Characters / Glee New Directions Later Additions

While New Directions started out with only six members, many other students joined its ranks. Also note that spoilers are unmarked.

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Quinn Fabray

Lucy Quinn Fabray

Status is like currency. When your bank account is full, you can get away with doing just about anything. But right now, we're like toxic assets!

Portrayed by: Dianna Agron

Voiced by: Maggie Vera (Latin-American Spanish)

Former head of the Cheerios and formerly the Celibacy Club, and Finn's ex-girlfriend. She joined New Directions in order to spy for Sue, but grew to like it since they were the only ones not to ostracize her for being pregnant. After claiming it was Finn Hudson's child, she gave birth to Noah Puckerman's daughter Beth (later put up for adoption). By season 5, she and Puck rekindle their relationship.

Quinn is usually an alto singer, though she is most comfortably a low contralto.

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• Academic Alpha Bitch: In truth, part of her keeping up her Alpha Bitch In Charge persona is actually making Honor Roll and flaunting her intelligence.
• Academic Athlete: Captain of the cheerleading squad, Quinn is not just an award winning athlete but also maintains a 4.0 GPA while getting pregnant and giving birth to a girl, all while being an active member of the Glee club.
• Aesop Amnesia: Everything she learned during her pregnancy about how there's more to life than social standing goes right out the window in the second season.
• Age-Gap Romance: In her first appearance in season 4, Quinn eventually reveals she's sleeping with a professor nearly twice her age at Yale.
• All Guys Want Cheerleaders: When she was part of the Cheerios, all the guys swooned over her.
• All of the Other Reindeer: She was bullied for being fat once.
• Aloof Big Sister: Quinn's sister Frannie, though most fans don't know because she was only mentioned once and has never appeared.
• Alpha Bitch: Early on in the show she's a cold and cruel popular girl. With character development she both loses her popularity and becomes a lot nicer in season 2, when she regained her status, this was zig-zagged with Lovable Alpha Bitch.
• The Beard: At the beginning, Quinn was afraid that since Finn joined the Glee Club, she'd be viewed as this.
  Quinn: People think you're gay now, Finn. And do you know what that makes me? Your big gay beard!
• Beta Couple:
  • Quinn and Sam in the first half of season 2.
  • Quinn and Puck in the longer run. They're nowhere near stable, but their relationship somehow mirrors Finn and Rachel's, with the soul mates leitmotif, going on and off, but proving to be 'the one' at the story's turning points. Also both of the pairings are sort of by-products of each other.
• Betty and Veronica: An even more complicated case than Rachel as she has two potential love interests; Puck and Finn. In Finn's case, she could be seen as both the Veronica (as she is the Alpha Bitch in comparison to Rachel's girl next door) or as the Betty (her Christian upbringing in comparison to Rachel's control freak and overbearing personality). In Puck's case she is firmly the Betty to Santana's Veronica. (Although this is complicated in Season 2 by adding Lauren into the mix as the Official Couple with Puck.)
• Break the Haughty: The "Baby Gate" certainly knocks her down a thousand of pegs.
• Broken Bird: Almost certainly as of Season 3.
• Butt-Monkey: Sometimes, it comes across that the writers really hate the character, despite how popular she is with fans.
• Christianity is Catholic: In-show, averted, as Quinn is clearly an evangelical Protestant. However, many fanfic writers don't understand this and depict her as attending what is clearly a Catholic church.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: After having sex with Santana at Mr. Schue's wedding in "I Do" in the fourth season, she is almost never seen or heard from again.
  • Notably, she doesn't even appear at Finn's memorial in "The Quarterback", despite being his ex-girlfriend, one of his closer friends, and a former member of New Directions.
  • It transpires that neither Quinn nor Rachel have been shown using their rail passes to visit each other.
  • She finally returns for the two-part hundredth episode in Season 5, just in time to wrap up her and Puck's character arcs and get together before the glee club side of the story temporally wrapped. They sing what at the time was the last song ever to be sung in the choir room.
  • And then she misses Brittany and Santana's wedding in season six. It's especially jarring not only because she's a part of the Unholy Trinity, but because she was available and present in the beginning of the season, just three episodes earlier or so.
  • And finally, she and Puck don't get any coverage in the five-year flash forward.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Far from the worst, but some of her motivations are... interesting. Notably pursuing a relationship with Finn because she wants to be prom queen, as she believes prom queens live 5 years longer than normal people.
• Commuting on a Bus: Dianna Agron left the show at the end of season 3, but would make at least one appearance in the following three seasons.
• The Confidant: Becomes this for Sam in "Rumours" after Sam's family loses their house and has to live out of a motel room and a car. She helps Sam out by babysitting his younger siblings and keeps the secret even under considerable duress when the WMHS rumor mill starts churning.
• Depending on the Writer: Especially at the beginning of Season 2 where a lot of her character development disappeared for awhile.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul": She hates being addressed by her Embarrassing First Name "Lucy".
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Has this reaction after being in a car accident and getting confined to a wheelchair.
• Easily Forgiven: She completely torments Rachel in early episodes who extends the olive branch only a few episodes later. Finn averts this by dumping her once he finds out she's been lying to him. It's revealed in "Throwdown" that at least some of Rachel's "sympathy" toward Quinn is faked, as a ploy to get closer to Finn.
  • Again in "Prom Queen" when Rachel comforts Quinn after the latter failed to be voted Queen even though Quinn had just slapped Rachel in the face. This time, the forgiveness and sympathy seem to be genuine.
• Embarrassing First Name: "Quinn" is her middle name. Her first name is "Lucy," which she dropped when she moved to McKinley after she got rid of her Formerly Fat self.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Lucy Caboosey.
• Evil Costume Switch: Dons pink hair, leather, an upside-down cross, and an "ironic" tattoo of Ryan Seacrest in season 3.
• Expy: the character of Quinn is essentially a retread of Dianna Agron's character on 'Heroes', Debbie Marshall.
• Fallen Princess: However, contrary to the the usual course the trope implies, Quinn actually seems to have ended up so far as a risen Princess (or upgraded to High Queen) due the dramatic changes in character.
  • Subverted in the season three premiere.
• Formerly Fat: Her backstory reveals that she used to be fat before moving to McKinley.
• Go-Getter Girl: She studies hard, is captain of the cheerleading squad, and will stop at nothing to be prom queen.
• Good Girls Avoid Abortion: Once she finds out she's pregnant, the religious Quinn doesn't even consider abortion. Possibly a Double Subversion in that her character is set up to be evil, then becomes more sympathetic.
• Heel–Face Turn: Quinn initially joins the glee club to spy for Sue in hopes that the demise of glee will be the end of Finn's interest in Rachel. But as the school learns of her pregnancy, only her fellow glee clubbers support her, while the popular kids bully her and she gets kicked off the Cheerios. By episode 12, Quinn is threatening to bring down the Cheerios unless Sue donates one of their yearbook pages to the glee club, and even tells Sue that she'd rather be in glee club.
• Ignored Epiphany: Quinn spends a year being ostracized by the entire school for being pregnant, and learns what it's like to be bullied. She befriends Mercedes, stays at her house, and even asks Mercedes to be there at the birth of her child. Then season 2 hits, and she's right back to being the bitchy cheerleader she was in the beginning, and her friendship with Mercedes disappeared.
  • Then when Will calls out on her total disregard for everything the Club gave her (including the kind aid Mercedes gave her), she resumes her rebellious attitude.
  • Then a subversion, she rejoins the Club only to put up a temporary changed-person facade to get Beth back.
• I Just Want to Be Loved: Said almost verbatim in "New York".
• I Just Want to Be Special: Quinn's main motivation in season 2 is climbing out of the unpopularity hole that was dug when she got pregnant last year, which means rejoining the Cheerios, getting Santana off her back, and not dating someone who could hurt her again.
• Inspirationally Disadvantaged: She tries to pull this during the run for senior prom queen, even though she can walk again by then. She dropped the act during her duet with Santana on stage, surprising the dance-floor.
• Instant Birth: Just Add Labor!: In "Journey", Quinn seems to give birth within a five or six minute time frame.
• Ivy League For Every One: She gets into Yale.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Though the heart of gold appears only during her Character Development.
• Karma Houdini: Her spying for Sue. Subverted in that her pregnancy and lying about the father of the baby DO have consequences.
• Laser-Guided Karma: She herself notes that she has cheated on her boyfriend twice: the first time, she got pregnant; the second time, she got mono (granted, that second time was thanks to Santana, but still drove the point home).
• Limited Wardrobe: Quinn wears her cheerleading uniform in every scene. Even when in a hot-tub at home, she wears the official bikini top variation. The only other outfits we've seen her in are Glee costumes... until she gets kicked out in episode 8.
• Manipulative Bitch: Even after her character development, she retains the habit of getting by by dishonesty and exploiting her reputation, for example by pretending she is still paralyzed in order to win Prom Queen.
• Meaningful Name: Not only does her name rhyme with her boyfriend Finn's but it's also only a few letters away from Queen. The name in Gaelic means "counsel," but also sounds like "Gwin," which means "fair, white, blessed," etc. Probably not an accident, given her equally Irish surname.
• Mistaken for Cheating: With Sam in "Rumours." It turned out, however, that she was merely being a good friend and helping him babysit his younger siblings.
• Morality Pet: Quinn's unborn child humanizes her and helps the audience sympathize with her.
• Nonconformist Dyed Hair: The very classically feminine and blonde popular girl Quinn goes through a short-lived rebellious phase in season three, which involves dyeing her hair pink, getting piercings, and dressing in dark colors.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Quinn real name is Lucy but she change it when she loses weight due to the horrible nickname kids gave her.
• Punk Rock:In season 3, she has turned punk and joined a girl gang, The Skanks. However she goes back to being normal at the end of " I am a Unicorn".
• The Perfectionist: More or less inferred from the way she's been acting.
• Pimped-Out Dress: Quinn's costume in the Lady Gaga episode is widely considered the most elegant out of the group; makes sense since it's based on a dress Gaga wore to the Grammys.
• Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer: Is suspiciously missing from at least most of the Season 3 promotional material, as a way to avoid spoilers. Before the series began, this was because her hair was died pink for the "skank" look, which was meant to be kept secret. She's also not present in the advertising for the series return from the break after episode 14, so as to keep it concealed whether she lived or died after the cliffhanger.
• Situational Sociability: Who'd have thought that the enigmatic Fille Fatale head cheerleader would be a complete Shrinking Violet around her family?
• Screaming Birth: She experiences typical pain accompanied by screaming as she's about to deliver Beth. Set to Bohemian Rhapsody, no less.
• Smoking Is Cool: In the Season 3 premiere, she takes up smoking after retooling her image into a punk one, culminating in her getting expelled for flicking her cigarette onto the piano and causing a school arson. Although she drops the habit later on.
• Stepford Smiler: Quinn tries to be one of these when she first discovers her pregnancy, but ultimately fails when Sue forces Jacob to disclose the story. It's implied that Quinn's mom is a grown-up version of this, as she figures out that Quinn is pregnant but refuses to acknowledge that she knew anything even after Finn tells her parents at the dinner table.
• Strawman Political: The idea of the Celibacy Club president getting pregnant is a pretty obvious send-up of abstinence-only sex education. Quinn's parents extend this to right-wing Christianity in general. And Quinn's ploy to get back on to the cheerleading squad at the beginning of Season 2 is a pretty obvious send-up of Bristol Palin.
• Teen Pregnancy: Her main storyline in the first season is her being pregnant at 16 with Puck, delivering their baby Beth in "Journey to Regionals", leading it to be one of the biggest in-jokes in the glee club seasons after.
• That Woman Is Dead: She desperately tries to forget that she was ever "Lucy Caboosey." Happens again in Season 3, when she becomes a pink-haired, smoking rebel and quits both the Cheerios and New Directions, explaining in a voice-over that she's "never going back." She does.
• Too Dumb to Live: Don't text while driving, especially not when you're in a hurry.
• Took a Level in Kindness: By season 2, when she dropped the Alpha Bitch attitude.
• Tsundere: ESPECIALLY when she's drunk (which is almost similar to Police Stop! footage of women undergoing the drink-drive DUI test, in a way)!
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: Many fans prefer to fantasize her ending up with Rachel instead of any of the male characters she's hooked up with because of this.
• Vocal Evolution: Her voice becomes noticeably deeper in season 3 and onwards.
• We Used to Be Friends: Had a serious spat with friend Santana in Season 2, though they seem to be on better terms in Season 3. Season 4 though...
• Well, Excuse Me, Princess!: She holds the bar for her boyfriends quite high and several times was pushing them (particularly Finn and Puck) to try harder for her. In the third season she just assumed that Puck would be basically her minion because he had once said he loved her. To illustrate how prissy she was, in the sixth season Santana, while wanting to make a jab at Kurt for being high-maintenance, called him "a more feminine" version of her.

