a horrible, violent and despicable human being.
285* HatedByAll: His own "friends" are scared of him, his own son wants nothing to do with him, if there is any character who actually has any affection for Begbie, we don't see them.
286* HeldBackInSchool: Mentioned by Renton during their final confrontation, as he recalls how he and Begbie met as schoolchildren.
287* 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, where, it turns out, he struggled due not to stupidity, but misunderstood dyslexia.
288* HypocriticalHumour: Unintentionally by him, significant amounts of the dark comedy Begbie offers comes from this. For example, identifying ''other'' people as psychotic, drunks, impulsive, sick, murderers etc.
289** Blaming June for letting his sons watch ''Film/HomeAlone2LostInNewYork'' as a scapegoat for their violence, rather than acknowledging his own behavior.
290** Says he'll never poison his body with drugs because of all the chemicals while drinking and smoking away.
291* IdenticalGrandson: His father briefly appears in ''T2''. Also played by Creator/RobertCarlyle.
292* ImprobableWeaponUser: As an accomplished brawler, Begbie makes plenty of use of these. The book mentions that he has an arsenal of Stanley knives, knuckledusters, sharpened screwdrivers, and knitting needles (because there's less chance they get stuck in the victim's ribcage). Renton states that he does not actually rate Begbie as a terribly strong fighter without his blades.
293* 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 Music/JohnLennon was shot, he would say he was playing pool in The Volley and had loads of witnesses.
294* ImprovisedWeapon: Carries around sharpened knitting needles in the book, and is said to be not much cop when it comes to a fair fight without weapons.
295* InSeriesNickname‎: The Beggar Boy, [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Generalissimo Franco]].
296* {{Jerkass}}: That's putting it very lightly.
297* JustGotOutOfJail: He's paroled in ''Porno'' after doing ten years for fatally stabbing a man. In ''[=T2=]'', his parole is denied, so he escapes instead.
298** Averted in ''The Blade Artist'', where he's been out of jail for several years and clearly has no intention of ever returning this time round.
299* LIsForDyslexia: He is dyslexic which was undiagnosed for years and was held back in school multiple times for it with teachers and other adults simply writing him off as stupid.
300* MemeticBadass: In universe, the other characters built up a mythos around how much of a psychopath and all round badass Begbie is. Unfortunately, he starts to believe his own hype.
301* MySisterIsOffLimits: Elspeth is a real honey, but 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.
302* NapoleonComplex: Implied in the movie but averted in the book, where he is described as tall and muscular.
303* 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. And in the book, and glimpsed in the film's sequel, his father is revealed as an alcoholic who abandoned his young family.
304* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: He's racist, homophobic and sexist. Renton even narrates that he enjoys assaulting anyone who's different.
305* ProperlyParanoid: He's convinced everyone's out to get him in some way or another, and often uses this as a flimsy pretense to beat someone up. Justified in the novels by the implication that he's haunted by [[spoiler: the men he's killed]] in his dreams and subconscious.
306--> '''Renton:''' The nutter's para glint ignites in Begbie's eyes.
307* PsychoKnifeNut: In the movie, he always carries a "chib" with him and pulls it on just about everyone who sets him off. Averted in the books, where he prefers knitting needles and screwdrivers, since he finds it easier to stick them in between someone's ribs. Also enjoys the [[GrievousBottleyHarm similar sharp weapon of alcohol bottles and glasses.]]
308* RedemptionEqualsAffliction: Gets run over in ''Porno'' and after a distraught Renton rushes to his aid, he implicitly forgives him for nicking his share of the cash. This makes him shift his focus to his real enemy, Sick Boy. Although it turns out that he and Simon didn't actually have [[spoiler: a confrontation during his temporary coma]], as it was just a reflex action.
309* {{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.
310* SanitySlippage: Far from the most stable person in the first place, Begbie seems to be going through some sort of mental breakdown in ''Porno'', suffering from tension headaches, most likely due to being a FishOutOfTemporalWater after having spent a decade in prison. His state of mind in ''The Blade Artist'' and ''Dead Men's Trousers'' is better, but still open to debate.
311--> '''Begbie:''' Muh heid is fuckin nippin. This fuckin migraine. Too much thinkin, that's ma problem, no thit some ay the thick cunts roond here wid understand that. That's what comes ay huvin fuckin brains; makes ye fuckin well think too much, think about aw the fuckin wide cunts thit need tae git thir fuckin faces burst.
312* SeriousBusiness: Music/RodStewart. Don't even imply that he could be gay. [[BerserkButton You'll get your head smashed in.]]
313* SevenDeadlySins: Wrath. Begbie's defining traits are his blood-lust and explosive temper which ends up causing him more harm than good.
314%%* SexIsViolence
315* SirSwearsALot: He uses the word [[CountryMatters cunt]] like it was punctuation.
316* TheSociopath: Exhibits many of the qualities associated with low-functioning psychopaths, such as superficial charm, manipulation and a constant need for stimulation, not to mention his violent outbursts and inability to take responsibility for his actions. It's also revealed he harmed and even killed animals in his youth, which is an early indicator of psychopathy (albeit his companion Renton also abused animals, but is comparatively much more mentally sound). By the time of ''Skagboys'', Begbie has just begun to blossom as a hardcore psychopath, through a combination of genuine mental disorder, environment, and being built up as the ultimate badass by his friends. He appears to have [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] it by the time of ''The Blade Artist'', displaying what appears to be empathy, positive emotion and love, [[spoiler: but he has ultimately just become better at hiding his psychopathic urges]]. Even saying that, though, those good attributes do seem to be fully in effect with regard to his new family, if perhaps ''only'' for them, and maybe Elspeth's small family too. This novel also identifies him as suffering from Intermittent Explosive Disorder.
317* SingleIssuePsychology: Averted. Not only does he have a mental disorder, but his mental instability is shown to partly come from being bullied for dyslexia in school, and his turbulent upbringing.
318* SociopathicHero: How his friends treat him. The book makes it clear that Begbie's friends are just as guilty as he is - they have painted him as the ultimate psychopath so they will look cooler by hanging out with him. He believes that, and, unfortunately, believes his own hype as well. It takes getting hit with a car to get him to stop thinking like this, and it's unknown how long into the interim gap between novels that this change of behaviour really started to take.
319* StraightEdgeEvil: In the movie, Begbie has absolute disdain for drugs (specifically downers like smack; he'd probably also write off things like MDMA and poppers as "poofy uppers") and all drug users and dealers and is easily the most despicable of the main characters. Despite his disdain for chemicals, he loves to drink and smoke. It's not really covered in the original book, but by the time ''Porno'' comes around, he's become a cocaine user, which really unhinges him. [[spoiler: At some point in the early noughties, he slaughtered Seeker, taking belated revenge on behalf of his ex-junky friends and indeed much of Edinburgh and the wider UK by eliminating this horrible dealer who blighted many lives with his heroin distribution network.]] By ''The Blade Artist'', he's totally given up alcohol, cigarettes and other drugs.
320** It should also be noted that he was happy to perform the smack deal in London and profit from it, suggesting that he doesn't care about selling (and by extension, ruining lives) far from his home turf, but dealing in Edinburgh is unacceptable in his book.
