History Characters / ArrestedDevelopmentTheBluths

* ItsAllAboutMe: All of the Bluths have very self-centered world views (Except Buster), even the comparatively good-natured Michael. George Michael was the notable exception to this prior to season 4, where he also began showing off his selfish side.

* {{Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist}}s: Their corrupt behavior mixed with a social awkwardness causes them to suffer constantly.

* AttentionWhore: To the point that he's willing to steal the attention away from her girlfriend during her interview after feeling so uncomfortable playing the supportive role. Though his attention-seeking is most likely because his parents hardly paid attention to him simply due to the fact that they don't care much for him.

* MasculineGirlFeminineBoy: Maeby's Masculine Girl and George Michael's Feminine Boy

* MasculineGirlFeminineBoy: Maeby's Masculine Girl and George Michael's Feminine Boy.

Michael's brother, Buster is a neurotic adult man who often acts like a child. He has severe MommyIssues, and has a relationship with his mother's best friend Lucille Austero. [[labelnote:Spoiler Information]]In Season 2, Lucille enlists him in the army to make herself look good to a Michael Moore lookalike. He escapes Army duty when his hand is bitten off by a loose seal in "Out on a Limb"/"Hand to God" and he gets a {{hook|hand}} replacement. His real father is Oscar, not George.[[/labelnote]]

* ButtMonkey: A socially awkward and nerdy NervousWreck, Buster was too sheltered by his mother to survive the real world. Plus he's the only one to have permanently lost a limb.

* ExtremeDoormat: To his domineering mother, who frequently makes him docile and submissive to her. Especially she blows cigarette smoke in his mouth because their apartment building won't allow smoking and Lucille's ankle bracelet prevents her from heading to the balcony to blow the smoke outside.

* LovableCoward: Buster is one of the most endearing and sweet-natured characters, he's still a wimpy person with panic attacks and social anxiety.

* NervousWreck: He suffers from frequent panic attacks, and has since childhood. They seem to dissipate the further he gets away from his mother's influence, but [[spoiler:return in a big way in Season 4, when he realizes the piloting "game" he's playing was actually piloting a real drone in Afghanistan, and he has been killing real people the entire time.]]
* NiceGuy: Consistently the only Bluth to do the right thing and to support his siblings unequivocally - he helps GOB with his illusions frequently despite GOB's constant mistreatment of him, is the only family member to not sell his stock on Michael's request, and takes care of Lucille 2 during her many dizzy spells. However, most family members don't appreciate this and just consider him an erratic NervousWreck.
* NoSocialSkills: While most of the Bluth family don't really know to interact with others, Buster is arguably the most socially oblivious because he spents most of his life with his standoffish and condescending mother.

* SpoiledSweet: Out of all the Bluth, Buster is the most sheltered and pampered, but is also the nicest and well-meaning. Of course this is quite {{downplayed|Trope}} in that Lucile doesn't exactly spoil Buster, but rather keeps Buster from learning to take care of himself so she can keep him under her control.
* StartOfDarkness: Season 5 reveals [[spoiler:he accidentally murdered his grandmother in cold blood over a simple misunderstanding, and Lucille's reaction was to hypnotize him into believing Lucille murdered her and Buster is just taking the blame to protect her, allowing him to contextualize himself as a hero rather than a killer. Her intentions may have been good, but the end result was a sharp increase to their already unhealthily-close relationship, and a very unstable man.]]
* TokenGoodTeammate: Buster may be emotionally unstable and immature and maybe a tad awkward, eccentric and introverted, but he's not as selfish and self-absorbed as most of the Bluth Family and is generally innocent to his family's antics. [[spoiler:Or is he?]]

* ObnoxiousEntitledHousewife: She's a formerly wealthy, pampered, selfish, AbusiveParent who is often racist, very rude to service staff ("Take it back! If I wanted something your thumb touched, I'd eat the inside of your ear!", homophobic, a DramaQueen with a well-coiffed bob, has encouraged a poor self-image for her daughter Lindsey by mocking her slender daughter's weight, keeps her grown son Buster wrapped around her manicured finger and looks down on anyone more poor or hard-working than she.

