Characters / Succession: Roman Roy

Succession character index
Main Characters (Logan Roy, Kendall Roy, Siobhan "Shiv" Roy, Roman Roy) | Extended Roy Family | Waystar RoyCo | Other Companies | Politics | Other Characters

---

Roman "Romulus" Roy

"You get off, you eat the shame for dessert."

Portrayed By: Kieran Culkin

"Roman... you're a fucking moron."

— Logan Roy

Logan’s youngest son (and the middle child from his second marriage), Roman is a cocky, bon-vivant jokester. While he exudes the "killer instinct" and bravado that his father desires from a Waystar executive, his immaturity, laziness and lack of focus have kept him from advancing within the company.

---

A-L

• Affectionate Gesture to the Head: In early Season One, when things are a little more okay, he’s fond of hugging Kendall’s head and giving him a kiss on the cheek, knowing how touch-starved he is. After Kendall confesses about the waiter and the three siblings have reconciled, he goes right back to it.
• All for Nothing: In the Season 3 finale, he finally overcomes his crippling fear of the abusive Logan and teams with his siblings to take him down for good. But it's too little, too late, and the attempted uprising leads to nothing but pain for Roman.
  • Come the series finale, and Roman comes to admitting this about all their scheming and power plays to become Waystar CEO, basically stating that nothing matters and how none of them are actually ready to take control themselves. Of course, at that point, it didn't matter, as Shiv voting against Kendall killed any chance of them winning.
• Alliterative Name: Roman Roy.
• Always Someone Better: He talks a big game about liking to hurt people, but Logan has him beat.
• Ambiguously Bi: A frequent interpretation of Roman's issues with sex — disinterest in partners, attraction to power, inability to get off without it being somehow "wrong" — is that he is deeply repressing some amount of homosexual attraction, understandably so given Logan's constant barrage of homophobic insults and accusations.
  • His effusive physical mannerisms, quirky fashion sense, and short stature often conspire to make him appear "feminine" in contrast with the other male characters (and even Shiv).
  • He is frequently tasked by Logan and Kendall both with "seducing" powerful men to the cause, not infrequently in bathrooms or at bars. Notable examples include wining and dining Lawrence, boyfriend in tow, and his infamous deal with Mencken in Logan's bathroom.
  • His workout scenes with his season 1 personal trainer tend to be shot with a lot of Homoerotic Subtext, emphasizing Roman being pinned down by the larger man. His assistant turns her head away as if to give them privacy when forced to interrupt one of their sessions, for which he sheepishly berates her, and in a later season Shiv mentions a rumor that he used to get jerked off by the trainer and payed to keep him quiet.
  • His initial reaction to seeing Tabitha is "Dad would be all over that" making his later pursuit of her seem more motivated by pleasing or emulating his father than by genuine attraction. Their relationship eventually dissolves implicitly due to his unwillingness to be intimate with her.
  • Even his psychosexual obsession with Gerri seems predicated on the knowledge that she would never actually fuck him.
• Animal Motifs: Is frequently associated with dogs and cages. As children, he and Kendall played "dog pound" which involved locking Roman in an actual dog crate and forcing him to eat kibble/chocolate cake (depending on who's telling the story). Roman blames this "game" for kicking off the psychological issues that had him sent away to military school — an event Connor chalks up to Logan's strategy of dealing with two "fighting dogs" by sending the weaker one away to cement the hierarchy. One of Gerri's most effective sadomasochistic insults to him is "slime puppy," and even his namesake “Romulus,” (the source of his nickname and the mythical founder of Rome, his true namesake), was nursed by a wolf.
• Amazon Chaser: Immediately shows attraction to Tabitha due to her height; at 5’11” she towers over the 5’6” Roman.
• Annoying Younger Sibling: To Kendall and even Shiv, even though he's older than her. He's constantly mocking them for their flaws, snarking off the grossest things he can think of to disgust them, and his schemes often conflict with theirs in an "annoying obstruction" way moreso than being anything seriously threatening.
• Asshole Victim:
  • Accidentally sending a dick pic to his own father would be horrifying and pitiable, but it comes right as Roman is reaching a new height of abusive and smug behavior, so the dick pic event winds up being pitiful and hilariously karmic.