321* SympathyForTheDevil: Begbie is a damn good singer when the occasion calls.
322-->''Franco’s voice is something tae hear, it’s like wi it bein Hogmanay, he’s absorbed just the right amount ay alcohol n good vibes and they intersect at this wonderous vector as he briefly becomes something else, this force ay grace and soul.''
323** Not for long, however. He doesn't appreciate playing the soulful rocker, at least not with the attendant fan attention. Spud nearly comes to regret paying him compliments.
324-->''Spud falls silent, as does the rest ay the room. We all instantly understand how Begbie sees that this wee fragment ay beauty in his soul has been exposed, and how even through his ain ego and the flattery received, he looks on it as a potential weakness, something that might one day compromise him.''
325--->'''Begbie:''' ''"It’s jist fuckin singin, right."''
326** Was beaten by his brother and his father (who also occasionally assualted him) was an absentee drunk. No wonder he turned out into such a bad egg.
327** Had to administer a MercyKill on [[spoiler: a victim of his grandfather and pals; indeed, this was the first person Begbie ever took out]], which may have further warped his personality into the future psycho he was to become.
328* TheTeetotaler: He's been sober for six years by the time of ''The Blade Artist''.
329* TookALevelInKindness: Zigzagged. In ''The Blade Artist'' and ''Dead Men's Trousers'', he has restrained his HairTriggerTemper having given up the drink. He's no longer interested in revenge against Renton or even in the debt he once felt Rents owed him for ripping him off. On the other hand, he still ends up murdering several people over the course of both books.
330* TheUnintelligible: His chapters in the books are often unreadable because he's so full of profanity and swears so much at the expense of actually describing what's going on. A particularly memorable chapter is the very short one in which every single person is referred to as 'that [[CountryMatters cunt]]' with maybe the odd character attribute thrown in to help you along your way.
331* VillainousBreakdown: In the film when the police finally come for him, everyone around him has the sense to leave him alone and split while he tears apart the bedroom. Later too in ''T2'', when he comes to realise that he's [[spoiler: locked in a car boot and likely to be sent back to prison when the cops swoop down on him]].
332** Doesn't really happen in the books. During his psychotic criminal period, he never really feared prison and being held to account for his crimes (although he obviously would rather avoid that and suffered a nasty bout of paranoia after he [[spoiler: wasted Chizzy]]. And during his reformation period, he's simply too cold and calculating to allow anything to seriously mess with his cool.
333* VillainProtagonist: He's a supporting character in the original novel and ''Literature/{{Skagboys}}'', but it still fits. More so when he's brought to centre stage in ''Literature/{{Porno}}'' and especially ''Literature/TheBladeArtist''. In ''Dead Men's Trousers'', he and the other three of the Big Four have approximately equal roles to play.
334* ViolentGlaswegian: Well, technically a violent Edinburgher.
335* [[WhereDidWeGoWrong Where Did I Go Wrong?]]: His mother's reaction when he erratically nuts his sister's new boyfriend at Christmas dinner.
336* WouldHitAGirl: Beats his pregnant girlfriend June when she hassles him about not telling her where he goes. And later in ''Porno'' when he believes she's been smoking crack in front of their sons.
337[[/folder]]
338
339[[folder:Tommy Lawrence]]
340->Played by Creator/KevinMcKidd
341-> ''"{{Better than sex}}. The ultimate hit. I'm a fucking adult, I can find out for myself. Well, I'm finding out all right."''
342
343A childhood friend of Renton's who doesn't do heroin, preferring instead to take speed. After a series of events initiated by Renton, Tommy's girlfriend, Lizzie, dumps him, leading Tommy to go on a downward spiral. He begins taking heroin, eventually becoming HIV Positive. Tommy dies in the film, and is mentioned to have died sometime between ''Trainspotting'' and ''Porno'' in the books.
344
345* AdaptationNameChange: Changed from Lawrence to Mackenzie in the film.
346* AMFMCharacterization: He loves Music/IggyPop so much that he bought a ticket...on the same date as his girlfriend's birthday.
347* BerserkButton: Seeing women getting abused.
348* CannotTellALie: Renton says he never lies and would ask him for the true version of Begbie's stories.
349* CantGetAwayWithNuthin: He had only been using drugs for a few months and had never done any of the bad things Mark and co did for a high but is still the only one to die from his addiction.
350* CompositeCharacter: Matty's death is given to him in the film.
351* DeathByAdaptation: His death was only implied by the original book with Renton noting that he won't survive the winter. In both the film and the later books, he's definitely dead.
352* DescentIntoAddiction: He's introduced to heroin by Renton after his girlfriend dumps him and ultimately contracts HIV.
353* DespairEventHorizon: After Lizzie dumps him, he asks Renton to let him try heroin out of curiosity. This ultimately leads to his downfall.
354* DiesDifferentlyInAdaptation: His death isn't depicted in the book, but it's obviously implied that his HIV will kill him. In the film, he dies of toxoplasmosis.
355* DrugsAreBad: Tommy's story is the closest that ''Trainspotting'' comes to a moral lesson.
356* FourPhilosophyEnsemble: The Conflicted.
357* FourTemperamentEnsemble: Leukine.
358* HeterosexualLifePartners: With Second Prize in the book.
359* HypocriticalHumour: Complains about Renton poisoning his body with drugs while puffing on a cigarette.
360* JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope: After Lizzie finishes with him, he begs Renton to give him heroin.
361* NiceGuy: He's a bit clueless, but he's probably the nicest guy of the story aside from Stevie.
362* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: Tries to stop a man beating his girlfriend in public but gets bottled by him and kicked by her.
363* SparedByTheAdaptation: Doesn't die in the play due to it ending earlier but is implied to be on the way out.
364* TextualCelebrityResemblance: Alison mentions that he looks like a young Creator/HarrisonFord.
365* TokenGoodTeammate: He's the only one of the lads not involved in heroin or any other criminal activity, being an honest, clean-living guy who loves sport. Then his girlfriend dumps him and it all goes to hell.
366* TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth: How everyone feels once he dies of AIDS-related illness due to drug abuse. Renton feels deep regret for getting him hooked on heroin in the first place.
367* WifeBasherBasher: Attempts this but it backfires.
368%%* WouldntHitAGirl
369* YourDaysAreNumbered: When Renton visits him late into the book, he's living in squalour in an almost empty flat, deep into his heroin addiction. The narration notes that he won't survive the winter and the sequel confirms that this is indeed the case.
370[[/folder]]
371
372[[folder:Rab "Second Prize" [=McLaughlin=]/[=McNaughton=]]]
373
374-> ''"Whit's aw this aboot? [[BerserkButton YE TAKE US AW THE WAY DOON HERE N THAIR'S NAE FUCKIN PEEVE, YA CUNTS!]]"''
375
376A washed up former star striker. His drug of choice is booze, and in quantities to put even any of his peeve-friendly pals to shame. In the original novel, he is one of the five who journey down to London for the big heroin deal. By the time of ''Porno'', he's teetotal, found God and wants as little to do with the lads as possible. SecondPrize's constant battle with the bottle mirrors the others’ dalliance with heroin and highlights the other social problems facing contemporary Scotland: namely, alcoholism.
377
378* AdaptedOut: He doesn't appear in the film despite having quite a prominent role in the book.