* OddFriendship: Him and Tobias get along together arguably better than they do with any other family member, likely because they're both pariahs of the family who chase impossible dreams. When GOB is looking for a friend, Tobias offers up dinner plans after [=GOB=] Has already left. Not to mention they started [=GOBias=] Industries together. The only reason we don't see it develop is because it's [[RuleOfFunny funnier]] to watch everyone on the show be miserable.

* TheUnfavorite: George Sr. and Lucille treat all their kids like crap, but GOB gets the worst of it by ''far''. While Lindsay and Buster are their respective favorites, both are well aware of how much they count on Michael and are even, occasionally, proud of him and express genuine love for him. They both just consider Gob a nightmare (though in the first two seasons George Sr. occasionally gets moments with GOB that imply he cares about him to a small degree, and loves him more than Buster, who isn't even his child). It probably puts it into perspective how badly he’s treated when Lucille claims she treats Lindsay better—the one she calls fat at least twice an episode.
-->'''Lucille:''' If you’re saying I play favorites, you’re wrong. I love all my children equally!\\

'''Lucille''': I don’t care for GOB.

* ThrowTheDogABone: George Sr. finally plays a game of catch with his son when they're both in prison, and have a good time of it until GOB is shanked. Season 4, while seeing him at his lowest, also shows him [[spoiler: making a genuine friend, and likely falling in love with, Tony Wonder, as well as managing to inadvertently side-step his parents' casual scheme of making him the scapegoat of their wall building escapade.]]

* AccidentalMarriage: [[spoiler:With Maeby in the Season 3 episode "Fakin' It". They didn’t know the priest was real (and the priest wasn't told it was a mock wedding)]].

* BookDumb: In her twenties, she doesn’t understand what "solve for X" is even ''asking'', let alone how to do it. In "Pier Pressure", she and her mother are proud of her getting a C minus on a test.

'''Lindsay''': Did you even study?\\
'''Maeby''': No. I didn't.\\
'''Lindsay''': Wow. How impressive is that!

* CatchPhrase: "Marry me!" as a standard deflection, particularly when she illicitly becomes a film executive, or "That was a freebie..." for unusual luck.
* CharacterizationMarchesOn: In earlier episodes, Maeby seemed more childish; the second episode showing her jumping on the bed and singing “Oops I Did It Again” in the shower. This aspect was quietly dropped to focus on how much more ‘adult’ she was than George Michael.

* GenerationXerox: She inherited Lindsey's tendency to make decisions just to get a reaction from their parents that ultimately screw them over in the long run (e.g. marrying Tobias, [[spoiler:failing high-school four times]]).

* HighSchoolHustler: Engages in rather elaborate cons to get ahead or avoid doing work throughout her high school career. [[spoiler: It reaches a point where, by season 4, she successfully conned her high school into allowing her to continue attending it ''into her twenties''.]]

* LaserGuidedKarma: [[spoiler:In season 4, tries to seduce a man who she thinks is an undercover cop into sleeping with her so she can blackmail him for statutory rape. However, it turns out that he’s really only 17 (his bracelet indicated his membership in an anti-bullying organization) and since she’s 23 is arrested and taken to jail by a real undercover cop for being a sexual predator.]]

* ManicPixieDreamGirl: Maeby shows shades of this, especially in early episodes. Season 4 then heavily deconstructs it; she tries so hard to draw George Michael out of a shell that no longer exists that [[spoiler:he decides to part ways with her because all she accomplishes is putting a ridiculously unwarranted amount of pressure on him. Her ‘manic pixie’-dom makes it impossible for her to listen to George Michael’s objections until he has to forcibly fire her from his ‘company’.]]