  • It's confirmed that Logan used to hit Roman when he was kid and is still willing to hit him as an adult, and he's implied to have been a victim of sexual abuse.
• At Least I Admit It:
  • He tells off both Shiv and Kendall for pretending they’re good people while still doing shitty things, and he at least admits to being awful.
  • He’s also like this when it comes to admitting he makes choices on which parent he finds scarier, when Shiv will move her wedding to a different country because she’s afraid of her mother, and Kendall turns into a stammering mess with Logan after denying to Stewy that he’s scared of him.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: His attention span is lacking, to put it mildly, and has kept him from advancing within Waystar.
  Roman: This is probably the most interesting thing that's happened in my entire life, and I'm thinking about like six other things.
• The Baby of the Bunch: Despite being older than Shiv, each one of his siblings has had to parentify themselves in some way: Connor taking on the father role for the golden trio as Logan can’t be bothered, Shiv not allowing herself to show emotion because she'd be taken far less seriously as the only girl and trying to protect her easily collapsed brothers, and Kendall is his dad's Living Emotional Crutch, playing mother and savior (but also lashing out) to younger siblings. So Roman is left as the baby: not taken seriously, but both looked after and the brunt of physical abuse.
• Bad Boss: Like most of the Roys, Roman is anything but polite or caring towards those directly under him, or even towards his equals in rank.
• Bastard Understudy: He's the closest thing to this that Logan has. Kendall is too much of an ego-tripping The Starscream who plays his hands too soon and too poorly, Shiv lets her own personal struggles and ethics stand in her way, and Connor is...well, Connor. Roman, meanwhile, is taken under Logan's wing more and more as the series goes on, proving himself to be the most loyal, ruthless and ambitious of the children. Most characters come to realize that Roman is the closest to subsuming Logan's role in personality and status.
• Big Brother Instinct:
  • Rarely, as he's much more likely to argue with Shiv, but he joins his older brothers in rallying around her when they receive the news of their father's death.
  • In the finale, he doesn't fight back when Kendall tries to gouge his eyes out, but shouts and pushes him away when he shoves Shiv and tries to keep her from leaving the room.
  "She's fucking pregnant, you piece of shit!"
• Big Brother Worship: While they fight a lot, he really does love Kendall and vice versa, Jesse Armstrong confirming Roman wouldn't have chickened out in the vote of no confidence if only Ken had been there.
• Bondage Is Bad: Or, rather, Kink is Bad. He is a semi-sociopathic slimeball with a fondness for humiliation and faked necrophilia.
  • Though this is somewhat deconstructed, as the scene where he masturbates in a bathroom while Gerri verbally degrades him from behind the door is one of the only sexual scenes in the show where both parties seem to be having any fun and aren't completely miserable doing it.
• Book Dumb: Roman references "killing Kendall and becoming king", citing the title character in Hamlet. Killing your brother to become king does indeed happen in Hamlet, but it was Claudius, not Hamlet himself.
• Brief Accent Imitation: He occasionally lapses into a stuffy upperclass British accent (not unlike his mother's) for humorous effect (often when saying "naughty").
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Unlike Kendall, he has very good instincts for business, but no desire to apply himself, at least until Season 2 (see Dumbass No More). A point is made that Roman is, surprisingly, the best candidate to succeed Logan if only he would ever properly apply himself.
• Card-Carrying Villain: Of the Roy children, he is the most honest and self-aware in regards to his good luck and privilege - but instead of trying to do some good in the world, he cruelly and casually embraces his "spoiled rotten rich kid" persona, at least initially.
• Casanova Wannabe: Roman is always talking about how much sex he gets, but the girl he takes to Shiv's wedding complains that he never has sex with her, and Grace says they only have sex every six months. Then the second season reveals that he can really only have sex when fantasizing about something deviant, like his partner being dead, or when he's feeling guilt or shame.
• Catchphrase: When suggesting an idea to someone, Roman will often preface it with "If it pleases the court...", complete with a faux-aristocratic accent.
• Chaotic Stupid: Before he wisens up in Season 2, he entertains himself by spreading chaos wherever he goes, which often backfires for him and those around him.