379* TheAlcoholic: His love of the bottle costs him his trial at Manchester United, but he ends up on the wagon by ''Porno''.
380* AlcoholInducedIdiocy: It's how he got his nickname. When drunk, he often starts fights and ends up claiming "Second Prize" by losing.
381* TheArtifact: Due to the Big Four (Renton, Sick Boy, Spud and Begbie) receiving the most limelight in later books, and Second Prize's absence from the film adaptation, his presence at the climatic drug deal in the first book is treated this way in ''Porno'' and ''Dead Men's Trousers'', with him being little more than an afterthought or mild obstacle for Renton.
382* BerserkButton: When the others take him to a club that doesn't serve alcohol, he explodes in anger, shouting at the others before leaving.
383** He also took a swing at Renton after Tommy got the virus, blaming Renton for introducing Tommy to heroin.
384* 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.
385* ButtMonkey: Thankfully he's usually too drunk to even care.
386* CharacterDevelopment: By the time of ''Porno'', he's embraced [[TheTeetotaler sobriety]] (not that he had much of a choice) and [[HeelFaithTurn religion]], having distanced himself from the lads after getting ripped off by Renton.
387* CompositeCharacter: Some of his characteristics are given to Spud in the film.
388* ADayInTheLimelight: His narrative chapter, ''Her Man'', could be seen as this.
389* DemotedToExtra: He has narration duties for a chapter in ''Trainspotting'', but appears only sporadically in both ''Porno'' and ''Skagboys''. Appears in ''Dead Men's Trousers'', where he only has one line.
390* DrowningMySorrows: Being an alcoholic, he turns to drink when feeling low. Not that he even needs that excuse.
391* HeelFaithTurn: He finds religion to help him kick the drink.
392* HeterosexualLifePartners: With Tommy.
393* ICouldaBeenAContender: Had a trial on the Manchester United youth team until the drink got the better of him.
394* INeedAFreakingDrink: Much to his disgust in ''Skagboys'', he finds that the Blackpool establishment they visit isn't licensed. He makes a speedy exit.
395%%* IllTellYouWhenIveHadEnough
396* TheLoad: Often described as a "liability".
397* MeaningfulName: Gets into many fights whilst inebriated, which often end up with him 'coming second place', i.e. losing the fight.
398* OffTheWagon: Implied by his cameo in ''Dead Men's Trousers'' when Renton describes him as being near skeletal.
399* OutOfFocus: When compared to the other main characters in the trilogy.
400* SixthRanger: Joins the main four on the trip to London at the end of the book.
401* TheTeetotaler:
402** His reaction to being stiffed for the money by Renton. He distances himself from the old crew, joins an alcoholics anonymous group and starts attending church.
403** Before that, he had sober periods in between heavy binging, mostly when he thought he could get back into a respectable team. [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption They didn't]] [[OffTheWagon last long]].
404* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Seems to have vanished off the face of the Earth by ''Dead Men's Trousers'', with Mark guessing he likely drank himself to death after last seeing him in ''Porno''. [[spoiler: He shows up towards the end at Spud's funeral for the money Mark owes him, though no explanation is given as to where he's been]].
405%%* WouldntHitAGirl
406* YourDaysAreNumbered: [[spoiler: Seems to be on death's door when he finally shows up at the end in ''Dead Men's Trousers'', being described as 'cadaver-like' and 'hollowed out by some virulent wasting disease' with a 'death's-head grin']].
407[[/folder]]
408
409[[folder:Matty Connell]]
410
411-> ''"[[CountryMatters Cunt]], it's like a fuckin school project tae you! Well, it'll be like tryin tae find a needle in a haystack. [[SirSwearsALot Cunt]], ye dinnae even ken whaire the fuckin skag is! They've goat guards, probably dugs..."''
412
413A long time mate of the main group. Went down to London with Renton in the late 70s, riding the punk movement for cynical shits and giggles. Unfortunately, it only went downhill from there. Has been using heroin the longest out of any of them apart from the dealers. He serves to epitomise the thieving, self-destroying junkie with poor health and hygiene which the others are in ever greater danger of becoming.
414
415* AdaptedOut: He's omitted from the film, despite being one of the main characters.
416* AscendedExtra: To some degree in ''Skagboys''.
417* BerserkButton: Calling him a "tramp" or "scruff".
418* CompositeCharacter: His tragic death is combined with the literary Tommy's breakup and subsequent decline into heroin addiction for the film's version of Tommy.
419* CountryMatters / SirSwearsALot: In ''Skagboys'', he starts almost every sentence off with the word 'cunt'. It seems he's stopped this by ''Trainspotting'', which suggests he's even more dead inside by that point.
420* DreadfulMusician: He loved playing the guitar, even holding onto it as his addiction drove him to sell everything else. Renton describes him as the shitest guitarist he'd ever known.
421--> "Matty was the shitest guitarest he'd known, and could only play Music/TheDoors' "Roadhouse Blues" and a few [[Music/TheClash Clash]] and Music/StatusQuo numbers with any sort of proficiency. He tried hard to do the riff from ''Clash City Rockers'', but could never quite master it. Nonetheless, Matty loved that Fender Strat. It was the last thing he sold, holding onto it after the amplifier had been flogged off in order to fill his veins with shite."
422* EmptyShell: Has been doing hard drugs for so long (even before the beginning of ''Skagboys'') that he's probably the most jaded, emotionless junkie of the group, living purely from fix to fix. The only less sympathetic individuals are the dealers. He does evoke pity, however.
423* TheFriendNobodyLikes: One gets this impression throughout ''Skagboys''. Nobody has much good to say about him and he spends the whole novel being a caustic {{Jerkass}} to every character.
424* {{Jerkass}}: He's a nasty, thieving prick.
425* KilledOffForReal: He dies of toxoplasmosis after attempting to rekindle his relationship with his ex using a kitten.
426* MoralityPet: His daughter.
427* PetTheDog: He attempts to apologize to Renton after making fun of his disabled brother. It's pretty much the only moment in the trilogy where he does something "nice".
428** There's also the fact that he wants to see his daughter after his girlfriend dumps him.
429%%* ThePigPen
430* ReallyGetsAround: Well, really ''got'' around anyway, during the height of punk.
431* TheRival: Views [[UnknownRival Keezbo]] as this. This culminates in him kicking out a plank that was Keezbo's only means of escape from a factory when they're being chased by security.
432[[/folder]]
433
434[[folder:Gav Temperley]]
435->Played by Stuart [=McQuarrie=]
436
437A friend of the group who works in the dole office. His position there is taken advantage of by them more often than not. He is one of the few people Renton stays in contact with after he moves to Amsterdam.
438
439* ADayInTheLimelight: The short story ''Victor Spoils'' focuses around him.
440* DemotedToExtra: He had a big part in the book. In the film, he's in the background of a couple of scenes, and tells Renton how Tommy died. He's mentioned in the sequel, but doesn't appear.
441* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Not much of a {{Jerkass}}, but he does have his moments. Nevertheless, he's one of the nicer lads in the group.
442* LimitedAdvancementOpportunities: By the time ''Porno'' rolls around, he's still doing the same job. He tells Renton that he's been turned down for promotion so many times that he's stopped applying.