'''George Michael''': What do you mean? Is that something you can do with people?\\
'''Maeby''': Yeah. Once I learned how to do it with my parents, it was easy with everyone else. Like a heart switch. Click: I love you! Click: I love you not! Can’t you do that?\\
'''George Michael''': No, but in my defense, I’m not a sociopath.\\

'''Maeby''': [[IResembleThatRemark Click]].
* {{Tuckerization}}: Mitch Hurwitz’s daughters are named Maisie and Phoebe, making her name an amalgamation of theirs.
* TheUglyGuysHotDaughter: It's a wonder how Maeby manages to be as good-looking as she is with Tobias as a father. This helps fuel the ongoing discussion of whether or not he really ''is'' her father. [[spoiler: He is.]]

* CatchPhrase: "Hey, brother/hermano/nephew/etc. ..."
** After he [[spoiler:loses his hand and requires a {{hook|Hand}} prosthetic]]: '''“I’m a monster!”'''
* CloudCuckooLander: Buster's easily the most educated of the Bluth kids, but at the start of the show has almost zero real world experience, making him think that the army gives out plush dolls for accomplishments.

* GracefulLoser: He's surprisingly calm and accepting of his fate when [[spoiler: it's proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that he killed Lucille Austero and tried to hide the body]].

* HookHand: [[spoiler: He gets one after a seal bites off his hand in Season 2, and again in Season 4, this time jewel-encrusted.]]

* MayDecemberRomance: With Lucille “Lucille Two” Austero.

* OutOfFocus: In season four; [[RealLifeWritesThePlot reality interfered to make it so]]. Tony Hale’s [[Series/{{Veep}} cumbersome]] [[WesternAnimation/SanjayAndCraig schedule]] during the filming of season 4 is the reason for his character arc being mostly divorced from the rest of the family members’.

--->'''Buster''': I saw [GOB] last night at the Playtime Pizza Theater, on my date. Of which I have another one tonight, and I'm going to continue dating, ''Mom!''\\
'''Michael''': Heh, sounded a little bit like "dating Mom".\\
'''Buster''': Yeah, it's starting to feel a little like it...

** [[spoiler: Ultimately played straight by the Season 5 finale, where it's revealed that not only did he kill his own grandmother (albeit in childhood and by accident), but also Lucille Austero.]]

* SpoiledSweet: Out of all the Bluth, Buster is the most sheltered and pampered, but is also the nicest and well-meaning. Of course this is quite {{downplayed}} in that Lucile doesn't exactly spoil Buster, but rather keeps Buster from learning to take care of himself so she can keep him under her control.

* TokenGoodTeammate: Buster may be emotionally unstable and immature and maybe a tad awkward, eccentric and introverted, but he's not as selfish and self-absorbed as most of the Bluth Family and is generally innocent to his family's antics. [[spoiler: Or is he?]]

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: In season 4. [[spoiler: As the narrator notices, Tobias does finally get a starring role in a TV show like he always wanted. [[MistakenForPedophile Unfortunately]], this is John Beard’s ''To Entrap a Local Predator''.]]

--> '''Tobias:''' You know, Mother Lucille, there's a psychological concept known as "denial" that I believe you're evincing. It's when a thought is so hateful that the mind literally rejects it.
--> '''Lucille:''' [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech You are a worse psychiatrist than you are a son-in-law, and you will never get work as an actor, because you have no talent.]]
--> '''Tobias:''' ''(beat)'' ...Well, if she's not going to say anything, I certainly can't help her. ''(walks off-screen)''

* MistakenForPedophile: [[spoiler:Tobias, in his usual bumbling fashion, manages to accidentally get involved in John Beard’s ''To Catch a Predator'' ripoff. And, not realizing what he has gotten himself into and bumbling further along, [[DiggingYourselfDeeper he inadvertently digs himself deeper]] by saying things like “Is there a little girl alone here?” and, equally incriminating, “Daddy needs to get his rocks off.” (ItMakesSenseInContext.) As a result he is arrested and registered as a sex offender.]]