• Characterizing Sitting Pose: He has a habit of either sitting on things that aren't chairs (like a bathroom cabinet) or sitting on normal chairs in bizarre ways (like sitting on the top of a chair, his feet on the seat). It's a visual reminder of how little he cares about professionalism or manners.
• Character Tics: When he’s trying to get in good with Logan, usually by shittalking another sibling, he’ll crouch down by his dad and talk to him from below.
• Child Hater: One of his worst moments in the pilot is promising a working class kid money if he hits a home run and then tearing the check up in front of him, and later doesn’t give a shit if his niece/nephew are being followed. Grace gets pissed off with him when he tries to ruin their enjoyment of a Thanksgiving movie, just because he doesn’t like said movie.
• Conditioned to Accept Horror: He’s gotten the worst of Logan's physical abuse out of all of them, not helped by Shiv and his brothers undermining him and saying it didn’t happen or wasn’t that bad.
• The Charmer: While not as good as he thinks, when he's able to keep his mouth shut he can get a strategy by talking to someone and playing to their wants, whether it's Matsson, Mencken, Vaulter employees or Lawrence Yee.
• Character Tics: Roman will bite his nails when he’s either thinking or nervous.
• The Chew Toy: The runt of the Roy family. Logan has no time for him because he sees him as an embarrassment, and while his siblings love him, they’re not consistently there, his relationship with Kendall especially either being protected or fighting like attack dogs.
• Childish Older Sibling: He's indicated to be older than Shiv, and whereas she is cold and subtle in her movements, Roman is loud, obnoxious and immature in many of his mannerisms and even schemes.
• The Corruptible: What Logan thinks of him, believing him to be too stupid to ever think of betraying on his own.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: He Hates Being Touched and they rarely have sex, but he tells a waiter to get Grace's number, then fingers her while her phone rings. He also gets angry and nasty when Gerri is dating someone else, still sending her dick pics even when she tells him to stop.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Roman seems to have born the brunt of Logan’s physical abuse, doesn’t trust his own memories, still finds the dog pound game a traumatic experience and the only happy “father son memory” is when Connor took him fishing.
• Dark Horse Sibling: In a manner of speaking, yes. Early on in the series, Roman was mostly seen as a non-contender for any real position of power as Logan's successor thanks to his immature ways and laziness. As time passes, however, Roman slowly overtakes Shiv and Kendall both as Logan's favorite to succeed him, and indeed seems to be well on his way to earning his place at the top of the company before his dick pic scandal throws it in the toilet.
• Deadpan Snarker: Mostly communicates through wisecracks and insults, even compared to the rest of the characters. This becomes gradually deconstructed as the series goes on as other characters start to find his constant snide comments grating and in the finale, Kendall finally snaps after one cruel remark too many from Roman, destroying their relationship.
• Depraved Bisexual: His flamboyant persona, constant big-talk about attraction to random women including his stepmother and sister, difficulty with "vanilla" sex, and ambiguous flirtations with dangerous men like Mencken and Mattson combine to create this impression.
• Desperately Craves Affection: He notably gets a confidence boost whenever an older man praises him, only to recoil whenever he's the brunt of Logan's temper. He's so desperate for approval that whenever he is in Logan's good graces, he acts like his dad is the most amazing person ever and can't fathom that he could be wrong about anything.
• Didn't Think This Through: He has a lot of ideas but little acumen or experience, so many of his attempts at being cunning fall flat and blow up in his face. One of the prime examples being the time he flippantly moved the deadline for a satellite launch way earlier than necessary, leading to the totally predictable outcome of the entire project literally bursting into flames. All Roman can do is stare in complete and utter shock, and then pretend he didn't even see the colossal failure that just happened.
• Dismotivation: At the beginning of the series, he has no aspirations to succeed Logan and is content to just laze about.
• Domestic Abuse: Logan is emotionally abusive, predatory and manipulative to all his children, but seems to save the physical abuse for Roman, backhanding him, beating him with a slipper for ordering lobster, and Roman asides in the pilot that Logan once took a swing at him after being "surprised". Culkin has the view that for Rome, it’s only happened a few times, and he can rationalize it as not happening at all.
• The Dragon: Much like his siblings in seasons before, he spends most of season three as Logan's right-hand man in carrying out his crooked machinations.