443[[/folder]]
444
445[[folder:Davie Mitchell]]
446
447A friend of Mark and Tommy's. He contracts AIDS after sleeping with a girl Alan Venters raped, and decides to get revenge on him before he dies.
448
449* AdaptedOut: He's omitted from the film.
450* CompositeCharacter: In the book it was him, not Spud, who had the humiliating "Traditional Scottish Breakfast" episode.
451* DemotedToExtra: Had narration duties in ''Trainspotting'', but only appears as a supporting character in ''Skagboys''.
452%%* TheEveryman
453* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: He is briefly mentioned in ''Porno'' as being still alive and in good health, despite being HIV positive.
454[[/folder]]
455
456[[folder:Keith "Keezbo" Yule]]
457
458-> ''"Ah'm starvin, Mr Tommy...[[BlatantLies ah'm wastin away tae nothing here.]] Tell them, Mr Mark!"''
459
460A character mentioned briefly in ''Trainspotting'' as being in jail. In ''Skagboys'', Keezbo is an overweight, extroverted member of the group who starts doing heroin alongside the others. He is revealed to be HIV positive in one of the final chapters. He is one of the five, along with Renton, Spud, Sick Boy and Matty, who go to try and steal heroin from a factory at the end of the book. When they are chased by police, he is left behind after Matty knocks down a plank of wood that was his only means of escape.
461
462* AcroFatic: To a degree. He knows how to bust a move on the dance-floor anyway.
463* AscendedExtra: He's mentioned once in ''Trainspotting'', but appears as one of the major characters in ''Skagboys''.
464%%* BigFun
465* ChickMagnet: Much to Renton's amusement.
466%%* FatBestFriend
467%%* ForgottenFallenFriend
468%%* KavorkaMan
469* VerbalTic: Not really a tic, but he addresses everyone as "Mr." or "Mrs.", e.g. "Mr. Mark", "Mr. Frank", "Mr. Rab", etc.
470* YouAreFat: Pretty much every insult thrown his way, usually by Matty, consists of this. That or the fact that he's ginger and wears glasses.
471[[/folder]]
472
473[[folder:Brian "Nicksy" Nixon]]
474
475-> ''"I ain't got much time for blokes who think they're better than anyone else, like they're the only ones full of big ideas and dodgy scams."''
476
477A Cockney friend of Renton's, whom he met in 1979 with Matty during the punk scene. Renton and Sick Boy stay with him in his flat in London during ''Skagboys'', as they agree to smuggle drugs across from Amsterdam on the ferries.
478
479* AscendedExtra: Gets narration duties in ''Skagboys'', having only been mentioned a few times in ''Trainspotting''.
480* DrivenToSuicide: Doesn't go through with it though.
481* HeroicBSOD: Seems to have one when he finds [[spoiler: the aborted fetus of his unborn child in the skip]].
482* NiceGuy: One of the nicest members of the group.
483[[/folder]]
484
485[[folder:Stevie Hutchinson]]
486
487A friend of the group who lives in London with his girlfriend, Stella.
488
489* CommutingOnABus: Since he lives down in London he keeps dropping in and out of the story periodically.
490* ADayInTheLimelight: The chapter ''Victory On New Year's Day'' is centered around him.
491* NiceGuy: Along with Nicksy, he's one of the nicest members in the group.
492%%* OnlySaneMan
493[[/folder]]
494
495[[folder:Nelly Hunter]]
496
497A friend of Franco's who often hangs around with the group. Serves as a rival at times to Begbie too, especially when it comes to currying favour with their mob boss employer Fat Tyrone.
498
499* {{Foil}}: Represents the dead-end, no hope cycle of crime, imprisonment and failed rehabiltation which Franco himself was stuck in for many years, and which may drag Franco back into darkness once again. He's still working for Power by the time of ''The Blade Artist'' and is still stoking the old nutter grudges, despite always being somewhat more sane than his frenemy. The difference is, Begbie found an exotic new love and had some success with the penal rehabilitation programs at long last. So Nelly tries his best to drag Frank back into the old ways, but ultimately fails.
500* PsychoSidekick / SatelliteCharacter: To Begbie, though he is far less psychotic than Beggars.
501* TattooedCrook: Has three tattoos on his face: an anchor on one cheek, a snake on the other, and a palm tree on his forehead. He's wisely had them removed by the time of ''Porno''.
502* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: The last we see of him in ''Porno'', he's been stabbed in the back by Larry Wylie - a fellow psycho associated with Begbie. [[spoiler: He returns briefly in ''The Blade Artist'', still working for Davie "Tyrone" Power, only to be stabbed in the back again, this time by Begbie [[CallBack using a sharpened knitting needle]]]].
503[[/folder]]
504
505[[folder:Dawsy]]
506
507A generic friend of the group who appears sporadically, with little to no importance. He apparently takes jokes way too far, often still finding something funny long after everyone else has grown tired of it.
508
509* DemotedToExtra: His already limited role in ''Trainspotting'' is reduced in ''Skagboys'', where he's only mentioned a few times.
510%%* FlatCharacter
511* TheGenericGuy: He pretty much exists to fill space, along with Mony, Moysie, Saybo, Shaun and Sully, who are pretty much TwentyFourHourPartyPeople with names. Whilst he does manage to get more lines than them, he has no discernible personality to speak of.
512* RecurringExtra
513* SatelliteCharacter: To the main group.
514[[/folder]]
515
516[[folder:"Juice" Terry Lawson]]
517
518A former aerated waters salesman, taxi driver and sometimes pornographic actor, Terry is one of the protagonists of ''Literature/{{Glue}}'' and is later a supporting character in ''Literature/{{Porno}}'' and ''Dead Men's Trousers'' and takes centre stage in ''A Decent Ride''.
519
520* BasementDweller: One of the time skips in ''Glue'' shows that he lies in bed most days, watching [=TV=] and texting his mother to bring him up tins of beer.
521* BiggerIsBetterInBed: He's pretty well hung, which makes him perfect for Sick Boy's porn movies.
522* CantHaveSexEver: A heart condition in ''A Decent Ride'' means he can't have sex and has to take libido suppressing drugs. [[spoiler:Turns out the hospital had him mixed up with another Terry Lawson.]]
523* {{Catchphrase}}: Spice ay life!
524* ChivalrousPervert: He won't pay for a prostitute. He doesn't need to. This doesn't stop him from seducing them off the clock, however. He also saves a girl from suicide, though he does this to shag her.
525* TheFunInFuneral: Talks at a funeral at the start of ''A Decent Ride'' but makes jokes that would be more appropriate in a best man's speech.
526* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Especially after his CharacterDevelopment in ''A Decent Ride'', he starts to take an interest in his children and is willing to help out those around him.
527* KavorkaMan: Despite being overweight and ageing, Terry has no problem pulling women with little effort.
528* MeaningfulName: Gets the nickname of "Juice" from his time as an aerated waters salesman. Even though he got laid off in 1981, the name stuck for decades after.
529* MissingMom: His mother does a runner because she's tired of him being a BasementDweller but gets back in contact sometime before his spin off.
530* {{NEET}}: Is unemployed for a lot of ''Glue'' and if the dole office sets up a job interview anywhere that doesn't involve a juice lorry, he'll visit the night before and burn the place down.