Noah "Puck" Puckerman

Airman. Noah "Puck" Puckerman, USAF

Hey ankle grabber. I had sex with your mom. No, seriously. I cleaned your pool, and then I had sex with her — in your bed. Nice Star Wars sheets.

Portrayed by: Mark Salling

Voiced by: Carlos Díaz (Latin-American Spanish)

Finn's best friend and fellow football player. He is the true father of Quinn's baby, and eventual lover as of season 5. Although initially disdainful, he later joins Glee. As of the end of the series, he is an Airman in the Air Force.

Puck is a baritone singer with a limited range, singing as a baritenor but sometimes sustaining lower notes.

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• All for Nothing: After learning that Sue would be one of the judges at Regionals, Puck says this word for word.
• Ambiguously Brown: Subverted. Lauren is initially attracted to him when she thinks he's this, but was disappointed to learn that he's just a plain old white guy with a tan.
• Beta Couple: Him and Quinn in the longer run. They're nowhere near stable, but their relationship somehow mirrors Finn and Rachel's, with the soul mates leitmotif, going on and off, but proving to be 'the one' at the story's turning points. Also both of the pairings are sort of by-products of each other.
• The Beard: One fan theory was that Santana's extreme jealousy whenever Puck is with anyone else is because she believes that her relationship with him is what keeps people from figuring out she likes girls.
• Betty and Veronica: He is the Veronica twice-over to Finn in their triangles with Quinn and Rachel.
• Book Dumb: While hardly stupid, he clearly doesn't know very much about any academic subjects. The show really took this to town during Quinn's pregnancy, with Puck frequently displaying his ignorance of basic reproductive health.
• The Bully: Of the Jerk Jock variety. His first appearance is literally him slushy-ing Rachel.
• Can't Act Perverted Toward a Love Interest: For all his womanizing attitude, Puck is actually mostly respectful to both Quinn and Rachel when they were dating. Only if you forget the "sexting" and the "We were never friends" bits. When he and Lauren were dating, he was quite the gentleman...sometimes.
• The Casanova: He's portrayed as a womanizer since day one, and when he opens a pool business he finds himself sleeping with various single moms he works for.
• Chick Magnet: There's Quinn (mother of his baby), Rachel (with who he hooked up twice, the second time while she's with Finn), Santana (dated and had sex multiple times before she comes out), Brittany (both admitted having sex with each other before the series begin), Mercedes (they date during an episode of Season 1, and there's also quite a bit of Ship Tease later on), Lauren (his girlfriend in Season 2), Kitty (who he dates during most of Season 4) and Shelby (his baby's adoptive mom, with whom he has sex with in Season 3).
• Closet Geek: Mild version. He's still a jock and a self-style "badass" but has some nerdy tendencies, such as some very atypical musical tastes for your standard football-playing bully. He's also something of a Momma's Boy, and has a deep love for Super Mario Bros.. Also he plays the accordion.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Vocal Adrenaline covers New Directions' choir room in toilet paper. Puck's Response? Slice the tires of their cars.
• Easily Forgiven: His first appearance was him slushy-ing Rachel. A few episodes later she's dating him. Averted in that Finn flat out does not forgive him.
• Eating the Eye Candy: This appears to be Puck's modus operandi to seduce the older women in Lima and he causes this constantly to them, going as far as to spice it up with a nipple ring.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: In Season 5 when he comes back, he has a full head of it.
  • Also Season 1's "Laryngitis" episode, when he gets a Traumatic Haircut , shaving off his Mohawk and losing his status because of it.
• Fascinating Eyebrow: Puck at least indulges this once, as seen in “Ballads” during his inner monologue.
• Heel–Face Turn: In the first season, he's a bully and remains a jackass even after joining the Glee club (impregnating his best friend's girlfriend and all). However, his maturity grows over the course of the second season and he becomes one of the most dedicated members of the New Directions. In the third season, he is even attempting to be in his daughter's life.
• Heroic BSoD: Happens to him in "Special Education" after the football team locks him in a portable lavatory.
• Hot for Teacher: He covers this song in "Mash-Off," inspired by his feelings for Shelby Corcoran.
• Hypocritical Heartwarming: Puck mocks Kurt endlessly - but when Karofsky drives Kurt to Dalton, Puck's reaction is approximately, "You made my boy Kurt leave. You are therefore on the top of my hit list."
• I'm a Man; I Can't Help It: Puck's personal mantra; this is not amusing to Quinn in the least. This is even his defense when he's accused of posting the Glist in "Bad Reputation": If he were going to create a list ranking students by their sexual promiscuity, he would place himself at the top, not in the bottom five, like Quinn did.
• Important Haircut: Has one in the back nine that leads to him dropping most of his jerkass behavior.
  • By the end of Season 4, he grew a full head, symbolizing his maturity.
• I Take Offense to That Last One: In "Bad Reputation", he freely admits to 'owning' the activities of beating up people and such... but takes offense at even being asked if he's lied.
• Jerk Jock: Due to his popularity, he's boastful amongst his fellow Glee club mates and likes to belittle them for having more success than them.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Underneath it all, Puck seems genuinely upset about Quinn keeping him away from their baby in favor of Finn as the father. Taken even further in Season 3: Puck mentions in voice over that he's willing to put his obnoxious attitude and womanizing behavior to bed permanently in order to be with Shelby and to be a good father for Beth.
  • Season 4 seemed to flip flop with this; Puck seemed to have moments of regressions, but overall his maturity worn out... except for one episode that implied he slept with Kitty.
  • Season 5 completed his character development; he joined the Air Force, becoming Airman First Class, and he and Quinn finally got together for good.
• Karma Houdini: Downplayed, while he rarely faces consequences for his antagonism towards fellow Glee members and general bullying, his relationships with Finn and Quinn has suffered due to his actions.
• Ladykiller in Love: When he falls for Lauren Zizes after she batters Santana.
  • Also Quinn in season 1 but that got dropped out of nowhere by season 2.
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships: In-universe no less. He was linked to every female in the club except for Tina.
• Likes Older Women: He didn't get a job as a pool boy just for the money.
  Puck: I had sex with your mom. No, seriously: I cleaned your pool, and then I had sex with her... on your bed. Nice Star Wars sheets.
• Limited Wardrobe: After he joins the Air Force post-"The Quarterback," Puck is seen wearing his uniform in almost every appearance for the rest of the series. The only exception to this is when he is performing 'Take on Me' with the rest of the New Directions alumni in "Homecoming."
• Misfit Mobilization Moment: Although the confrontation never actually goes down, after New Directions learns about Jesse and Vocal Adrenaline egging Rachel, a furious Puck calls out to Matt and Mike to help him get revenge. He's soon joined by all the boys, even Kurt and Artie.
• Mr. Fanservice: An in-series one no less.
• Noble Demon:
  • Especially in season 2, where his more noble aspects are shown.
  • He did show some signs earlier on, for example when he lost his social status after shaving off his mohawk in the first season. At one point a group of wimpy kids lead by Jacob Ben Israel came to cement the change by throwing Puck into the trash. Instead of, say, beating them up, Puck resolved that it was only right, let them throw him into the dumpster with a hilariously serene expression and started to work back onto the social ladder the 'fair' way, by dating a cheerleader. Twisted as it was, at least he wasn't some mindless bully, but really respected the social order.
• Odd Friendship: With Artie, even though it starts due to Puck using Artie to fulfill his community service requirement. It gets noted in "Rumours" and "Prom Queen" where at the start of Artie's solo number ^note "Never Going Back Again" and "Isn't She Lovely" respectively, it's Puck that appears as the backup.
  • Also, his Pet the Dog moment with Becky in "Prom-A-Saurus."
  • His strongest Odd Friendship is with Coach Beiste.
• Only Known by Their Nickname
• Parental Neglect : Puck's mom, a single working mother, did not attend a single concert or football game in four years. This and his Disappeared Dad drive his desire to be part of Beth's life.
• Pizza Boy Special Delivery: Puck uses his pool cleaning job as an opportunity to service bored housewives.
• Popular Is Dumb: While Puck is notably more savvy and articulate than Finn and Brittany, he lacks quite a lot in the common sense department and is quite Book Dumb.
• Put on a Bus: Puck spent time in juvenile detention for stealing an ATM and was absent from two episodes. However, this was only a temporary case unlike Matt; Mark Salling wanted some time off to promote his original music. He would leave the show for good at the end of season 3, but would make at least one appearance in the following three seasons.
• Really Gets Around: Puck is this par excellence, as he's had countless sexual and romantic partners including Santana, Rachel, Mercedes, Quinn and countless housewives among Lima.
• Rousing Speech: Puck somehow manages to combine these in "The Sue Sylvester Shuffle".
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Puck's the Manly Man to Finn's Sensitive Guy.
• Shipper on Deck: As of "New York," he and the rest of New Directions' guys (Kurt included!) seem to be actively shipping Finn and Rachel.
• Token Minority Couple: Invoked. Puck uses his and Rachel's shared Judaism to get in her pants more than once after his mother told him to go date a nice Jewish girl.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Puck's relationship and friendship with the members of Glee borders of this.
• You Need to Get Laid: He himself notes that after he started sexing up older women, he didn't feel the need to beat up people nearly as much.

Santana Lopez

Santana Diabla Lopez-Pierce

The only straight I am is straight-up bitch.

Portrayed by: Naya Rivera

Voiced by Analiz Sánchez (Latin-American Spanish)

Quinn's catty cheerleader friend who joins Glee Club with her to help spy for Sue. She later struggles to come to terms with her sexuality in the latter half of season 2, eventually marrying her best friend and lover, Brittany. Santana is a contralto singer who can comfortably access the whole contralto and alto ranges.