• Dumbass No More: After spending most of the time being humiliated after trying and failing to take after his father, he spends the second season getting more experience, and after being humbled during a hostage takeover he arrives at the yacht much more mature and intelligent, and even impressively quashes a bad deal that otherwise would have been pushed through.
• The Dutiful Son: Gets his own turn in Season Three, cuddling up with fascists and knifing his siblings to try and prove that he’s useful and worthy to his dad. However, it abruptly ends with him crying on the floor because neither Logan or Caroline care about fucking over their children, and even Gerri can’t help.
• Easily Forgiven: He’s quick to agree with Logan after the latter backhands him that nothing happened and barely made contact. This despite the fact that said backhand bloodily knocked a tooth out of Roman's mouth.
• Eccentric Millionaire: He's got so much money to throw away that he can directly offer a million dollars to a random person at any time, and he's absolutely weird as hell with how he carries himself on a day-to-day basis. Only Connor surpasses him in eccentricity, and that's saying a lot.
• Effeminate Misogynistic Guy: Roman is flamboyant, a Depraved Bisexual in a way he doesn’t want to think about, is an Amazon Chaser, has a fetish for being degraded and loves his sister in a protect each other through checking in and snarking kind of way, but he’s the most open about being a Card-Carrying Villain and uses more overtly misogynistic language than even Logan.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Like Shiv and “Pinky”, “Romulus” is mostly used by Logan to keep his son in line.
• Enemy Mine: Despite his routine conflict with his siblings, Roman has more than once set aside his differences with them to take on a greater threat. As of the Season 3 finale, that threat is their own father, which has arguably brought the siblings closer than they've been in years.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Obvious joke about his sexual inclinations aside, Roman is a conniving, manipulative dick of the highest order, but seems genuinely fearful for his mother's safety and financial security when she announces she's remarrying someone who Roman believes to be a greedy, ambitious snake.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • In "Shit Show at the Fuck Factory", he immediately knows he went too far by saying Kendall has less use to dad than a can opener.
  • As selfish as he is about it, he’s still worried that he might have killed someone with the pushed earlier than planned rocket launch exploding.
  • He’s dimly aware that Logan only went with his idea to gut Vaulter to hurt Kendall, but is riding on the high of getting praise from his dad.
  • He actually tries to have a conversation about his messed up sexual likings with Tabitha, and rape fantasies are too far for him.
  • In the series finale, Roman is absolutely disgusted when Kendall tries to pretend that he has no memory of the waiter's death from Season 1, taking Shiv's side without hesitation. When Kendall takes a swing at Shiv, Roman immediately shouts at him to leave her alone, since she's pregnant.
• Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: Roman is a terrible human being, and often expresses it through his twisted idea of "jokes." He regularly makes disgusting incest come-ons to his own family members, he finds tormenting children hilarious, and he rarely goes a scene without making some kind of extremely offensive, prejudiced barb.
• Evil Versus Evil: Given the objectively vile morality of the Roy family and its associates as a whole, anytime Roman seriously goes up against one of his family members, it's ultimately bad people trying to screw each other over.
• Extreme Doormat: Despite all his trolling, he fawns over his dad and defends him whenever Shiv or Kendall mention Roman actually being abused. When they’re all together, Logan says Roman can trust him and he falters before his older siblings look after him and he stands firm for once.
  Shiv: You just love the boot because you love to be kicked by it.
• Fatal Flaw: He desperately needs praise and support, and if Logan is filling him up with Sugary Malice love after Roman does what he wants, he’ll knife anyone to get it, assuming they’re just jealous and ungrateful for the attention they had before him.
• Faux Affably Evil: Even as he's spitting venomous barbs and scheming to help his father screw over entire companies, Roman rarely loses his air of cordial, snide politeness. He's so committed to his facade of civility that he'll crack a joke while stabbing his own siblings in the back.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: The Foolish to Kendall's Responsible, in Season 1.
• Forced Out of the Closet: While it’s an open secret, Logan doesn’t know that Roman got jerked off by his gym instructor, and that coupled with the dick pic meant for Gerri, means any chance of Roman staying the favorite are up in smoke.
• Four-Philosophy Ensemble: The Optimist.