531* OneSteveLimit: Averted. His medical records get mixed up with another Terry Lawson, meaning that his heart isn't as weak as he thought.
532* ReallyGetsAround: He often sleeps with multiple women on a daily basis, even taking advantage of his taxi work to do so.
533* UnreliableNarrator: He narrates his own chapters in ''A Decent Ride'' but gives no indication that it was him who stole [[spoiler:Ronald Checker's prize whiskey]] until he retrieves it from its hiding place.
534[[/folder]]
535
536!!The Bams
537
538Besides Franco and Nelly, some of the many nutters who inhabit Leith and the other areas of Edinburgh. Naturally, most of them know Begbie, either playing friend, arch-nemesis or both to him over the years. Most participated with him in the Young Leith Team and Capital City Service [[FootballHooligans casual associations]], and share an interest in alcohol, cocaine and miscellaneous violent crime. Few of them are ''quite'' as deranged as the Generalissimo.
539
540[[folder:Larry Wylie]]
541
542A cowardly bully and opportunist sleazebag, who most likely joined the psycho network out of self preservation. Picked on a kid in high school and got into an altercation with Tommy as a result. By the Nineties, he's dabbling in smack with Andrew Galloway. At the TurnOfTheMillennium, he and Nelly end up at each other's throats. Later, in 2015, it's revealed that [[spoiler: he's HIV positive and is making heinous scud flicks with victimised girls]]. The newly reformed Begbie starts to see that Larry set him up for much of his problems in the past, and an angry Larry [[spoiler: falsely takes the credit for Sean's death]]. Then shit starts to hit the fan.
543
544* TheBully: As noted above, he bullies those who are too weak to fight back.
545* CharacterDeath: [[spoiler: Tortured close to death by Anton Miller, then roasted to a crisp along with him by Franco in ''The Blade Artist'']].
546* DirtyCoward: Though Larry will gladly stab anyone in the back when they're not looking, he backs down from confrontation when faced head-on.
547[[/folder]]
548
549[[folder:Alexander "Lexo" Setterington]]
550->Played by Jordan Young (to date, only in ''Literature/{{Filth}}'s'' adaptation)
551
552One of Begbie's inner circle. [[Literature/MarabouStorkNightmares A major player in the Capital City Service in his youth]], known for leading his boys with soap bars in socks to attack Rangers fans. Participated in [[spoiler: a gangrape on an unfortunate girl]] but never saw punishment for it. Runs a furniture shop with Begbie until Franco gets put away for an extended period of time, during which Lexo decided to rebrand it as a Thai dinner with his partner being non-too-happy when he finds out. A cousin of Martin Gentleman, Dozo Doyle's right hand man. Notable for having roles which range from minor to significant in ''Nightmares'' all the way through ''Literature/{{Porno}}''.
553
554* TheDragon: To Ghostie Gorman, [[spoiler: before his death]].
555* KarmaHoudini: It's difficult to parse out the narrative of ''Literature/MarabouStorkNightmares'' as it's such a MindScrew. But according to the chronology of all the novels, it seems that Lexo got away scott-free with [[spoiler: the gangrape]] in that book. This is in contrast to his accomplices, all of whom suffer exploitation-film level revenge by the end.
556[[/folder]]
557
558[[folder:Graeme "Ghostie" Gorman]]
559->Played by Martin Compston
560
561A career criminal and sociopath operating within Edinburgh, [[Literature/{{Filth}} who becomes the main suspect in Bruce Robertson's murder investigation]]. Leads a small gang of criminal youths, including Lexo.
562
563* AdaptationalAttractiveness: Isn't an albino in the film, merely having bleached blonde hair instead.
564* BigBad: Of ''Filth'', unless you count [[VillainProtagonist Bruce]].
565* CharacterDeath: [[spoiler: Dies after he is thrown through a second-story window by Bruce in the climax]].
566* DepravedBisexual: Frequents a brothel, [[spoiler: and tries to make out with Bruce shortly before his death]].
567* TheSociopath: A fairly straight forward example, given what little we learn about him.
568[[/folder]]
569
570[[folder:Charles "Cha" Morrison]]
571
572A local hard-nut who mostly serves as an off-screen arch-nemesis to Franco throughout ''Skagboys'' and ''Trainspotting''.
573
574* ArchEnemy: Served as a prominent one to Franco in ''Skagboys'' and ''Trainspotting'', although Franco notes in ''The Blade Artist'' that their rivalry was fairly superficial, and that it started purely out of boredom.
575* {{Jerkass}}: Tries to intimidate Renton in ''Skagboys'' with a gang of boys backing him up, but actually ends up being won over by Renton's unflappable nature.
576[[/folder]]
577
578[[folder:Donnelly]]
579
580A Muirhouse-based wideo, a tourist of the Scottish penal system and an associate of Mikey Forrester's. During one day when Renton is desperate enough for a fix to go to Forrester's, he is present and correct to laugh at Renton's misfortunes and indulge his friend's pretensions of being a hard man. He isn't seen much after that, but it comes to light by the time of ''Porno'' that [[spoiler: he had an altercation with Begbie, and became his first murder victim, albeit Franco managed to disguise it as justified manslaughter to get a reduced jail sentence]]. It's said by Begbie that this was driven by his rage at being betrayed by Renton.
581[[/folder]]
582
583[[folder:Davie "Fat Tyrone" Power]]
584
585The feared head of a criminal empire in Edinburgh. Mentored Begbie and Nelly in the 80s, using them as his hired muscle and intimidation-merchants. Offers sponsorship and protection from other thugs to Billy Birrel in ''Literature/{{GLue}}'' as he is his preferred boxer to bet on. His influence wanes through the new millenium with Franco being absent in prison and then taking up a new life in America, which in part allows Anton Miller to take over in gangland prominence. When Begbie returns to Leith to seek answers about a family bereavment, Tyrone leans on him to come back into his orbit, but his efforts repeatedly result in failure and eventually [[spoiler: his demise]].
586
587* GreaterScopeVillain: As the head of a crime syndicate, Power oversees most of the criminal activity in Edinburgh.
588* PetTheDog: Power is introduced in ''Glue'' as, yes, a mob boss, but one with shades of PragmaticVillainy. Due to his affinity for boxing, he leans on Dozo Doyle to (temporarily, at least) drop his feud with Billy Birrel and the Glue lads, allowing him to heal his facial injury for a big bout. This stands in contrast to his interaction with his employed underlings such as Nelly and Franco, where his villainy is more outright and apparent.
589[[/folder]]
590
591[[folder:Anton Miller]]
592
593The leader of a gang of youths in ''The Blade Artist'', who are responsible for a large chunk of Leith's criminal activity and have taken place as the most dangerous, feared figures in Franco's absence.
594
595* TheDreaded: Many of the characters encountered in ''The Blade Artist'' fear him, [[TortureTechnician and not without reason]].
596* ManOnFire: [[spoiler: Burned alive by Franco, along with Larry Wylie]].
597* TortureTechnician: [[spoiler: Tortures Larry to near-death before being burned alive by Franco, and if Larry's reaction beforehand is any indication, this isn't the first time he's done this to someone who's crossed him]].