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• Acquired Poison Immunity: She has built up a total immunity to mono.
• All Guys Want Cheerleaders
• Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: To the freaking core!
• Alpha Bitch: Santana is a stronger bitch than Quinn, considering how mean she is to everyone and how she seems to delight in making people angry or upset. Though her Anguished Declaration of Love to Brittany makes it clear that at least some of this cruelty is due to being in the closet.
• Armored Closet Gay: Though the show plays with this trope: Santana doesn't exactly try to hide the fact that she and Brittany mess around behind closed doors. But it's a horse of a different color to come out as gay, admit she has feelings for Brittany and start dating her - and thereby expose herself to the homophobic bullying Kurt received. Even after Brittany breaks up with Artie in "Rumours" and offers to ask Santana to prom, she still chooses to go with Karofsky instead and pretend to be straight.
• Armor-Piercing Question: Finn, after being verbally abused by Santana during the entire episode, asked her the one and only question able to hurt her back, in the middle of the school. The thing is, it led to unforeseen harsh consequences:
  Finn:: Hey Santana, why don't you just come out of the closet?
• Anguished Declaration of Love: Gives one to Brittany after realizing she's in love with her. Unfortunately for her, Brittany rejects her due to already being in a relationship with Artie.
  Santana: I'm a bitch because I'm angry. I'm angry because I have all of these feelings. Feelings for you that I'm afraid of dealing with because I'm afraid of dealing with the consequences. I wanna be with you, but I'm afraid of the talks and the looks. I mean, you know what happened to Kurt at this school. I'm so afraid of what everyone will say behind my back. Still I have to accept that. I love you. I love you and I don't want to be with Sam, Finn, or any of those guys. I just want you. Please say you love me back. Please.
• Badass Boast: Towards Karofsky when he threatens Kurt and Blaine.
  Santana: First of all, anything you do became my business when you decided to toss that slushie up in my grill.
  Karofsky: I think I can take a couple of queers and a girl.
  Santana: Ha. See, here's what's gonna go down. Two choices: you stay here and I crack one of your nuts - right or left, that's your choice - or you walk away and live to be a douchebag another day. Oh, and also? I have razor blades hidden in my hair. Mm-hm. Tons, just all up in there.
• The Beard: She and Karofsky are each other's beards.
• Becoming the Mask
• Beta Bitch: In the beginning she was this, usurps Quinn's role as The Alpha Bitch fairly early on, then the two fight each other for the title of Alpha Bitch in season 2.
• Betty and Veronica: Santana is firmly the Veronica in the six romantic triangles she was been part of as of this time (between her and Rachel for Finn, between her and Rachel for Puck, between her and Quinn for Puck, between her and Mercedes for Puck, between her and Artie for Brittany and between her and Sam for Brittany). Arguably, she's the Betty to Puck's Archie, with the more badass Lauren as Veronica.
  • She is also the Archie to Brittany's Betty and Dani's Veronica.
• Brutal Honesty: In her array of insults towards others that have rubbed her the wrong way.
  • Goes even further in "Silly Love Songs".
  "I just try to be really, really, honest with people when I think...that they suck!"
• Bullying a Dragon: Picked a fight with Lauren over Puck. Lauren's about three times her size, and is the only girl on the wrestling team. It didn't end well.
• But Not Too Gay: Became especially obvious when they titled an episode "I Kissed A Girl" and there were no girls kissing. Became such an issue that there was a massive backlash, compelling the writers to finally let them (complete with what was either a Take That Us or a really hypocritical aesop about double standards of gay Public Display of Affection).
• Catfight: One with Mercedes over Puck, one with Quinn when she's allowed back in the Cheerios and takes Santana's spot as captain. The second one is especially vicious. *Slap* She also has to be restrained by about three people to stop her from taking Rachel out. Against Lauren, though, her luck runs out.
• Characterization Marches On: In the very early episodes Santana was little more than Quinn's sidekick and was perfectly content with just being at her side.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: She's very much against anyone dating Puck, even though she isn't actually with him anymore. Brittany/Artie doesn't go over well with her either. In "Pot O' Gold," she wasn't too happy about Rory's interest in Brittany either, even though there was no sign of it being returned.
• Cloud Cuckoolanders Minder: She occasionally acts as this for Brittany, though how much she actually needs it depends on the writer.
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: Sue revoking her tanning privileges causes her to cry and flee the room.
• Coming-Out Story: Through seasons 2 and 3, Santana has to come to terms with her sexuality. First she realizes that her flings with Brittany are more than just that, then pushes her away when she doesn't break up with Artie to be with her and retreats further into the closet. Just as she starts getting her confidence back in the third season and is more comfortable with Brittany she gets publicly outted by Finn, the fallout of which also causes her grandmother to disown her.
• Commuting on a Bus: Missed nine episodes of season 4, appeared in all but three episodes of season 5, seven episodes in the final season, then appeared for the final number of the series in the Grand Finale.
• Cruel Cheerleader: She is a cheerleader and quite slutty and bitch, though that turns out to be a front, so this is subverted.
• Deadpan Snarker: Brittany is the only one safe from her vicious, vicious words.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Exquisitely slowly, but definitely by the first season finale - though she she's still a bitch, just somewhat more willing to show enthusiasm for the club.
  • "Sexy" goes a long way in terms of melting her down.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Claims to have gotten the manager of Breadstix fired for trying to stop her from taking a wheelbarrow of breadsticks away from the restaurant.
• The Dragon: Originally to Quinn as the Alpha Bitch, and then to Sue.
• Dragon Ascendant: Succeeds Quinn as the Alpha Bitch; this has the odd effect of simultaneously making her the top dog among the school's girls, while also making her Sue's new Dragon (having previously just been a member of Sue's Quirky Miniboss Squad).
• Fake Guest Star: In season one.
• Femme Fatale
• Foreign-Language Tirade: "New York:" Convinced that Finn and Rachel's concert kiss cost them Nationals, she screams at Rachel in Spanish. She's so irritated about it that it takes Sam, Mike, and Quinn to keep her from ripping Rachel to pieces.
• Freudian Slip: Famously in "Born This Way":
  Santana: I've gotta gay— Go! I've gotta go.
• Friendship Trinket: Her and Brittany can be seen in multiple episodes each wearing a friendship bracelet.
• Gayngst: "Sexy" reveals that Santana is indeed gay and has only been in denial about it and her feelings for Brittany. Seeing what happened to Kurt only pushed her further into the closet. Finn outing her in "Mash-Off," though, just adds more of this.
• Girl Posse: For Quinn, initially; after Quinn is dethroned as head cheerleader, she and Brittany become more of a double-act.
• Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak: Santana is very much a girly girl with her affinity for shopping, hair styling, tight dresses and cheerleading. However, she doesn't like the color pink and her mom says that she should have known she was a lesbian because of how she used to play in the mud and had a mullet.
• Gold Digger: She breaks up with Puck in season one after seeing his credit score, claiming she needs financial stability from her partner. In an inner monologue, she mentions planning to marry a football player for similar reasons.
• Hammerspace Hair: She keeps a phone in her hair, and also apparently razor-blades. Then again, it was a RAZR phone.
• Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today?: "Your loss. Cause now I get the chance to write an awesome heterosexual song about Sam."
  • Kind of amusing considering how her standard answer whenever someone notices her closeness to Brittany is, "I am not a fan of labels."
    • Fridge Brilliance really since the personality she shows when she's with Brittany and the personality she shows when with others is dramatically different. Thus when those two parts occasionally collide, she has to balance out the two without weakening either side.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: Her level of attachment to the Glee Club is in constant flux.
• Heel Realization: Her Anguished Declaration of Love to Brittany in "Sexy," where she admits that her cruelty is at least partly due to her turmoil over her feelings for her.
• Hidden Depths: As of "Sexy."
• Hypocrite: "Just keeping it real"...ly into the closet.
  • Also calling Quinn a slut in "Audition".
• Hysterical Woman: When she's drunk.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Uses her sass to help Kurt and Blaine stand up to Karofsky.
• I Just Want to Be Loved: Throughout season two there have been more and more indications that she's extremely lonely and jealous of other people's relationships.
  • Becomes something of a Harsher in Hindsight when, as of "Sexy", we realize this is because she feels afraid and lonely for being gay. Lonely because either people will bully her as they did Kurt or dismiss it as something being done to get a rise out of the guys. Jealous because the isolation makes it that much harder to have a serious relationship.
• Informed Attribute: Her breasts really don't look any different most of the time post-surgery.
• Intertwined Fingers: Santana and Brittany's signature pinkie finger link.
• Karma Houdini:
  • Antagonism towards the rest of Glee Club.
  • Despite being a huge jerkass to Rachel in "Special Education", not only is she not called on it by Will, he makes her the team's soloist at Sectionals.
  • She finally gets her comeuppance in "Silly Love Songs", when the entire Glee Club gives her a "Reason You Suck" Speech, then she later gets her ass handed to her by Lauren.
  • Subverted again in the first episode of season 3. When she leads the Cheerios in a sabotage of Glee club recruitment, Will kicks her out of Glee Club.
  • Subverted in "Mash-Off," when her constant harassment of Finn and Rory leads to Finn outing her in a crowded hallway.
• Kick the Dog: She's regularly a bitch to everyone, but her spurning Brittany in "Duets" has often been called her worst moment; also, being especially nasty to Rachel in "Special Education".
  • Another candidate was her dumping Brittany in "The Break-Up". Despite the fact that Santana's barely had time for Brittany, Santana was the one who decided, under the pretense of an "energy exchange" with another student, to end the relationship, breaking Brittany's heart in the process.
• Ladykiller in Love: A female version. After a lot of sleeping around with both boys and at least one girl, she realized that Brittany is all she really wanted. Just compare her reaction when Brittany touches her hand in "Pot O' Gold"◊ with her flippant attitude toward sex with boys.
• Letting Her Hair Down: After she quits the Cheerios.
• Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: The Dark to Brittany's Light.
• Limited Wardrobe: Her cheerleading uniform. The only times we see her out of it is when she performs "Like a Virgin" in the Madonna episode and sleeps with Finn and whenever the kids do a group number in matching outfits. She even wears it on a date with Finn, despite having no reason to do so. After leaving the Cheerios, she starts dressing in normal clothes beginning with "Silly Love Songs".
• Lipstick Lesbian: Her character arc during the later part of the second season clearly makes her this.
• Manipulative Bitch: Convinced Brittany into having an affair with her behind Artie's back by telling her that it's not cheating since "the plumbing's different". There's also the incident were she literally borrows the germs of a student sick with mono (her promiscuity making her immune to "the kissing disease"), then kisses Finn because she knows he'll be kissing Quinn, thus making them both sick and making everybody realize that Quinn's been fooling around behind Sam's back. In the next episode, she convinces Sam to dump Quinn for her. But that's just prelude to her campaign for Prom Queen: she convinces Karofsky to date her and be each other's beards, and they start an anti-bullying patrol (not that hard since they alone probably account for half the school's bullying problems) to boost their popularity, getting Karofsky to convince Kurt to come back in the process. Even Kurt—the Glee Club's original schemer—had to give her props on this one.
  • Let's not forget her stated reason for wanting to be Prom Queen in the first place: She thinks that if she becomes Queen, she can convince Brittany that by royal decree, the two of them have to date.
  • In the fourth season, even after getting kicked out of Rachel and Kurt's apartment for harassing Brody, she goes to a hotel and sets up a sting that catches him red-handed as a gigolo, with Finn on hand to kick his ass.
• Meaningful Name: Or meaningful misspelling; it's relatively common for discussion posts, and even an article in Entertainment Weekly to miss the first 'n' and spell her name as "Satana". In "Duets", Mercedes cast her ballot for herself and "Satan". Then there's this Australian promo.
  • Possibly unintentional, but Santana is the given name form of Santa Ana, Spanish for Saint Anna/Anne — the patron saint of Brittany, France.
• The Mistress: She calls herself one when she secretly dates Brittany.
• The Mole: For Sue in Season 1.
• Morality Pet: Brittany is Santana's.
  • Kurt and Blaine also seem to have become something like this to her, seeing how she stands up for them to Karofsky and Sebastian, in "Night of Neglect" and "Michael", respectively.
• Ms. Fanservice: She is shown in leather clothing, tight skirts and dresses, and dresses like a "slutty elf" for Christmas and a very fetishy candy-stripper uniform. She also gets a Lingerie Scene in season 4.
• Named After Somebody Famous: Not confirmed, but it's frequently speculated that her name is a reference to famous guitarist Carlos Santana, especially since "Santana" is not commonly used as a first name (many fan fics give her a brother named Carlos, to further the joke).
• Naughty Nurse Outfit: Dresses in one in "Silly Love Songs."
• Odd Friendship: Santana, a self-identified "bitch" with a perpetually sour outlook, would on the surface seem to be the least likely companion for the generally sweet, goofy Brittany, but the two are virtually inseparable.
• Old Shame: In-Universe. Her "Yeast-i-stat" garnered her a lot of attention in New York, to the point that several patrons of the diner she works at lost their appetites for bread after seeing her.
• Opposites Attract: With Brittany.
• Pet the Dog: Most of her more positive moments come from her friendship with Brittany.
• Plastic Bitch: Santana starts Season Two as the head cheerleader and the most popular girl in school. However, the cheer coach discovers that she got a boob job over the summer so she can get more attention from guys. Her coach disapproves of underaged plastic surgery and demotes her from head cheerleader.
• Reaction Shot: To paraphrase Television Without Pity, if there was an Emmy award for "Best Background Side-eye/Bitchface/Disgusted Eye-roll," Naya Rivera would win hands-down, both for quantity and quality.
• Really Gets Around: She's been involved with three of the five straight guys in New Directions, and has slept with Brittany as well. Remarked at one point that she found you had to have sex at least twenty times "before the feeling of accomplishment really kicks in."
  • That line takes on a new resonance with the revelation that Santana is gay, and her various relationships with boys were just a way of suppressing her feelings for Brittany.
  • She seems to be getting there with her female partners as well. After dumping Brittany in "The Break-Up", she ends up using a cheerleader to make Brittany jealous. The episode after that, she actually sleeps with Quinn. TWICE!
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Santana loves to deliver incredibly vicious ones. This is one of the reason you never ever want to get on Santana's bad side:
  • In "The Quarterback", Santana gives one to Sue Sylvester, calling her out on all the torture she's put them through and how rude she's been. Needless to say, it was pretty effective. Goes into Tear Jerker territory when you realize she's also railing at herself for her treatment of Finn.
  • In "Mash-Off", she harassed Finn and called him a fat, untalented failure. However, this little speech led Finn to fight back with the perfect question to hurt her, and had unforeseen consequences...
  • In season 6, Kurt spoke against Brittany and Santana getting married. Moments later, she confronts Kurt in the hallway. Rachel, knowing full-well this is going to get ugly really fast, wants to leave immediately, but Santana invites her to stay. What follows is undeniably her most crushing speech, pointing out all of Kurt's flaws, humiliating him, causing everyone in earshot to be completely stunned by what they are hearing, and left him absolutely speechless.
• Relationship Reveal: "Brittana" went from being a non-canon ship to a sly joke to one of the more serious relationships on the show, culminating with their wedding.
• Relationship Upgrade: With Brittany as of "Pot O' Gold." Arguably an Ur-Example, as Brittana went from background characters (and Quinn's flunkies) to one of the more beloved couples on the show, tying with Quick and Klaine for Beta Couple, and finally culminating with her wedding to Brittany.
• Rich Bitch: Despite some posturing at being from "the wrong side of the tracks", we see she is clearly this in "Britney/Brittany" when she brags about the "great insurance" she gets from her doctor dad.
• The Rival/Worthy Opponent: With Mercedes. They don't exactly get along at first, but they both admit that they respect one another's singing talents. Mercedes was even able to convince Santana to join the Troubletones on the basis of this.
• Serious Business:
  • Don't come between her and Breadstix.
  • When Sue takes away her tanning privileges in Season 1, Santana breaks down in tears.
• Spicy Latina: Santana is a temperamental Latina student who is initially known for her promiscuity..
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: In the early days of secretly sleeping together, she tells Brittany, "I'm not making out with you because I'm in love with you and want to sing about making lady-babies."
• Small Name, Big Ego: "You guys love me. I keep it real and I'm hilarious!" Yeah, in-universe, no one actually likes her. Except Brittany.
  • Also shown with her talking up her supposed ghetto-ness and badassery (or going full "Lima Heights").
  • But due to the nature of the show, no one is actually sure what her background is, but it's clear that at least half the things she says about her awesomeness are blatant lies.
• Suddenly Bilingual: Fanfic writers routinely have her using Spanish words and phrases in casual conversation, but the character never showed any sign of familiarity with the language until "The Substitute", when she started yelling in Spanish while angry.
  • Although, her Spanish is quite flawed, confusing "orgullo" (pride) with "orgurro," and having a slightly Americanized accent. But it's understandable if she was born and raised in Ohio.
• That's What She Said: Uses the word "wanky" to point out any Accidental Innuendo whenever she is in earshot of a conversation. It seems that the others are aware of the context the word's being used because they then snap at her to stop.
• Those Two Girls: Was this with Brittany, originally, but they've both subsequently Darkhorsed their way to the big time.
• Token Evil Teammate: Can verge on this - she likes singing and dancing, and will admit to liking the club grudgingly, but she still takes great enjoyment in being mean to everyone in the group other than Brittany.
• Transparent Closet: Played with, and eventually deconstructed. Her close relationship with Brittany is common knowledge amongst the members of New Directions and a lot of classmates, leading to a joke near the end of season 2:
  Rachel: Look at the [newspaper rumours column].
  Finn: 'Which prom queen candidate has been spending a lot of time in her closet lately?' That's ridiculous, Quinn's claustrophobic.
  Rachel: (without missing a Beat) No, that's Santana.
  • However, around the same time Santana does become keenly aware of the rumours about her and recruits Karofsky to be her beard. Then in season 3 Finn publicly outs her, and when confronted about it claims that everyone already knows - and while it may not have been a surprise to the student body, the confirmation was enough to get her used as ammunition against Sue's congressional camapign and in turn outing her to the entire state, thus showing the clear difference between this trope and actually living openly as a lesbian.
• Twofer Token Minority: Originally just a regular one-type minority later upgraded to twofer status due to her lesbianism. What's interesting is that she's the only ethnic minority on the show whose race is incidental to her character (save for a couple of throwaway lines in Spanish).
• Used to Be a Tomboy: According to tales from her mother, Santana was a rough little tomboy very much departed from her girly and fashionable teenage (then older) self — her mother adds that wearing her hair in a mullet should have tipped her off to Santana being gay.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: When she isn't being the Token Evil Teammate, she's being vitriolic to the rest of glee. As seen in one episode, though, its not because she hates them (she quit Cheerios for them after all), it's just because she's trying not to be fake and to be honest. Tends to be more vitriolic with the plot-relevant members like Quinn, Finn, and Rachel while more friendly and amicable with secondary characters like Brittany, Puck, Artie, and Mercedes. Sorta.
• We Used to Be Friends: Season 2 threw some serious turmoil into her friendship with Quinn and her relationship with Brittany, though both seem on much better terms in Season 3.
  • Worth mentioning that by Season 4 she and Quinn went back to slapping each other and making snide comments to one another even after season 3 gave them such good character growth and sorted out their issues with one another. And then they flirted with and eventually slept with each other. To be fair, the general consensus was Season 4 was a giant OOC-fest for all parties involved.