• The Friend Nobody Likes: Even in a family of assholes as big as the Roys, Roman is barely tolerated by his siblings or father, oftentimes treated more as a useful nuisance than any kind of genuine ally or loved one.
• Freudian Excuse: He “remembers” the dog cage as turning him weird as a kid (wetting the bed and having to go to military school), but it becomes clearer through the series that he has deeper scars that he doesn’t want to think about.
• The Gadfly: Frequently digs into other characters and heaps on the misery when they're at a low point.
• Gallows Humor: Only problem is he won’t keep it to his own trauma, and likes to zero in on others too (as he defends, it’s not like his pain is taken consistently seriously), like Shiv’s fear of being seen as sexy to her family, or Kendall’s whole emotional incest thing with his dad, or Connor’s mother being mentally ill.
• Graceful Loser: In the show's final minutes, he seems to grasp and accept that the Roys are fundamentally ill-suited for the Waystar throne. While all Roy siblings are devastated to lose control of the company, Roman clearly finds some relief that he can return to the playboy lifestyle he prefers.
• Greek Chorus: There’s a lot of projection and bias, but he’s always there to lampshade others insecurities, like Tom has Shiv not loving him like he wants, Shiv has the fear that she’s just another sexy Disposable Woman to her family, Connor with not being wanted, and Kendall’s covertly incestuous relationship with Logan.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Like Shiv, he’s left out in the cold a lot while Kendall is targeted golden boy, and of course immediately expresses his insecurity by joking that his brother is giving their dad blowjobs.
• Has a Type: Either women who are as The Gadfly as he is, or in the case of Gerri, someone who can either be mommy and degrade him in a way that he can ask for and control.
• Hates Being Touched: He plays at being hypersexual and makes many gross sex jokes, but Grace and Tabitha both complain he never has sex with them, and he’s visibly upset when Shiv tells him he’ll have to fuck one day.
• Have I Mentioned I Am Sexually Active Today?: He constantly talks about how much sex he has, but he actually can't perform with this girlfriend, and if his behavior with Gerri and his personal trainer is any indication, he actually only gets off on jerking off or being jerked off.
• Heel Realization: In the finale, he votes against Kendall after he attacks Shiv, and when all is said and done, he finally admits to both Kendall and himself that the siblings, their family, and Waystar as a whole are "all bullshit". Notably, he is the only sibling other than Connor to not be completely miserable in the end, as he's finally able to let go of the petty power struggle that has fueled them for the entire series.
• Hero-Worshipper: Logan isn’t a hero in the slightest, but Roman is so desperate to believe he is and that he’ll never die, especially when Roman believe he's in or might get into his good graces.
• Hidden Depths: Despite all of his dickishness, he really does care about Kendall even as they spar, and despite enjoying coming off as a playboy he often gets insecure and lonely. He's also desperate for Logan's approval even when outright stating that he has almost never told him that he loves him, and has apparently been physically abused by him in the past. He's also shown that he's much smarter and more capable at business than he seems at first.
• Hidden Heart of Gold: He asks Greg to get him one of his dad’s sweaters while Logan is in a coma, and tells Greg that he’ll castrate him if he ever tells anyone about it.
• Hot-Blooded: As Culkin has pointed out, Roman has big emotions and can only attempt to hide being a trolly Sad Clown, “if his tummy was hurting he would just say it”, while at least his siblings have the capability of fronting, even if temporarily.
• Hypocrite: He's uncomfortable with Shiv's letter denouncing Kendall's betrayal of Logan and exposing Kendall's drug abuse. However, he's perfectly willing to send spies to harass extended family for the sake of his faction's advantage. Notably, he views others as hypocrites when this is exposed, thinking they're only mad because it's him doing it.
  • He also loves to mock the others, especially Kendall, for their desire for Logan's approval but regularly shows himself to be just as bad in that regard and is just as prone to undeserved worship of him as Kendall is.
  • He always is the one to point out (with very valid reasons, as Kendall is Useless Bystander Parent for both his kids and his siblings) that Kendall is an absent dad to his kids, but sees no issue with Waystar stalking them.
• Ignored Enamored Underling: His version of the Incest Subtext they all have with their dad, always saying he loves him and just getting completely ignored unless he’s being ruthless.