598[[/folder]]
599
600[[folder:Gary "Chizzie" Chisholm]]
601
602An antagonist in ''Porno''. A notorious "[[PedoHunt nonce/beast]]" who did time for sexual assault, possibly against minors. He threatens Nikkie, Lauren and Dianne at a pub, but is humiliated by the latter and leaves in disgrace. He later backs a winning horse and celebrates with Spud with a disturbing, alcohol and tranquillizers-fuelled binge where they encounter a debauched woman. Ultimately, he has an altercation with Franco in a Leith pub.
603
604* DepravedBisexual: He rapes Spud by demonstrating how to perform oral sex on him, while Spud is in a tranquilized state. Either this, or he's just a depraved straight guy who made this transgression during experimentation under a cocktail of drugs and alcohol.
605* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: When a newspaper story is written [[spoiler: concerning his death and appealing for witnesses]], his sister makes an emotional appeal to the public, and it's unclear what her views on his status as a sex offender are.
606* MemeticMolester: Begbie is unsure as to exactly ''what'' this man did to end up in the beast's wing at Saughton, but he's pretty sure it was against a child. Or several. Supported by his appalling treatment of women in what we see him do during the novel's present time.
607* PedoHunt: Definitely a rapist, but it's unknown if he "just" targeted women or also children. Franco thinks he did go for kids, but he's been known to be an UnreliableNarrator before, especially when it comes to what he thinks his fellow ex-cons did time for. Of course, this is all the justification Begbie needs [[spoiler: to kill Chizzie in front of several witnesses]].
608* VerbalTic: Refers to other guys as "chavvy".
609[[/folder]]
610
611[[folder:Victor "The Poof" Syme]]
612
613Introduced in ''A Decent Ride''. A childhood classmate of Juice Terry's, bullied with homophobia and fat shaming by many other young boys. As it turns out, he wasn't gay at all, and [[FromNobodyToNightmare developed from his formative traumas into a major player in the Edinburgh crime world]]. The nickname persists into his adult life, albeit on a much more discrete basis. Runs a sleazy sauna in Leith, where he and his brother in law exploit and sometimes abuse vulnerable prostitutes in various ways. Terry counts him as a boss/associate of sorts, reluctantly, doing some supervisory work while Vic is away in Spain. Several years later, Syme exploits the power vacuum caused by [[spoiler: the downfall of both Tyrone and Anton]] to become the new underworld top dog, even taking credit for [[spoiler: their deaths]] as the supposed aftermath of a three-way gangland war. This sets him up to serve as a major antagonist in ''Dead Men's Trousers''.
614
615* AssholeVictim: On top of being an abusive pimp and a powerful gangster, 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.
616* GroinAttack: Ends up on the receiving end of one courtesy of [[spoiler: Begbie and a sword.]]
617
618[[/folder]]
619
620!!Love Interests
621
622[[folder:Dianne Coulston]]
623->Played by Creator/KellyMacdonald
624Mark's underage one night stand, who returns in ''Porno'' as his LoveInterest.
625
626-> ''"You're not getting any younger, Mark. The world is changing, music is changing, even drugs are changing. You can't stay in here all day dreaming about Ziggy Pop and heroin."''
627
628* AdaptedOut: Isn't in the play.
629* AgeLift: Is sixteen in the film, compared to fourteen in the book.
630* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: She sleeps with Renton, a deadbeat junkie. In a deleted scene, she tells him that she has a new boyfriend who is "healthy", but her final glance towards Renton shows that she still has feelings for him despite his lifestyle. She also holds Renton's hand, spends time with him at his house and at football matches, and writes letters to him when he moves to London.
631* AllThereInTheManual: The deleted scenes featuring Diane expand on her characterisation a little: she dumps Renton at a football match for a more age-appropriate healthy boyfriend (although it's implied that it's out of keeping up appearances rather than her personal choice), and she loudly asks what he's doing when he's stealing from the video shop, causing security to overhear. This also explains how she knows Renton's friends.
632* AMFMCharacterization: She sings "Temptation" by Music/NewOrder in the shower and has a Music/DavidBowie picture.
633* CatholicSchoolGirlsRule: Although she wears a shiny dress when she seduces Renton.
634* CharacterDevelopment: In both the first book and the film, Diane is portrayed as a sex-crazed club-hopping teenager. In ''Porno'', she's blossomed into a well-adjusted but party-loving university student, working on her thesis and being more than capable to hold her own in a conversation. She's a mature and capable lawyer in the second film.
635%%* FilleFatale
636* JailbaitTaboo: Mark Renton has sex with her, discovering the next morning that she is fifteen when she appears in her school uniform and her "flatmates" are actually her parents. Later, she threatens to tell the police if he does not see her again.
637* HelloAttorney: In ''Film/T2Trainspotting'', she's become a lawyer.
638* HypocriticalHumor: In the second movie, she chastises Renton for hanging out with Veronica saying that she's too young for him even though she herself tricked Renton into having sex with her when she was only sixteen.
639* ReallyGetsAround: In the book, Renton is creeped out because she's fourteen and already so sexually experienced.
640%%* SchoolUniformsAreTheNewBlack
641* TheOneThatGotAway: In the second movie it is implied that Diane is this for Renton.
642--> '''Renton (during his "choose life" rant with Veronika)''': "Choose slow reconciliation towards thing that you can get rather than what you always hoped for" (cue a shot of Renton looking at Diane from afar when he says "rather than what you always hoped for")
643* 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, too paranoid, 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]].
644[[/folder]]
645
646[[folder:Nikki Fuller-Smith]]
647
648One of the main characters and narrators of ''Porno''.
649
650* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Enters into a relationship with Sick Boy, so this goes without saying.
651* AlphaBitch: Turns a bit this way when she starts filming the titular porno, as it gives her more confidence. The other cast members nickname her Nikki Fuller-Shit.
652* ICouldaBeenAContender: She'd been a gymnast in her youth and trained alongside another girl who ended up hitting the big time. She notes that while the other girl got the talent, she got tits instead.
653* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Genuinely cares about her friends.
654* ManipulativeBitch: In ''Dead Men's Trousers'', Renton describes her and Dianne as having ripped him off once they got away from Sick Boy.
655* WeightWoe: She's implied to have some sort of eating disorder, as she's constantly making herself throw up.
656[[/folder]]
657
658[[folder:Hazel [=McLeod=] ]]
659
660Mark's on-again, off-again "girlfriend of convenience".
661
662%%* BrokenBird
663%%* DarkAndTroubledPast
664* ParentalIncest: She was raped by her father.
665[[/folder]]
666
667[[folder:Kelly]]
668
669Mark's LoveInterest in the book.
670
671* CatchPhrase: "Too radge!", though this is mostly limited to her narration.
672* DemotedToExtra: Had narration duties in ''Trainspotting''. She is barely mentioned in ''Porno'', and only appears a few times throughout ''Skagboys''.
673%%* NiceGirl
674[[/folder]]
675
676[[folder:Allison Lozinska]]
677->Played by Susan Vidler
678Spud's LoveInterest and a friend of the group.
679
680* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Played with. She dated Billy Renton in her teens and has a casual relationship with Sick Boy. But she ends up with Spud who, despite burning his brain out on all manner of drugs and stealing from anyone, is very much a sweet guy.