Brittany S. Pierce

Brittany Susan Pierce-Lopez

I think my cat's been reading my diary.

Portrayed by: Heather Morris

Voiced by: Magdalena Tenorio (Latin-American Spanish)

Santana's friend, later girlfriend, then wife, and fellow cheerleader. Sweet and outgoing, apparently quick to make friends even with unpopular kids, but is even dumber than Finn, to The Ditz levels.

Brittany may be a true mezzo-soprano singer but can comfortably access the whole alto range, which she could sustain as she aged.

This has given her a quote page.

---

• Ascended Extra: For the first season Brittany was mainly there to either drop numerous one-liners or perform dance moves. The second season boosted her up to playing a pivotal role in Santana's coming-out story. Subverted a bit in season 3 where she's taken a bit out of focus but season 4 plays it straight again to where she becomes the main female lead of the Lima side since most of the others characters have graduated.
• Anatomically Impossible Sex: Claimed she must be pregnant because a stork was building a nest near her home. Also, her attempts at scissoring over Skype.
• Betty and Veronica: She was the Betty to Puck's Veronica in their triangle with Santana.
  • She's become the Veronica to Tina's Betty in their triangle with Artie.
  • To bring things full circle, she was the Archie in a triangle with Artie and Santana. Also Archie to Sam/Santana.
• The Beard: Kurt dated her in his attempt to appear more straight. She didn't seem to mind.
• Berserk Button: Double subverted. She will react to being called stupid very graciously, but do not expect to be on her good side afterwards (as Artie and Finn find out).
• Black Comedy Rape: Her remark that she lost her virginity at a cheerleading camp due to "an alien visiting [her] tent" indicates that she at least fell prey to a Bed Trick, and it's played for the "Brittany's talking absurd nonsense again" humor rather than for drama. Although there still is a possibility that her story had nothing in common with reality, like several of the things she's said over the course of the series.
• Book Dumb: She's not very intelligent, but is fairly savant with social and emotional situations. She can usually interpret what a person is really feeling and can easily make friends.
• Brainless Beauty: Exceedingly so.
  Mr. Schue: Can anyone tell me what a ballad is?
  Brittany: A male duck.
  • In her defense, few people know what a mallard even is. She was close, at least.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: She may be dumber than a jar of mayonnaise, but Brittany is one of the two best dancers in the group (the other being Mike), performing complex moves you wouldn't expect from a girl who sometimes forgets her middle name. The real reason is because Heather Morris is a professional dancer in real life who has toured with Beyoncé. She was brought on the show to teach the "Single Ladies" choreography, but was kept on since a third cheerleader was wanted.
• But Not Too Bi: She's bisexual, but the show went a long time before her to kiss her girlfriend, even though she's made out frequently with the boys she's dated. See above "But Not Too Gay" example under Santana for more details.
• The Bus Came Back: Returns for the 100th episode and seems to be heading to New York after accepting an offer from Santana to go there when they finish on their vacation, reconciling in the process. She made an appearance in the Season 5 finale; her and Santana returned for seven episodes in the final season, then appeared for the final number of the series in the Grand Finale.
• Can't Catch Up: Because of her name, she feels like she has always lived in Britney Spears's shadow, stating that she will never be as talented as she.
• Characterization Marches On: In her first few appearances, her handful of lines and her facial expressions don't suggest she's any different from Quinn and Santana. Gradually, her famously stupid persona emerged.
• Closet Geek: Arguably this, because of her popular internet vlog/talk show, despite being ditzy in real life.
• Closet Key: To Santana.
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander
• Can Count to Potato: "[she] thinks the square root of four is rainbows" and stopped learning the alphabet when she kept mixing up M and N. She still gets accepted to MIT eventually because, at the end of the day, she gets to the same conclusions as everybody else, she just takes VERY different roads to get there.
• Cuckoosnarker: Tends to be this sometimes.
• The Cutie: Her childish naivety and sweetness is an ungodly cute combination.
• Depending on the Writer: Brittany's stupidity depends on the writers. There are episodes where she is a bit ditzy, if maybe just a bit out there and then there are episodes when her stupidity is hyped up to near impossible levels that makes you question how she even functions everyday life.
• Does Not Like Men: In "Asian F", she proves to be a closed-minded misandrist since she claims Kurt shouldn't run for class president just because he's male. But then again, she's just a teenager so she's still naive and has underdeveloped social skills.
• The Ditz: Brittany can out-ditz anyone on this show.
  Kurt: Everyone raise your right hand. (Brittany raises her left hand) Your right hand, Brittany.