• I Just Want to Be Loved: And while his siblings do care about him, defending and protecting when they can, and so does Gerri, nobody really treats him like a real person, even when he drops the image of Sad Clown with gross jokes.
• I Love the Dead: Implied. He wants Tabitha to pretend to be dead when they're trying to have sex, and it fails because she seems too alive.
• Inelegant Blubbering: Breaks down into squawking, squealing sobs at Logan's funeral, leaving him to unable to complete his eulogy. While his siblings have sympathy for him in the moment, footage of his breakdown later circulates on social media, and Roman has thrown in his lot with figures like Mencken who only respect strength. If he still had any delusions of taking over Waystar, they go up in smoke at that moment.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: For all his colossal arrogance, it's clear that Roman is a lot more insecure than he lets on and is just as desperate for his dad's approval as Kendall, feeling he isn't worth anything if he isn't in Logan's good graces.
• In-Series Nickname: "Romulus" and "Rome". Logan also occasionally refers to him in later seasons as "Tumbledown Dick," a Stealth Insult Viewers Are Geniuses reference to Richard Cromwell, whose most notable historical trait was his totally inability to mange the kingdom left to him by his far more impressive and powerful father.
• Intergenerational Friendship: With Gerri — she's an older widow who got where she is through wits, guile and hard work; he's a spoiled, self-absorbed rich kid with a host of daddy issues. Yet they do care for one another and have a genuine bond.
• Ironic Nickname: A mild example. "Roman" is a semi-common name, but the nicknames he has ("Rome" and "Romulus") both reinforce the reference point of Ancient Rome, in which Romulus was the founder of the Roman Empire and in war with his siblings. It’s also associated with wolves i.e the wolf pack, and he’s deeply uncomfortable when he has to come to Kendall’s rescue (who is so out of it he doesn’t care he’s not safe) with the methheads obsessed with wolves.
• It's All About Me: In true Roy Comedic Sociopathy, he goes against advice and pushes his launch ahead as a "wedding present" to Shiv (which she's not even interested in), leading to a disastrous explosion on the launch pad. When it comes to possible fatalities, he's only concerned about whether or not he'd be culpable for the deaths.
• Jealous Romantic Witness: He plays it off with jokes, but Roman's obviously brimming with jealousy and is pissed when he sees Gerri interacting with her new fling Laurie.
• Jerkass: He loves stirring up trouble and drama, and rips up a million dollar check in front of a young boy's face after taunting him about it.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Maybe not "gold," but he truly does care about his siblings deep down, and rescues Kendall when the latter starts using again. He also stands up to Logan to try to argue for Kendall to stay after the latter decides that Kendall will take the fall for the cruises scandal, after defending Gerri from the same fate.
• Kick the Dog:
  • Spurred by on too much booze and finally feeling he’s the favorite after Kendall and Shiv have scuppered the chances, he recreates his own abuse (“Argestes”), Kendall’s abuse (“The Celebration”) and Shiv’s abuse (a lot of sexual comments that freak her out), in a bid to try and be like Logan.
  • As early as the first episode, Roman proves himself to be a particular breed of sadist among the Roys when he challenges a young boy to an incredibly hard task with the promise of a valuable check as a reward. When the lad predictably fails, Roman gleefully rips up the check and mocks the boy to his face.
  • He refuses to let Tom’s friends who flew out from Michigan attend his bachelor party at the underground club, despite being perfectly able to get them through the door with his connections. He even tells them to go grab a coffee and smugly offers them money to rub in his status.
• Lack of Empathy: Boasted about, but ultimately subverted. He can be selfless for Gerri, Culkin’s talked about Roman’s resentment of Kendall is partly that he wants to see all this family abuse as a game but Ken’s misery is proof that it’s not, and he’s the most stunned when his parents callously screw all them over.
  • When Kendall breaks down over his guilt in season 3, Roman demonstrates a surprising level of emotional maturity, offering his brother just the right combination of empathy and groundedness, with a little light humour to break the tension.
• Laughably Evil: Of all the Roys, Roman's callous, arrogant and offensive behavior is easily the most hilarious to watch. His insults are creatively cruel, he'll crack jokes while screwing over his own family, and the times he faces any kind of karma is all the more hilarious for it.