681* AscendedExtra: In ''Porno'' (to an extent) and ''Skagboys'', where she gets narration duties.
682* BewareTheNiceOnes
683* CompositeCharacter: In the film she is combined with Lesley (who was the mother of the baby in the novel) and isn't shown again after the cot death scene. Strangely, her role in ''Porno'' is merged with Gail in ''Film/T2Trainspotting''.
684* StrawFeminist: Has a bit of this going on in ''Trainspotting''.
685[[/folder]]
686
687[[folder:Lesley]]
688
689A buxom barmaid and friend of the group. [[TearJerker Her baby daughter, Dawn, dies]] in the book and film.
690
691* NotWhatItLooksLike: She and Rents ''want'' to shag on Hogmanay 1985, but he's too bombed out to get it up, so they just literally sleep in the nude together. Spud and some others find them like this, and Renton's denial tells them that he "did" slip her a length. As opposed to if he had boasted about it, whereby nobody would believe that they did it.
692** A CallForward to the original novel, where Mark was briefly accused of impregnating her and leaving the baby to die of cot death.
693[[/folder]]
694
695[[folder:Gail Houston]]
696->Played by Creator/ShirleyHenderson
697Davie's (Spud's in the films) girlfriend.
698
699* AscendedExtra: To a small extent in the films.
700* CompositeCharacter: Seems to be taking Allison's part from ''Porno'' in the film's sequel.
701[[/folder]]
702
703[[folder:June Begbie (nee Chisolm/Taylor)]]
704
705Begbie's abused ex girlfriend. Raised two of his sons almost exclusively while he was doing time in Saughton. Note that her name isn't ''actually'' Begbie, but she took it on regardless in some kind of needy obsession with him.
706
707* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: To her great, great cost, as Renton snarkily observes.
708[[/folder]]
709
710[[folder:Melanie Francis]]
711
712Begbie's new wife, an American 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.
713[[/folder]]
714
715!!Family Members
716
717[[folder:Davie and Cathy Renton]]
718->Played by Creator/JamesCosmo and Eileen Nicholas
719Mark's folks. They are quite understandably devastated about his addiction, [[spoiler:along with the deaths of their other two sons]]. They try everything in their power to get him off the skag.
720
721* AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents: In fairness, Renton can make the feeling go both ways with his addiction and cynicism.
722* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: Both of them are devastated by Renton's heroin addiction and regularly lecture him about it but they do not give up on him and try to do what they can to help him kick his drug habit. In the movie, after Renton ends up in a hospital due to an overdose [[ToughLove they lock in a room and force him to go cold turkey]] which is the moment that helps Renton kickstart his recovery from heroin addiction.
723* DeathByAdaptation: Cathy's alive in ''Literature/{{Porno}}'' but dies between the two movies. This is [[CanonImmigrant worked into the books]], as Cathy dies between ''Porno'' and ''Dead Men's Trousers''.
724* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: They're completely taken in by Sick Boy and Begbie's public personas, and regard Spud with suspicion and contempt.
725* {{Hypocrite}}: Mark steals some Valium from his mother, "who is, in her own domestic and socially acceptable way, also a drug addict"
726* PutOnABus: They've moved by the events of ''Porno''. It's mentioned that Mark visits them but the reader never sees them.
727* ToughLove: Them making Mark give up Heroin cold turkey.
728[[/folder]]
729
730[[folder:"Wee" Davie Renton]]
731The tragically disabled younger brother of Mark. A PosthumousCharacter in ''Trainspotting'', he is depicted in ''Skagboys'' as having a vanishingly rare combination of cystic fybrosis, muscular dystrophy and severe autism. The difficulty of caring for him and the social stigma of having "such a freak" for a son/brother weighs hard on the other Rentons, and he sadly dies young by drowning on his own drool. His all-too-short life is celebrated in a bang-up funeral which allows for a rare feeling of love and bonhomie between the main lads.
732
733* AdaptedOut: Isn't mentioned in the movie and is implied not to exist in the stage play continuity because [[spoiler:Mrs. Renton mentions she's already lost one son, referring to Billy]].
734%%* BuryYourDisabled
735* DoomedByCanon: If you're reading ''Skagboys'' after ''Trainspotting'' then you know what will happen to him.
736[[/folder]]
737
738[[folder:Billy Renton]]
739The elder brother of Mark, serving in the British Army. The two are constantly at odds with one another, dating back to their childhood years. Billy and his mates are Hearts supporters or "Jambos", in contrast to Renton and co's Hibernian team. When Billy isn't in deployment, he's often engaged in petty and violent crime with his buddies, and he has actually been in trouble with the law a lot more than the misunderstood Mark. Albeit, his misdemeanours never rivalled Begbie's shocking acts. [[spoiler: Billy is killed by an IRA attack, and Renton is forced to endure the Protestant members of the family at the funeral along with army representatives.]] Renton [[{{Pun}} gets acquainted]] with Billy's girlfriend Shannon in retaliation.
740
741* AdaptedOut: Wasn't in the movie.
742%%* BigBrotherBully
743* CharacterDeath: [[spoiler: Killed by an IRA attack in the first book]].
744%%* DomesticAbuse
745%%* ParentalFavoritism
746* SociopathicSoldier: Quite possibly a Type 1. He supports Hearts, a stereotypically Protestant/Unionist team and seems to be in favour of keeping Ulster British. Plus one could interpret his squaddie duties as a natural extension of his bullying and loutish behaviour. [[BloodKnight He's presumably unable to take a regular job, so he signs on for a further tour of duty]].
747-->'''Billie:''' "I cannae stick civvie street!"
748[[/folder]]
749
750[[folder:Joe Begbie]]
751
752Franco's elder brother. While they hated each other growing up, they now seem to be on better, if largely indifferent terms. Joe is also violent but has a better control on his temper than Franco. He occasionally acts as a mediator for the Generalissimo's random acts of brutality, or to set up an appointment [[SarcasmMode should you want to visit him in prison]]. Conversely, Beggars sometimes cites sticking up for him as a flimsy excuse to attack whoever he likes across Edinburgh's schemes.
753
754* TheAlcoholic: Definitely in middle age.
755* BigBrotherBully: Beat Franco frequently as youths, until the wee lad figured to [[AxCrazy attack him with a half brick in his sleep]].
756* FootballHooligans: Introduces some of the group to the ''Literature/{{Glue}}'' boys before their epic battle against Rangers circa 1980.
757* RetiredBadass: While he might still go out looking for fights and to get trashed on alcohol, he seems to have simmered down somewhat in middle age. He's got a wife and two kids and is better in both capacities than Franco could ever dream of; at least until their divorce and his enstangement from his family. He quite possibly even holds down a regular job, unlike his brother who relies on criminal activity and dole handouts to get by (at least, until he became a shock sculpture artist).
758[[/folder]]
759
760[[folder:Elspeth Begbie]]
761
762-> ''"Since when did ''you'' start caring about good manners?"''