  Santana: ...That's this one, Brittany.
  • Also:
    Coach Sylvester: Anything else you want to tell me?
    Brittany: Sometimes I forget my middle name.
• Dumb Blonde: In one of Kurt's voice-overs in Episode 10, he tells us that Brittany thinks the square root of 4 is "rainbows."
  • It's revealed in the Christmas special that she still believes in Santa Claus and, when taken to a Mall Santa wishes for Artie to be able to walk ^note Artie himself will be happy if his parents stop friend-requesting him on Facebook.
    • Ramped up in Season 4, as when Santana dumped her out of the blue, her ditziness kicked up tenfold, the implication being that the break up broke her to the point of having her more ditzy traits become more pronounced. Even when she was admitted to MIT on a fluke, she still showed these traits. Season 5 reunited her and Santana, and she reverted back to her previous characterization.
• Dumb Is Good: Brittany's extreme stupidity isn't idealized or generally presented positively, but her ability to quickly befriend just about anyone (in contrast to fellow Cheerios Quinn and Santana) is because she's too stupid to be mean most of the time.
• Expy: Heather Morris has said she always imagined the character as being akin to Amanda Seyfried's Karen in Mean Girls.
• Face–Heel Turn: In "Pot O' Gold", she leaves New Directions for the Trouble-tones.
• Fetish: Apparently, the taste of her own armpits turns her on.
  • She also apparently misses the smell of Santana's when they end their relationship.
• Food as Bribe: Artie, Mike, and Tina got Brittany to join the brainiacs because they bribed her with Dots. They didn't regret it.
• Fourth-Wall Observer: Implied in "Britney 2.0", after Blaine catches her talking to herself.
  Blaine: Brittany...who are you talking to?
  Brittany: I thought I was doing a voiceover.
  • And again in "Sadie Hawkins", when she says music usually starts when she turns around or says "It's Brittany, bitch."
• Friendship Trinket: Her and Santana can be seen in multiple episodes each wearing a friendship bracelet.
• Full-Name Basis: She's usually referred to as Brittany S. Pierce rather than Brittany Pierce.
• Genius Ditz: She knows a lot about cat diseases, surprisingly. And politics. In the season four finale, she is accepted to MIT to study mathematics, based on the "Brittany Code."
  • She also has a creative internal logic in even her ditzy moments. At one point, when asked what the capital of Ohio is, Brittany confidently answers "O." Technically "O" is the capital of Ohio....that is, the capital letter in the word "Ohio."
• Girl Posse: For Quinn, initially; after Quinn is dethroned as head cheerleader, she and Santana become more of a double-act.
• Good Bad Girl: She Really Gets Around just as much Santana, but unlike Santana she's mostly a sweet and kind girl.
• Good with Numbers: Brittany makes a mathematical breakthrough (albeit accidentally) and gets an early admission offer to MIT.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Played straight for the most part as she is generally much sweeter, innocent and goofier than the other cheerleaders but at times, she can have moments where she can be rather mean.
• Heroic BSoD: In "Britney 2.0", due to Santana leaving for Louisville, Brittany follows Britney's example and has a complete breakdown: feasting on junk food, beating up the paparazzi, trying to shave her head, and lip synching. Invoked, however. She planned on hitting rock bottom so that she can make an even more glorious comeback.
  • She also had apparently gotten caught up in Lord Tubbington's Ponzi scheme over the summer.
• Hidden Depths: A brainless cheerleader...who is friends with people far less popular than her. She also has outstanding knowledge of cats and cat diseases, shown in "A Night of Neglect."
  • In the third season she begins to show more independence and common sense. And, of course, her math genius as of the season 4 finale.
• Hollywood Tone-Deaf: When she tries to do runs in "Duets."
• Huge Schoolgirl: One of the tallest girls in the group at 5'8.
• Hypocrite: She claims men are stupid in "Asian F". By the way, don't look at her GPA listed below.
• Idiot Savant: Despite having a 0.0 GPA throughout the first three seasons (and only raising it by 0.2 by the end of the fourth), she manages to get a perfect score on her SATs. This grabs the attention of MIT, who decide to give her another test since they are rightfully suspicious. She fails horribly, but does write down a series of numbers that end up being incredibly important and allow her a full scholarship to the school.
• I Just Want to Be Loved: She seems genuinely depressed after she is rebuffed by both Santana and Artie.
• Incompatible Orientation: Brittany and Kurt.
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Brittany seems to be that special combination of sweet and dumb, and she does mean well, if anything.
• Informed Flaw: In "Britney/Brittany," they reveal that she doesn't brush her teeth and washes her mouth with soda, having the cavities to match. Of course, her teeth appear as perfect as everyone else's in the show.
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: When she tries to secretly tape Glee club rehearsals for Sue.
  Mr. Schue: What are you doing?
  Brittany: Coach Sylvester...didn't tell me to do this.
• Innocent Beta Bitch: Was part of Quinn's Girl Posse in season 1, along with fellow cheerleader Santana. From season 2 onwards, Brittany is portrayed as a ditzy but sweet and friendly girl, but she still hangs out with Santana, who turns out to be an even bigger Alpha Bitch than Quinn (though sometimes with a soft side).
• Intertwined Fingers: Brittany and Santana's signature pinkie (finger) link.
• Kindhearted Cat Lover: She's typically very sweet, she has a vast knowledge of all things cat-related, and at least two cats.
• Kindhearted Simpleton: What she lacks in brains, she makes it up in beauty and heart.
• Ladykiller in Love: In "Duets", Artie breaks off his pairing with Brittany when he thinks she seduced him just so he would sing with her. Turns out her affection was genuine after all.
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships: In-universe. She once stated she has made out with everyone in school...which means she's probably at least kissed every member of the Glee Club.
• Lethal Chef: Everyone who has tasted it complains the titled fondue on her internet talk show is horrible.
• Letting Her Hair Down: After she quits the Cheerios, her hair is perpetually down.
• Limited Wardrobe: Her cheerleading uniform. Apart from when everyone is wearing performance costumes, the only time we've seen her out of her cheerleading uniform is once on a date with Kurt. Until she quits in "The Sue Sylvester Shuffle."
  • She appears in Artie's "Safety Dance" flash mob wearing a tank top, shorts, and tights. But seeing as this is a fantasy it may not count.
  • She gets a number of Britney Spears outfits in "Britney/Brittany".
• Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: The Light to Santana's Dark.
• Lingerie Scene: When she got drunk with the glee club, she ripped off her shirt and ran around the room in her bra, dancing like a stripper for Artie. We later see it abandoned at Rachel's house during the post party clean up suggesting it didn't stay on for long.
• Lipstick Bisexual: Or more technically, a "Lipstick Bisexual". She is attracted to both men and women, but is also just girly.
• Mistaken for Cheating: With Mike in "Special Education". Ironically, she actually was cheating on Artie around that time, but not with Mike.
• The Mole: But not a very good one.
  Brittany: Coach Sylvester didn't tell me to do this.
• Morality Pet: For Santana.
• Ms. Fanservice
• Nice Girl
• Odd Friendship: Santana, a self-identified "bitch" with a perpetually sour outlook, would on the surface seem to be the least likely companion for the generally sweet, goofy Brittany, but the two are virtually inseparable.
• Only One Name: In the first season, her lack of a last name was a Running Gag, to the point that she is only referred to by her first name in the yearbook. However, it was finally revealed in episode 2.02, and it's Pierce, which she is embarrassed by. Her middle name is Susan. Which makes her Brittany S. Pierce. She thus goes from the only member not to have their last name mentioned to the first to have her middle name mentioned.
• Opposites Attract: With Santana.
• Operation: Jealousy: She initially dates Artie to try and make Santana jealous.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: When the kids get a substitute teacher and switch names to mess with her, Brittany claims to be Mike Chang. There are at least two problems with that.
• People's Republic of Tyranny: At the start of "Britney 2.0", she reveals via "voice over" that she's secretly plotting a "...Middle Eastern style sham election to make me Class President for life."
• Pet the Dog: Her friendship with Becky.
• Popular Is Dumb
• Put on a Bus: At the end of season four she leaves high school to enroll at MIT early. Most of the finale is dedicated to her saying goodbye to the club.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Heather Morris left the series at the end of Season 4 to have a baby.
• Really Gets Around: Not as much as, say, Santana, but she hasn't made out with nearly everybody in school for nothing. The Oh, Crap! face when Holly tells the kids that when they have sex with somebody, they have sex with everybody they've had sex with is hilarious.
• Relationship Reveal: "Brittana" went from being a non-canon ship to a sly joke to something we actually see onscreen to an essential part of Santana's coming-out story-line, eventually culminating with their wedding.
• Shout-Out: Her name can be read as Brittany S. Pierce.
• Student Council President
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: In "Hairography", when caught filming the rehearsal:
  Brittany: Coach Sylvester didn't tell me to do this.
• Small Name, Big Ego: After deciding that she was a better performer than Britney Spears in her hallucinations, she demands every solo in the club. This is taken with a grain of salt.
• Still Believes in Santa: Brittany is the show's resident ditz, and asks Artie with utmost seriousness what he asked for from Santa during one of the Christmas episodes.
• Those Two Girls: Was this with Santana, originally, but they've both subsequently Darkhorsed their way to the big time.
• Too Dumb to Live: Gave herself temporary brain damage/memory loss from taking "all [her] antibiotics at the same time".
  Brittany: I don't remember how to leave.
  • She also washes her mouth with soda instead of brushing her teeth, although it doesn't show.
  • She's also apparently gone skiing without skis.
  • And, of course...
    Brittany: I don't know how to turn on a computer.
• Womanchild: She still believes in Santa Claus, she has a dollhouse, and at Christmas she wears her hair like Cindy Lou Who.
• You Are the New Trend: As of the episode "Comeback", where her popularity leads to her style being mass copied by most if not almost all the girls at school. Rachel attempts to utilize this for her own advantage, but it backfires.

Mike Chang

Michael Robert Chang, Jr.

I can pop and lock.

Portrayed by: Harry Shum Jr.

Voiced by: Arturo Castañeda (Latin-American Spanish), Carlo Vázquez (Latin-American Spanish; S1 in Throwdown and Sectionals)

A football player who joins with Puck. He is an exceptional dancer. In season 2 he begins a relationship with fellow Asian Tina Cohen-Chang.

Mike is a baritone and the lowest male voice on the show, though he is shy.