• Lean and Mean: He has a noticeably thin frame, and is—on the surface, at least—the most viscerally despicable of the Roy children.
• Like a God to Me: He's accepted that Logan can crush him and his siblings like they're bugs, at least until he gets hope that they can take him down and then… gets crushed.
• Like Father, Like Son: Gerri calls him bootleg Logan, and this has bad effects for a while, Roman cosying up to fascists to make his dad happy, locking Shiv out of the loop on business, and does an Ironic Echo to Logan in the pilot with Kendall, asking if Ken wants to hit him, but then also shoving him to the floor. To him, all this makes him the favourite, until he’s the one begging dad for love in the finale and gets it thrown back in his face.
• Like Father, Unlike Son: For all the “bootleg Logan” and wanting business to be a game, he’s visibly disturbed when they have a good business deal and Logan just wants to destroy them. Logan can turn off all his feelings when it comes to the “game”, Roman can’t.
• Likes Older Women: Which works out for Gerri, as most of the men who want to “pounce” on her are in their nineties.
• Lovable Coward: He can at least admit he’s absolutely terrified of his father, which gets him points, and actually manages to stand up to him finally when his siblings are in the room and supporting him.
• Love Cannot Overcome: Is forced to learn it at the end of season three, as he comes to his father with "fucking… love?" like it's obvious, but Logan doesn't want that in the slightest, their mom metaphorically fucks them, and not even Gerri can help, wanting him to give her a professional reason why she should.
• Love Martyr: He’ll forgive his dad for everything and anything, and gets cruelly rebuffed when offering “love” in the Tuscany confrontation. It really says something when he resents his siblings for not appreciating being fucked enough.

M-W

• Malicious Misnaming: Roman calls his stepfather-to-be Peter Munion "Peter Onion" disparagingly.
• Manchild: A thirty-something who still acts like a petulant, obnoxious, glib teenager (complete with penis-related jokes). He even gets called a "toddler with a hard on" at one point.
• May–December Romance: In Season 2, he starts a sexual relationship with Gerri, who is old enough to be his mother.
• Meaningful Name: Roman (and his nickname “Romulus”) are obviously tied to the origin myth of the Roman Empire—that of two brothers nursed and raised by a wolf. Romulus was the superior brother and therefore Rome was named after him. It’s something of an Ironic Nickname considering Roman is often considered the ‘weaker’/less serious of the two brothers, at least to start.
• Middle Child Syndrome: He is the middle child from Logan's second marriage and, as befits the stereotype, is a rebellious Attention Whore.
• Minion with an F in Evil: As horrible as he is and likes to come across, it's been established that, when push comes to shove, Roman lacks Logan's ruthlessness and cut throat approach to business and general view of business deals as a brutal competition where there are only winners and losers.
• Misplaced Retribution: Confirmed by the actors in that Kendall did lock him up in the cage and Roman does feel trauma over it while Connor/Kendall would rather just assume it was enjoyed, but there is much worse from Logan that Roman doesn’t want to think about, and blaming Kendall (who also protected him from Logan) for his bad childhood is just easier.
• Momma's Boy: If it’s any consolation he’s his mother’s favourite, as he’s grateful for the scraps of affection she gives, while Kendall and Shiv need more than she can offer.
• Morality Pet: While he’s more the pet to her mother figure, Gerri is his, as he shows multiple times that he can display concern and affection for her, and ignoring her no on the dick pics is a sign that he’s trying to be more like Logan, which ends badly for both of them.
• More Insulting than Intended: Contrasting with Logan who very much means to wound, he means horrible comments in the moment (and there’s usually at least a grain of truth in what he’s saying) but then cools down and realizes he may have hit a nerve. He gives an awkward apology in “All The Bells Say”, admitting it was all just business that got them fucked up.
• The Movie Buff: He’s written a screenplay that we don’t get to see, and his pre-series time at Waystar seems to be mostly spent in the film section.
• My Master, Right or Wrong: "My father", in this case. Roman is the most unfailingly loyal child of Logan, and be it because of fear or love, he'll almost always choose his father over anything else, morality be damned. It takes Logan deliberately screwing over Shiv, Kendall and Roman himself in one fell swoop before Roman gains the guts to finally betray his dad.