763
764The much younger sister of Joe and Franco. Unlike her brothers, she doesn't have an inclination towards violence, alcoholism or criminality. She holds down a stable life, marrying a successful man named Greg (their marital last name is unknown) and having two ordinary sons with him. Her relationship with Franco has always been strained, and particularly so when she brings him home from California in 2015 by informing him of a family loss. She is suspicious about his apparent reformation, and observes his investigation into the incident with growing trepidation and eventually a fair amount of estrangement. Views Joe in similar contempt for being a [[TheAlcoholic jakey waster]], albeit one not as malevolent as Franco. She comes round to Frank's change of heart in ''Dead Men's Trousers'' when it emerges that [[spoiler: she's had a hysterectomy]].
765
766* 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''.
767[[/folder]]
768
769[[folder:Carlotta [=McCorkindale=] (nee Williamson)]]
770
771-> ''"You are a total fucking bastard. You wreck people's lives tae gie yirsel cheap thrills!"''
772
773One of Sick Boy's younger sisters, clearly named for her Italian heritage. She shares her brother's good looks, attention-demanding eyes and Leither-Italiano passionate personality. Has a son, Ross, with her husband Euan. In younger life, she had a minimal role in the novels, just doting with her sister Louisa over Simon when he's back up from London and cooking with their mother. But in ''Dead Mens's Trousers'', she takes a more prominent role, precipitated by her husband's infidelity and Sick Boy's machinations.
774
775* AscendedExtra: Had scarcely a line until ''Dead Men's Trousers''.
776[[/folder]]
777
778!!Drug Dealers
779
780Edinburgh and Leith's drug distributers. While they are mostly on good terms with the junkies, they are all definitely bad news. Each has a penchant for [[TheAggressiveDrugDealer addicting young girls to heroin]] and then [[HookersAndBlow mercilessly pimping them out for more fixes, cash flow or first dibs on their bodies]][[note]]Sick Boy himself also shares this unfortunate method of control, although he's rather less interested in actually dealing drugs[[/note]]. Some, however, are more agreeable than others.
781
782[[folder:Johnny "Mother Superior" Swan]]
783->Played by Peter Mullan
784Yet another of Renton and Sick Boy's teenage friends, playing amateur football for a small local team. He got deep into the seedy underside of Edinburgh in the eighties, becoming a long term dealer and user. He's one of the friendlier hustlers, at least superficially.
785
786* AbhorrentAdmirer: Towards Alison and Leslie.
787* AffablyEvil: For a drug dealer, he's generally a nice guy so long as you don't get in his way.
788* AnArmAndALeg: His tendency to shoot heroin into his leg ended up leaving it infected and requiring amputation.
789* DeathByAdaptation: In ''Film/T2Trainspotting'', Sick Boy mentions that he passed away some time between films, whereas in ''Porno'' he is mentioned to have made his way to Thailand, despite having had his leg amputated. In the books, he's dead by the time ''Dead Men's Trousers'' rolls around.
790* TheGadfly: Is this during his rehabilitation stint, where he delights in stirring the pot to his and other more sadistic attendant's amusement. Notably when he begins lovingly describing the sensation of shooting up to a company going through withdrawal, or when he creates a tape for their rec room filled entirely with songs referencing drugs on one side, and songs regarding death and suicide on the other.
791* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: While he tries to live up to his "Nae friends in this game, jist associates" motto, and is about as self-centered and predatory as the rest when it comes to skag, he does often crack to show a more jovial or caring side. Most notably when Alison loses her mother to cancer and is surprised by how emphatically Johnny is in comforting her.
792* MeaningfulName: He became a dealer in order to fund his own addiction. His nickname comes from how long he's had his habit.
793* PhonyVeteran: Starts begging after he loses his leg saying that he lost it in UsefulNotes/TheFalklandsWar.
794[[/folder]]
795
796[[folder:Raymond "Raymie" Airlie]]
797A dealer in Tollcross who serves as Johnny's sidekick. Known for his CloudcuckooLander behavior and for spouting [[WordSalad bizarre, nonsensical phrases]].
798
799%%* AffablyEvil
800* AmbiguouslyBi: He jokingly kisses Sick Boy in the first chapter as he prepares to shoot heroin.
801* CloudcuckooLander
802* OutOfCharacterMoment: Speaks normally under the influence of acid in the short story ''A Smart Cunt'', though it could be part of the narrator's hallucinations.
803* SatelliteCharacter / {{Sidekick}}: To Johnny.
804[[/folder]]
805
806[[folder:Michael "Mikey/Miguel" Jacob Forrester]]
807->Played by Creator/IrvineWelsh
808A hardman from Muirhouse, who hangs around very sketchy characters while punting class As in his scheme. Instantly dislikes Renton due to him pulling a random bint he had a crush on, and the feeling is mutual.
809
810%%* AbhorrentAdmirer
811* AscendedExtra: He has a more expanded role in ''Dead Men's Trousers'', having gotten Spud into the illegal organ trade.
812* CatapultNightmare: In the movie when realising he bought 2 kilogrammes of heroin the night before.
813* CreatorCameo: Played by the book's author, Irvine Welsh.
814* FriendlyEnemy: With him and Rents, it's purely business. They resented each other greatly from their first meeting. It's explained in the books that Rents slept with a girl Mikey was into and he'd never forgiven him since.
815* TheFriendNobodyLikes: Mark just tolerates him because he supplies his drugs.
816* SleepsWithEveryoneButYou: His hatred of Renton is explainled in ''Literature DeadMensTrousers''. A woman was stringing Mikey along for months to get free drugs then casually slept with Mark.
817[[/folder]]
818
819[[folder:Craig "Seeker" Liddel]]
820
821Probably the most violent, scary dealer in town; on par with Begbie for sheer menace. Procures a highly potent strain of heroin from a Gorgie pharmaceutical factory, forming the original source of skag for the city. But when his inside man gets caught he angrily turns him into an (unwilling) national courier. Gets thrown into rehab along with the lads, but unlike most of the patients there he genuinely wants to get off heroin so that he can focus full time on dealing. He sticks to this plan, but by the time of ''Porno'' he's not changed for the better in any perceivable fashion.
822
823* AscendedExtra: He's mentioned a few times throughout ''Trainspotting'', but never makes an appearance. He makes an appearance in ''Porno'', and is quite prominent in ''Skagboys'' towards the end.
824* BadassBiker: Got himself into a nasty accident. What with all the metalwork from the surgery, he now relies on heroin to soothe his pains over the winter.
825* CharacterDeath: [[spoiler: Revealed in ''The Blade Artist'' to have been killed by Begbie in a carpark after several previous altercations]].
826%%* CoolShades
827%%* DoNotCallMePaul
828* EvilIsNotWellLit: While his light sensitivity could be said to provide one of his few sympathies, it certainly adds to his menace.
829* MeaningfulName: It lends itself to several interpretations.
830** He seeks drugs, junkies and lassies to further his nefarious interests.
831** He simply seeks to bring out the bad in everyone while attempting to degrade the good.
832** In Welsh's vernacular, "seek" is the equivalent of sick. He is one of the few individuals who you could make a fine case for being more twisted and manipulative than Sick Boy, so he's "sicker".
833* SunglassesAtNight: Due to a biking accident, he's seen with shades even indoors (despite Scotland's usual terrible weather).
834* TheUnseen: At least until ''Porno'' and ''Skagboys''.
835[[/folder]]
836
837[[folder:Michael "Skreel"]]
838
839A 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.
840
841* 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.
842
843[[/folder]]
844

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