---

• Academic Athlete: Is apparently on the academic decathlon team, as well as being a football player and a dancer.
• Ascended Extra: In season 1 he was a glorified background dancer mainly in Glee Club to fill out their ranks. That changed starting in season 2.
• Beta Couple: Him and Tina could be considered this to, well everyone, considering they have, hands-down, the most stable relationship in the show and were together throughout the entirety of seasons 2 and 3, and showed no signs of breaking up during it. However, they do break up shortly before the beginning of season 4.
• Character Development: It helps that he's actually getting lines (and songs) now.
• Commuting on a Bus: In season 4.
• Fake Guest Star: For the first two seasons. He became a series regular in the third season.
• Fantasy-Forbidding Father: His father wants him to give up performing to be a doctor.
• Hidden Depths: Possibly the one with the biggest Hidden Depths next to Artie, Mike is initially seen only as a football player, but as the series progresses it's revealed he is one hell of a dancer, possibly the best dancer in the group, and if "Sectionals" and "Asian F" are anything to go by, he is also a skilled choreographer. Another showing of his Hidden Depths is his apparent easy friendship with the "losers" of the group (Tina, Artie, Kurt and Mercedes) as seen in both "Throwdown" and "Dream On". He's one of the most enthusiastic members of New Directions, even if he isn't the most vocal. As soon as the music starts Mike starts moving. "A Night of Neglect" reveals that he's also on the academic decathlon team and at prom, we find out that he has a childlike love of dinosaurs.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: A possible, and quite more realistic, explanation for Mike and Matt's friendship and close bond.
• Hollywood Tone-Deaf: As heard in "Sing!". Justified as the song is supposed to sound like that. Later episodes, in particular "Asian F", slowly subvert this with the explanation that he's training his vocal prowess.
• I Have No Son!: His father disowns him for pursuing his dancing career. He comes around eventually.
• Lovable Jock: Mike was one of the few jocks who didn't have an ounce of Jerkass in him. When forced to choose between Glee Club and Football, he went with Glee Club without a second thought.
• Mistaken for Cheating: With Brittany in "Special Education."
• Mr. Fanservice: Just watch this video.
• Nice Guy
• Off Screen Break Up: With Tina at the start of season 4.
  • Also with Brittany at some point late in Season 1 or between Seasons 1 and 2 (assuming the implications that they are in a relationship are true), since when the second season starts Mike and Tina are already dating.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted. He and Tina both have the last name "Chang" (hyphenated, in her case), with no indication they're related, moreso that they're dating now.
  Mike Chang and Tina Cohen-Chang. No relations.
• The Quiet One
• Relationship Reveal: Dating Tina as of season 2, despite previously being a popular Crack Pairing by the Fandom.
• Satellite Character: Season 1.
• Shirtless Scene: At Asian Camp. This leads Tina to chow down on the eye candy so hard that they hook up.
• Those Two Guys: With Matt, until the latter left.
• Token Minority Couple: With Tina. The show even lampshades it by having the word "Asian" come up nearly every time the two of them are together.
• Unreveal: In "Duets," for the people who were hoping to finally hear Mike sing. He finally gets a brief singing role alongside Tina in "Marry You" from "Furt."
  • Mike finally has his own song as of "Asian F," in which he sings "Cool" from West Side Story.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy

Matt Rutherford

Matthew Rutherford

At the beginning of the year, I was just another football player.

Portrayed by: Dijon Talton

Voiced by: Carlo Vázquez (Latin-American Spanish; S1), Emmanuel Bernal (Latin-American Spanish; S6)

Another football player who joins at the same time who seems to be close with Santana. Has had three lines (one in episode 20, one in episode 22 and one in episode 120). Was Put on a Bus in Season 2, and returned briefly for the Grand Finale.

Matt is probably a baritenor as he sang similarly to Puck.

---

• Back for the Finale: Returns for 2009 and makes and appearance in the final group number in Dreams Do Come True.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: A possible, and quite more realistic, explanation for Matt and Mike’s friendship and close bond.
• Hidden Depths: Less so than Mike purely due to a lack of lines, but he's also regarded as one of the club's best dancers and seems to get along easily with the "losers" of New Directions. It seems Mike and Matt were the ones who usually carried Artie into the auditorium for practice.
• Living Prop: He seemed to be there just to dance.
• Lovable Jock
• The Pete Best: One of the original members of New Directions, but he was the only one who never got any development.
• Put on a Bus: Matt did not return in Season 2, with his exit being explained as transferring to a different school.
  • Back for the Finale: Returns to cameo in the final two episodes.
• Satellite Character: The guy had all of two lines in the season he appeared.
• Those Two Guys: With Mike.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: After "2009" makes it look like he's finally going to have a conversation, he's ignored by Mercedes just after managing to say "Hi Mercedes!".

Sam Evans

Samuel Evans

I am Sam. Sam I am. I do not like green eggs and ham.

Portrayed by: Chord Overstreet

Voiced by Ricardo Bautista (Latin-American Spanish)

A new student who joined the football team and became fast friends with Finn. He joined the Glee club after getting injured on the field (though he eventually becomes well enough to do both). Has a quirky sense of humor and has shown surprising maturity. Introduced in Season 2.

Sam is a baritenor with access to the tenor range.

---

• Ambiguously Bi: Debate raged on about Sam's sexual orientation, in-universe and out. In "Rumours," when he appears to be close to both Kurt and Quinn, the Glee kids are far more shocked by Kurt and Quinn's possible infidelity than the idea of Sam swinging both ways. It turns out to not be what they thought; Quinn and Kurt were just being good friends to Sam rather than having an affair with him. In Season 4, despite being in a relationship with Brittany, he also became best friends with Blaine and gleeks thought they had the better chemistry, to the point of Blam becoming a Fan-Preferred Couple over Bram. The fact that it's very likely he was intended to be Kurt's love interest at his conception, but then it was changed when Ryan saw chemistry between him and Quinn, probably plays in to this as well.
• The Beard: Santana briefly dated him to hide the fact that she's a lesbian.
• Berserk Button: Do not accuse him of cheating or selling himself. And don't attack anyone in New Directions.
• Book Dumb
• Brainless Beauty: He's not completely brainless, but leans to the type of a ditzy Pretty Boy. Also deconstructed - there are several story-lines about him battling with himself whether to embrace this image or not.
• Chekhov's Gag: When Sam first introduces himself to New Directions, Artie makes a crack at his "Bieber cut". Guess whose songs Sam is singing in "Comeback"?
• Chick Magnet: Quinn, Tina, Rachel, Mercedes and Brittany have all verbalized the fact they find Sam attractive. Not to mention his boss in 5.20, a whole hoard of girls in 4.01 and even implied with Sue on occasion. Not to mention the boys who have found him attractive (Kurt, Blaine, Karofsky...). Everyone wants a piece of Sam.
• Deadpan Snarker: Especially towards Will.
• Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: When making out with Quinn in "Never Been Kissed," he imagines Coach Beiste in compromising positions to "cool down." And then he accidentally moans out "Beiste."
• Dogged Nice Guy: He declares in the middle of a crowded hallway that, boyfriend aside, he's going to fight to get Mercedes back, stealth proposes twice, joins the swimming team to impress her, puts her name in lights, and when she rejects him even after breaking up with her boyfriend, he refuses to accept the Valentine gift he gave her back. Later episodes have him looking at her in such a way that makes it clear he still has it bad for her despite him stopping his advances.
• Dude Looks Like a Lady: The mean jocks call him Lady Lips in "Duets" and Sue mistakes him for a girl in "Comeback".
• Everybody Knew Already: When Sam transferred to McKinley, he was worried that someone would discover his deep secret. When Kurt pieces together the truth, Sam fesses up to Quinn: he bleaches his hair!
• Expy: To Finn. Lampshaded with Finn finding him in the locker room showers, just as Will found out about Finn's singing talent in the pilot. In fact, he is Finn, but more active in protecting his friends, rather than Finn submitting to passiveness.
• Fake Guest Star
• Foil: To Finn.
• Foregone Conclusion: It was always a question of when Sam would join Glee Club, not if.
• Flanderization: Although he was never known for being exceptionally bright, he initially wasn't really dumb either. Once season four and his unnecessary relationship with Brittany began, however, the two basically became Too Dumb to Live and Cloud Cuckoolanders together. Furthermore, he actually mentions that he's dyslexic in his first appearance which would justify his grades and would have given him and Ryder something to bond over.
• Iconic Sequel Character: Introduced in Season 2, being the Glee Club's newest member at the start of the season. He and Blaine were the only new characters to have significant storylines after their introductory season, and both are given a sort of "Honorary Original" status.
• I Gave My Word: Sam gave one to Finn during "Duets". When Finn tells him that he shouldn't sing a duet with Kurt because that will make him a target for bullies and "we live in their world", Sam replies that he gave Kurt his word and in his world, that's that.
• In-Series Nickname: Trouty Mouth. Mostly courtesy of Santana, but even complete strangers (like the manager of a modeling agency) seemed to be amazed by it's correctness.
• Last Het Romance: He was the last guy Santana dated before she admitted to herself that she was a lesbian. Granted, she did "date" Karofsky after, but it was a mutual lie so both could cover up their homosexuality.
• Lovable Jock
• Love Martyr: Was willing to hide away his inner dork and put up with quite a lot of insults in order to keep Quinn and later Santana as his girlfriend.
• Manly Tears: After Rachel and Finn show him that every member of the glee club pitched in to buy his guitar back.
• Mistaken for Cheating: With Quinn and Kurt in "Rumours."
• Mistaken for Gay: He dated five girls - Quinn, Santana, Mercedes, Brittany & Rachel - but fans still held out for him to be bisexual. In "Rumours," he was rumored to be meeting with both Kurt and Quinn at a motel. Fans also ship Blam (he and Blaine) and hold steady that he may have had something with him had he not been dating Brittany at the time.
• Mr. Fanservice: His early episodes included at least one Shirtless Scene each time. Not that we're complaining.
• New Transfer Student: Another reason he was initially afraid of joining Glee, since he's already an outsider.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: On Karofsky in "Furt" in defense of Kurt and both Mike and Artie.
• Phrase Catcher: Almost everyone will comment the size of his mouth.
• Pretty Boy
  Sue: I gotta get that girl on my Cheerios...
• Put on a Bus: Written out between season two and season three, with the explanation being that his dad got a job out of state. In real life, Chord Overstreet chose not to return when he wasn't upgraded to a series regular. It most likely would've been permanent, but negotiations were made and Sam returned in "Hold On To Sixteen".
• Relationship Reveal: And a side order of Pair the Spares with Mercedes as of the end of season 2 ("New York").
• Running Gag: Okay, guys. We get it, he's got a pretty big mouth.
• Serial Romeo: Dated several girls in the Glee Club and all the cases (except Santana's) were treated as some epic romances, was it justified in the show, or not.
• Single Mom Stripper: After he moved. As ways to help his parents go, it does pay better than delivering pizzas or working at Dairy Queen.
• Shirtless Scene: A reasonable portion of his screentime so far includes him either in the shower or coming out of it.
  • Walking Shirtless Scene: Joining the swim team, shooting for a calendar, working as a stripper and later as an underwear model, playing Rocky... Anytime Sam can be shirtless, he WILL be shirtless.
• Signature Move: Ever since he came back from being a stripper, Sam has been doing a lot of body rolls. They seem to have worn off on the other club guys.
• Stupid Sexy Flanders: So says Santana.
• Theme Naming: Sam's little siblings are named Stacey and Stevie.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: So where exactly is Sam living in season 4? And are his parents and younger siblings all right?

Lauren Zizes

Lauren Zizes

I want to be like a Kardashian. I want a TV show, and a fragrance. It'll be called Zizes, and the slogan will be: You just got Zized.