* TheUnfettered: The quality that makes him as unsympathetic as the rest of the family. While comparatively kind and well meaning, Tobias' ignorant refusal to accept that he has no acting talent and put his actual skills to use to earn a considerable amount of money for the family ends up making him come off as a selfish idiot. It gets even worse in season 4, where he [[spoiler: singlehandidly destroys a woman's life in pursuit of his dream]].
* UnnecessaryCombatRoll: {{Parodied}}. When standing up from a sofa, getting onto a stage, attempting to evade a blind woman whose house he's just broken into at close quarters... Tobias is extremely fond of these. Unfortunately, they're incredibly awkward and usually land wrong, so he more often than not ends up lying on his side rather than coming back to upright. But you have to hand it to the guy, he ''is'' agile, and silent as a cat!

-->'''George [[spoiler:and Larry]]''': Yeah, with the exception of the [[spoiler:retard]] thing. ''(beat)'' Oh, God. Tell me you didn’t just say that.

* MurderIsTheBestSolution: Poisoned two of Michael’s teachers when he received failing grades, [[spoiler:and attempts to do it again to Donny Richter]].

* TwinSwitch: [[spoiler: Very fond of doing this with Oscar, especially to move the plot along. This ends up taken quite literally in Season 4, where George Sr. starts acting like Oscar, and Oscar starts acting like George Sr. It's implied that ingesting maca root reversed the brothers' testosterone and estrogen levels, causing them to slowly take on the other's characteristics over time.]]

-->'''Franklin, by GOB''': ''(in British accent)'' You've ruined the act, GOB.

* NamedAfterSomebodyFamous: Takes his name from [[UsefulNotes/{{FDR}} Franklin Delano Roosevelt]].

* HeroesWantRedheads: Michael has a tendency to fall for redheads as they remind him of Tracey.

* AmbiguouslyJewish: According to creator Mitchell Hurwitz, "we can't quite decide if the Bluths are Jewish or not." Given the Germanic/Ashkenazic origins of the name "Bluth" and George Sr.'s religious conversion in jail, it seems likely that they're at least half-Jewish on his side.

* PunctuatedForEmphasis: At the climax of her Season 4 storyline, she ends up demanding [[spoiler:“PUT! UP! THIS! WALL!”]]

* IncestSubtext: With his mother. His relationships with Lucille 2 and [[spoiler:Ophelia Love]] fall apart because he wants them to mother him, rather than be his girlfriend.

* BlackSheep: One in his family, in that he does work hard and is generally a decent person, at least in the earlier seasons.

* BlackSheep: Really, since it’s the Bluths, everyone who doesn’t have “Michael” in their name counts as one (besides maybe Buster), but Gob is the only one considered as such by the entire family, especially as Gob and Michael are often in competition with each other, while Lindsay and Buster don’t really factor in to the larger scheme of the Bluth empire.

* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Due to "Annyeong" being the most common spelling of the Korean word. Also applies to his real name, which is usually Romanized [[spoiler:"Haru"]].

In Season 4, he becomes romantically involved with a former actress and methadone addict named [=DeBrie=] Bardeaux. [[labelnote:Spoiler Information]]Tobias looks to make a new start in life (symbolised by his new license plate, "ANUSTART") after his trip to India. He is sent to prison as a registered sex offender after a run-in with John Beard, and ends up co-ordinating a Franchise/FantasticFour musical with Argyle Austero. He was last seen in Marky Bark's boat, with both of them getting caught in an explosion.[[/labelnote]]

* NotSoAboveItAll: [[spoiler:His Bluth traits start to show during his storyline in Season 4, most notably the power of lying. It's even implied that, much like his Uncle GOB, George Michael even likely has his own illegitimate kid during his stay in Mexico.]]

* AnArmAndALeg: [[spoiler:Loses his hand when a [[IncrediblyLamePun loose seal]] bites it off.]]

'''George Michael''': No, but in my defense, I’m not a sociopath.

* OverprotectiveDad: After hints of it in the first three seasons, it balloons in Season 4 when he tries to monopolize all of George Michael's time and attention while the latter is in college.

* BigScrewedUpFamily: Um, ''yes''.

'''Barry:''' You're kidding me. I've been taking credit for that for ''years!''