Portrayed by: Ashley Fink

Voiced by: Gabriela Guzmán (Latin-American Spanish; S1-S3), Gabriela Garay (Latin-American Spanish; S4, S6)

President of the McKinley High AV Club and member of the wrestling team, who is recruited to join New Directions as a replacement for Kurt.

Lauren is a low alto singer.

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• Ascended Extra: She's been a minor character since the first season.
• Big Eater
• Brawn Hilda: All she needs is the accent.
• Catfight: Averted. She doesn't bother with the slapping or scratching, she goes straight for the body slams. Santana found that out the hard way.
• Curbstomp Battle: Lauren pulls off a particularly awesome one against Santana.
  • Lauren basically wipes the floor with her.
• Deadpan Snarker
• 11th-Hour Ranger: Joins New Directions just before Sectionals in year two to ensure they have the required twelve people to compete.
• Food as Bribe: Her services must be bought with candy.
• Hidden Depths: The Glee Club was about as surprised as the audience when she walked in ready to join.
• Hoist by Her Own Petard: Lauren tries to sabotage Quinn's chances at becoming prom queen by posting photos of her all over school from back when she was fat and had a larger nose. But this causes people to see Lauren as a Jerkass, and Quinn actually shoots up in the prom queen rankings.
• Mixed Ancestry Is Attractive: Apparently has a thing for mixed guys; she was initially attracted to Puck because she thinks he's an ethnically ambiguous mixed-race man, and was disappointed to learn he's a white Jew.
• Nonuniform Uniform: When the girls wear matching dresses, Lauren always wears hers with ballet flats and short sleeves while the others wear high heels and no sleeves.
• Odd Friendship: With Puck, of all people, combined with Crack Pairing. She rescued him from a port-a-potty, he invited her to become a member of New Directions, she agreed, but only if he'd make out with her. Apparently, she "rocked his world".
• Punny Name: Zizes sounds quite a bit like "size S", at least the way Mr. Schuester pronounces it in "Special Education".
• Put on a Bus: Quits the Glee Club and dumps Puck out of nowhere at the beginning of Season 3. The actress confirmed she wouldn't be back...
  • The Bus Came Back: ...until she did come back for an episode in season 4, as well as a cameo in the Grand Finale.
• Recurring Extra: Appears in several bit-parts in the earlier episodes before she does anything of importance.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: She leaves New Directions at the beginning of season 3 because it just isn't cool enough for her any more.
• Sour Supporter: She's only in the club to fulfill their 12-member minimum to compete, per an agreement with Puck.
• The Stoic: Her default expression looks something like a grimace that almost never changes.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: In "Born This Way," when she discovers pictures of Quinn pre-weight loss and nose job, and spreads them all over school as a part of her prom queen campaign. It should be noted though that she did apologize to Quinn for what she did.
• Tsundere: Not so much with the dere-dere, but at first she joins New Directions because she wants Puck to love her. Once he actually falls for her, she enters hardcore tsun-tsun mode.
• Unaccustomed as I Am to Public Speaking...: For someone who thinks show choir is stupid, she was surprisingly good at keeping up with the choreography and harmonies despite learning everything at the last minute in "Special Education".

Blaine Anderson

Blaine Devon Anderson-Hummel

Courage.

Portrayed by: Darren Criss

Voiced by: Edson Matus (Latin-American Spanish)

Lead singer of the Dalton Academy Warblers from an all-boys school, and also gay. He transferred schools because bullies at his old school were too much for him, and becomes a mentor, later boyfriend, and eventual husband for Kurt. Transfers to McKinley in season 3.

Blaine's vocal range can span nearly four octaves when he uses his throat and falsetto. He is a tenor singer who has sung at the far bottom range of low tenor and at the top end of alto.

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• The Ace: He's painted at being good at nearly everything. Succeeds at everything he attempts and is painted as the current star of the team. He's good at everything he does and people make sure to tell him so. Subverted by Season 4 and completely gone by Season 5.
• Aloof Big Brother: We meet his, Cooper, in "Big Brother".
• Ascended Extra: He goes from a Warbler, to Kurt's boyfriend, to a member of the New Directions and getting more solos than almost everyone, to what is essentially the male lead of Season 4.
• Always Someone Better: To Kurt and some other New Directions' members. Subverted, as he's not necessarily always better, but always ends up being the one who gets the recognition. When the power balance changes in late season 5, he is panicked.
• Attention Whore: To the point where it's reflected by his wardrobe.
  Kurt: For your audition, let's try to avoid shocking patterns and anything that says "Look at me, I'm the center of attention and this primary color proves it!"
• Awkward Father-Son Bonding Activity: Tells us in "Sexy" that rebuilding an old car with his dad was this, and seems to imply that his father is something of a Heteronormative Crusader.
• Big Brother Mentor: To Kurt in the beginning, though eventually it came out that he was just as clueless about love as Kurt was. Though many fans hoped for him to become a Sexy Mentor - and were made very happy in "Original Song". Ironically, Blaine is a year younger than Kurt, though some theorize he was held back after having a rough year.
• The Big Damn Kiss: With Kurt.
• Big Man on Campus: Played to the trope. He's "the New Rachel," senior class president and in 23 different clubs.
• Big Ol' Eyebrows: And let's just say that the fandom noticed
• Breakout Character: And his reveal that he's actually a year younger than Kurt pretty much guaranteed that he would be one of the main stars of the 4th season following most of the main cast leaving Lima.
• Eye Scream: During a show-down with the Warblers under Sebastian's leadership, Sebastian throws slushie filled with rock salt in Blaine's face and it cuts his eye, causing him to be out of action for a couple episodes.
• Expy: Of Blane McDonnagh from Pretty in Pink.
• Iconic Sequel Character: Introduced in Season 2, as a Love Interest for Kurt before joining the Glee Club himself in Season 3. He and Sam were the only new characters to have significant storylines after their introductory season, and both are given a sort of "Honorary Original" status.
• Incompatible Orientation: Let's face it, his and Rachel's relationship was doomed from the beginning. And now Tina has a crush on him while he has a crush on Sam, his Heterosexual Life-Partner. This didn't make the Sadie Hawkins Dance awkward at all. Unlike many people in this trope he was aware of the futility of his crush and was aware it was mostly him displacing his affections for Kurt on to Sam.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Pulls a variation of it in "I Am Unicorn" when we find out that, despite having originally planned on trying out for Tony in the school musical, he ends up trying out for Bernardo or Officer Krupke because he knows how much Kurt wants the part. Leading to a really angsty cliffhanger when Artie asks him if he wants to read for Tony...
• Iconic Item: Bow ties on his neck and truck-load of gel on his head. Without the latter, he gets mistaken for a terrorist. Without both, Sam doesn't recognize him and is a little freak out why this strange man insists on talking to him.
• In-Series Nickname: Rachel, Kurt and several other characters have called him "Blaine Warbler." Brittany thinks it's his real full name. This actually gets deconstructed in season 4 by Hunter, the new captain of the Warblers in his efforts to manipulate Blaine into rejoining the flock. He points out that people at McKinley still call him Blaine Warbler despite being at his new school for over a year now - in essence, isolating him from the rest of the New Directions, who all pretty much act like a dysfunctional family. That on top of the fact that his new school reminds him constantly of his ex-boyfriend nearly leads to him being convinced that he really doesn't belong at WMHS and transferring back to Dalton.
• Kick the Dog:
  • Not intentionally, but in part of Season 2 Blaine's somewhat oblivious nature often caused Kurt some squirming about their relationship status. In "Silly Love Songs", Blaine came clean that he considered Kurt a friend until.
  • Downplayed as after his epiphany in Original Song, he acknowledges his feeling's for Kurt and since then he's always demonstrated to pay close attention to Kurt's feelings and to care a lot about him and his well being.
  • When he cheats on Kurt. They don't even show the guy he has sex with, which doesn't exactly paint Blaine in a positive light.
• Limited Wardrobe: During season 2, where he was rarely seen wearing something other than his Dalton uniform.
• Love Epiphany: In "Original Song" as Kurt sings "Blackbird".
• Magical Queer:
  • An unusual case, since the person he's guiding is also gay, which makes him more like Kurt's Sexy Mentor. It was Kurt's taking his advice that caused Karofsky's bullying to worsen to the point that Kurt was forced to transfer to Dalton.
  • Attempts to be one for Karofsky, although it doesn't quite work. Though to be fair, it's also probably safer than the alternative if you know about said Armored Closet Gay's violent tendencies...
• Mr. Fanservice: Once you get him out of his Dalton uniform, he's prone to very tight trousers in bright colors. So much so that his cover of "Teenage Dream" became the fastest-selling song in Glee history, with the highest-recorded first week sales of any song from the show
• New Transfer Student: As of Season 3, due to Darren Criss being made a series regular. Almost refreshingly, he remembered to show up in street clothes for his first day at McKinley.
• Oblivious to Love: He had no idea his close friendship with Kurt could have been interpreted as something more for the longest time. He does it again in season 3, by being unaware that he has a Stalker with a Crush in the form of Sebastian. And again in season 4, when he is completely oblivious to Tina's massive crush on him (though this time he is excused by the fact that he assumed he's made it clear to the ladies about Incompatible Orientation).
• One Head Taller: Zig-Zagged. Though scenes are often shot in a way so that the camera portrays Blaine as the "bigger" man in order to play up his mentor aspects, in standing group shots it's clear that Kurt is taller than him by several inches, and 'Baby, It's Cold Outside' in particular is shot with an emphasis on the two characters' equality. However, in later episodes they resume with this trope, especially for the kiss and on the Warbler album is edited so that Kurt is noticeably shorter than Blaine. It appears that they use this trope whenever possible, and don't bother when they can't. Making for two hilarious scenes in "Night of Neglect" and "Prom Queen"—the former is when Blaine tries to shove Karofsky, who is a head taller and far more muscular, and "Prom Queen" is when he dances with Kurt.
• Only Sane Man: Shows signs of this, especially in season three. Completely obliterated by Season 5 (See: "Puppet Master.")
• Pastimes Prove Personality:
  • Blaine hasn't really gotten much character development since joining the cast full-time, but CSI Tumblr is pretty good at figuring out his hobbies based on the decor in his room. Apparently, he fences, boxes, plays Polo, collects model cars and adorable little robots, has a substantial amount of old cameras as well as a wall of photographs, and reads books meant for teenage girls. Only time will tell if this is just the set designers having fun, or signs of Blaine's Hidden Depths.
  • Season 4 went out of the way to give Blaine more depth and interests outside of Kurt. He is into comic books, is in 23 different clubs and expresses interests in social justice and politics. Season 5 showed that he is truly weird and has a thing for puppets. He also enjoys reading Star Wars fanfiction with Sam.
  • In his early appearances Blaine mentions being a huge college football fan (which becomes a minor plot point in "The Sue Sylvester Shuffle"), though it's really not mentioned after Season Two.
• Quirky Curls: When his hair is un-gelled. Apparently, they're terrifying.
• Relationship Upgrade: With Kurt as of "Original Song." The fandom was ecstatic.
• Satellite Love Interest: The greater majority of Blaine's story and characterizations revolved around being Kurt's crush and later boyfriend, even well into season 3 when he got promoted to the main cast. This gets deconstructed in season 4, particularly after his and Kurt's breakup. He pretty much says in "Dynamic Duets" he feels like he's floating and doesn't know who he is since the breakup - doesn't really know who he is without Kurt. (This seemed to indicate someone who had emotional issues underlying the current situation, but the writers never actually went there.)
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Manly Man to Kurt's Sensitive Guy. Hilariously inverted by Season 5.
• Serenade Your Lover: He has a habit of doing this.
  • His first attempt doubles as Epic Fail. In "Silly Love Songs," when he brought the Warblers with him to serenade a guy he liked while he was working. What went wrong? 1. Poor Jeremiah got fired since it seemed like the disturbance was his fault, 2. he wasn't fully out of the closet yet, and 3. the reason he never pursued a relationship with Blaine in the first place is because Blaine is underage.
  • After the Relationship Upgrade with Kurt and Kurt's triumphant return to McKinley, he brings the Warblers for a much more successful serenade of "Somewhere Only We Know" in the school courtyard.
  • His surprise serenade, complete with back up band, to "It's Time" by Imagine Dragons.
  • Surprise serenaded Kurt again in "Love, Love, Love" before proposing to him.
  • Whilst not a lover, he serenaded Sam to express, without truly expressing, his feelings for him (to which Sam told him he loved him but only like a brother).
• Socially Awkward Hero: If you can consider being a singer this shows version of "heroic". He's a great performer and has sung onstage loads of times, but has had difficulty confronting bullies and can never tell when somebody is flirting with him.
• Spotlight-Stealing Squad: His Ascended Extra status from a Warbler to the male lead doesn't help, especially when you consider that he gets far more screentime than even the original characters. Then you consider that the episode after Karofsky's attempted suicide and Quinn's near death doesn't even mention that and instead focuses on Blaine's relationship with his brother. Who has never been seen, or even mentioned before this episode. Or after, for that matter.
• Taking the Bullet: Well, the rock salt filled slushie, really, but the reasoning remains the same.
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome: well, dark and handsome. Tall, not so much.
• Tiny Schoolboy
• Took a Level in Badass: Apparently, after he transferred to Dalton due to being bullied so much he took up boxing and started a Dalton branch of Fight Club, which he obviously can't talk about.
• Vague Age: Originally assumed by most fans to be a year older than Kurt, he was later revealed to be a grade behind him. He doesn't seem like the type to fail a grade. Confirmed as 18 in Season 5.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy:
  • Shows hints of this, though nothing explicit so far. All we know is that his Dad "built a car with him because he thought it might make him straight."
  • He fears being inadequate to (as in "not living up to the expectations of") his beloved ones, shown repeatedly with Kurt and discussed with his brother Cooper.

Rory Flanagan

Rory Flanagan

I love everything about America, including NASCAR, your half-black president, and Victoria's Secret Catalogues.

Portrayed by: Glee Project winner Damian McGinty

Voiced by: Carlo Vázquez (Latin-American Spanish)

An exchange student from Ireland living with Brittany. He was also in love with her, going to such lengths as convincing her that he was a leprechaun in order to get her "pot of gold". He befriends Finn and joins the Glee Club at the end of "Pot O' Gold". He and Artie had a competition for the affections of Sugar Motta during the episode "Heart" which Rory won by claiming he could not get his Visa extended.

Rory may have one of the most interesting vocal ranges, though it is never explored, in that he is a bass-baritone (on TGP) who sings as a strong baritenor whilst accessing falsetto notes to impress Kurt, his actor having trained as a soprano.

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• All Guys Want Cheerleaders
• All of the Other Reindeer: He's constantly bullied by the jocks.
  • And by constant we mean his introduction episode.
• Break the Cutie
• Butt-Monkey: Poor Rory gets picked on even more than the other characters. He gets picked on by all the students, loses Brittany's friendship due to a misunderstanding, and accidentally gets in the middle of a fight between Santana and Finn without knowing it. As time goes by the bullying decreases.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: He wears green tops for the duration of Brittany thinking he's a leprechaun.
• Did Not Get the Girl: Brittany realizes that he's not a real leprechaun and leaves him for the Troubletones. However he did 'get' Sugar Motta in the episode "Heart".
• Dogged Nice Guy: Averted. He tries to grant all of Brittany's wishes. Which seems like a "Nice Guy" thing to do, but he's not in love with her — he hopes to win her over and sleep with her.
• Fascinating Eyebrow
• Friendless Background
• Funny Foreigner
• Humiliation Conga: The bullies at McKinley are much more unkind to him than they were to previous exchange student Sunshine Corazon.
• Naïve Newcomer
• Iron Woobie: He even treated getting pelted by dodgeballs to the point of his nose bleeding as nothing more than a minor inconvenience.
• New Transfer Student: An exchange student from Ireland.
• Nice Guy
• Oireland: Rory, the Irish exchange student, wears all green and lets Brittany think he's a leprechaun.
  • Scotireland: Santana seems to think this.
• Put on a Bus: In season 4.
  • The Bus Came Back: For "Glee, Actually", though that was only a dream sequence.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Rory didn't come Back for the Finale because Damian was on tour with his former band, Celtic Thunder.
• The Unintelligible: To Brittany, at least. She can't understand what he says because of his Irish accent.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: All he wants is Brittany's intimacy, and it causes two more members to leave New Directions.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Lands a subtle yet powerful one on the entire Glee Club during the Christmas Special, by simply reading the Bible. Doing so, he reminds everyone the true meaning of Christmas and calls out their petty ego trips and squables that screwed with their dynamic for the entire episode.
• What the Hell Is That Accent?: His attempt at a Spanish one in "America".
  • Many fans who didn't watch The Glee Project thought his regular accent was so over-the-top it had to be faked. But that really is McGinty's natural accent.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: His preconceptions about America.

Sugar Motta

Sugar Motta

I have self-diagnosed Aspergers, which means I can pretty much say whatever I want.

Portrayed by: Vanessa Lengies

Voiced by: Hiromi Hayakawa (Latin-American Spanish)

A rich girl who tries out for New Directions and fails terribly - she can't sing to save her life. She later created her own glee club—the Troubletones—with Mercedes, Santana, Brittany, and some Cheerios, who competed against New Directions. When they lost Sectionals, they were invited to rejoin ND. Dated Rory for much of Season 3.

Though Sugar is tone deaf, she seems to improve enough with Shelby to provide backing vocals for the Troubletones and New Directions, and is an alto-mezzo-soprano.

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• Attention Whore: "I love the sound of applause."
• Blatant Lies: "Asperger's!"
• Brutal Honesty: Due to her "self-diagnosed Asperger's", which is clearly just an excuse to be a complete bitch.
• Catchphrase: "Asperger's" or a variant thereof, after blatantly insulting someone. Subverted after Will refuses to let her in to New Directions: She reams him out for not recognizing her perceived talent and then yells "Not Asperger's!" to demonstrate that she seriously meant it.
• Character Development: Seems to have gotten some as of "I Kissed A Girl", as we see her dancing in her seat when the New Directions perform their songs. (Recall how her first appearance involved her telling them how much they sucked.) Perhaps The Troubletones have actually taught her some humility.
• Characterization Marches On: Her bitchiness vanishes after serving its initial role in the plot, and it turns out it is possible to teach her how to sing and dance after all. She also proves to be rather quirky and the show seemingly cannot decide how attractive/popular she's supposed to be seen as.
• Daddy's Girl
• Dreadful Musician
• Deadpan Snarker
• Demoted to Extra: She was already suffering from this in the last episodes of Season 3, but gets fully blown into it in Season 4. She rarely got any dialogue aside from one-liners, hasn't been the focus of any episode, never got a solo (though with her voice it's understandable), and doesn't even appear in most episodes, without even an explanation on why she's not there.
• Disability as an Excuse for Jerkassery: This was originally one of her defining traits, but it was dropped after the writers caught hell from fans who didn't quite get that she wasn't supposed to be a serious portrayal of someone with Asperger's.
• The Ditz: After she stopped being a Jerkass.
• Foil: Remember every time someone has remarked that Rachel is annoying beyond belief, but her talent makes it worth keeping her around? Sugar is Rachel without the talent. Even their auditions parallel each other: like Rachel, Sugar automatically asked for rehearsal details when she finished singing, as if the idea that she didn't get in was unfathomable.
• Hollywood Tone-Deaf: Vanessa Lengies is actually a very good singer and dancer.
• Hoist by Her Own Petard: Creates a new Glee Club because she wants to be the main star and get all the solos. Once the far more talented Mercedes, Santana and Brittany transfer, she's forcefully relegated to back-up dancing and singing.
• I Just Want to Be Special: Hinted at in "Pot O' Gold"
  Sugar: I just wanted to be on the winning team for once.
• Jerkass: Due to saying whatever's on her mind. Looks like she's gotten a lot better, though.
• Mafia Princess: Heavily implied
• Out of Focus: Happened six times in Season 3, but it's way more prominent in Season 4, happening ten times. Despite being a member of New Directions, she's absent in a large number of episodes, without a single explanation on where she's supposed to be.
• Put on a Bus: Leaves at the end of Season 4, though makes a cameo at Brittany and Santana's wedding.
• Rich Bitch: She comes from a wealthy family, not that this makes her a nice person.
• Start My Own: Since Will didn't let her in to New Directions, she had her father fund her own Glee club within McKinley, with the only rules being that she is in it and Shelby is the coach.
  • Joins New Directions after the Troubletones lose at Sectionals and takes Mercedes, Santana and Brittany with her, effectively ending the Troubletones.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Delivers a pretty hilarious one to Will.
  "You know what?! Who cares what you think? Hm?! Nobody! You're a washed up Broadway wannabe who's stuck in Lima and has lead the Glee club to how many national wins? Oh, I'm sorry, zero! Not Aspergers!"
• Vocal Range Exceeded: Constantly.
• Wealthy Philanthropist: Once she joins New Directions, she starts helping them financially.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: She disappeared entirely in Season 5, which was especially glaring since Season 5 was, unlike previous seasons, set in the same academic year as Season 4. She did return for Brittany and Santana's wedding, as well as the final number in the Grand Finale.

Joe Hart

Joseph Hart

Love is love, man.

Portrayed by: The Glee Project winner Samuel Larsen

Voiced by: Eduardo Garza (Latin-American Spanish)

A home-schooled student who transferred to McKinley after realizing his best friend was his mom. Described as a "teenage Jesus", he wants to let people know that Christians can be cool and aren't all door-to-door Bible salesmen like his dad.

Joe is a tenor who has a strong voice within the extended tenor range, and we don't hear him sing outside of it.

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• Demoted to Extra: In season 3, he had plot-lines and duets. In season 4, he's lucky to get lines.
• Dread Lock Rasta: Save for the "Rasta" part. See Hipster
• Dude Looks Like a Lady: Brittany uses feminine pronouns when talking about him.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette
• Fish out of Water: He hasn't been exposed to much media at all during his time being home schooled.
  Sam (while wearing a welding helmet): I am your father.
  Joe: Is that a movie or something...?
• Heteronormative Crusader: Completely averted. Originally he was conflicted about Santana's request for him to sing a love song to her girlfriend, but eventually he took the very Jesus-like attitude of "love is love" and did it wholeheartedly.
• Jesus Was Way Cool: Would like to spread this attitude to some of his classmates.
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy: To the point that Brittany is convinced he's a girl.
• Looks Like Jesus: Acts like him too.
• Raging Stiffie: Gets one while helping Quinn with her physical therapy. Lifting her leg, pressed all up against her thigh... While this would be embarrassing for any guy, Joe has been particularly conflicted due to his attraction to Quinn despite wanting to abstain from sex until marriage.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: As with Sugar, disappeared entirely in Season 5. Makes a cameo in the final season, then returns for the final number in the Grand Finale.

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