• Never My Fault: He was the one that asked for help from Tabitha with the Pierce deal, but he gets humiliated instead and decides to blame her, getting support from Gerri.
• Nightmare Fetishist: While the first season teased Roman as being asexual, season two reveals that Roman is actually only capable of becoming aroused if the situation is somehow "twisted." In his first attempt to have sex with his girlfriend, he insists that she pretend to be dead. Later, he discovers his fondness for masturbating while being verbally degraded. When Logan is accidentally sent a dick pic meant for Gerri, Roman is asked what the hell is wrong with him, and he admits he doesn't know.
• Not in This for Your Revolution: Much as he enjoys right-wing lingo, audacity, and the freedom to be as edgy as possible, he displays no real interest in policy as concerns race, gender, and other topics in vogue; in fact, he privately mocks rhetoric typical of both American political parties. When he backs Mencken's presidential bid, he's apathetic to the guy's extremist views and chiefly concerned with the favours this connection might afford Waystar.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: When he is introduced, Roman seems to be little more than a manchild with a bit of a sadistic streak, but who primarily lounges around and goofs off. As time passes, however, it is made plainly obvious that Roman is the most like Logan in sheer cold-hearted business logic, and he becomes a genuine threat to Shiv and Kendall's chances at succeeding their father.
• Not So Stoic: His veneer of callous indifference cracks few times through the series, but the ultimate example would be in the Season 3 finale where he is reduced to a pitiful ball on the floor of despair and terror at his attempted removal of Logan from power going terribly. It only gets worse in Season 4, when Logan passes away - Roman attempts to project that he's "pre-grieved", but it's truly denial, and he is spiraling towards breaking down in momentous fashion.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: He initially comes across as a troll with barely a brain cell to spare, but is soon revealed to be shrewd and intelligent (if somewhat lacking in experience and good sense). Roman himself lampshades this: "I'm dumb, but I'm smart". He also understands his siblings more than they want him to, and is close to realizing there’s a debt problem just from Gerri not wanting the CEO job.
• Obviously Not Fine: From his very first scene he’s asked if he’s okay, and he plays up the fact that he’s a trolling clown to try and cover up.
• Oh, Crap!: Gets several, with the standouts being:
  • When his rushing of the satellite launch leads to the rocket exploding thanks to poor preparation, his face goes from "smug excitement" to "abject horror" as he witnesses the catastrophe.
  • When he accidentally sends his own father a dick pic instead of the intended target, he can only watch in growing mortification as Logan's phone dings with the notification. By the time Logan's face is contorting with disgust, Roman looks like he's ready to leap out of the closest window.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • Sweet one in that he’ll usually do whatever his father says, but in “Austerlitz”, when it comes down to calling for a launch in Japan like Logan wants, or saving Kendall from methheads, he does the latter first. A little later he also tries to hold Logan back, along with Marcia, from beating the crap out of Kendall.
  • While it starts out as just trolling, he later gets upset that he might actually be remembering the dog pound wrong, and everyone else just remembers it as a game he enjoyed.
  • Makes a load of trolly comments about being abused, either by Connor or Kendall, and the instant Shiv looks out for him he quietly defends his dad.
  • Shiv tells him at one point he’s going to have to fuck something, and Roman just leaves the room. Shiv and Kendall tell themselves he’s fine and just overreacting.
• Only Friend: He talks a big game about his “crew” in “Prague”, which turns out to be his brothers, Greg and Tom.
• Overlord Jr.: Roman's arguably the most kid of Logan Roy, and considering Logan is a ruthless, cutthroat businessman who promotes abuse and crushing of others...Roman hasn't fallen far from the tree in many regards.
• Paralyzing Fear of Sexuality: He acts like he’s fine with his whole sadomasochistic tendencies, and making incestuous comments about his siblings, but when Logan finds out he’s with Gerri, he shrinks in fear and admits he has no idea what’s wrong with him, and doesn’t want to know.
• Parental Substitute: Gerri is an acceptable “mother figure” to him, in his extended family (she’s Shiv’s godmother) and it’s not a full on crossing the line to have a relationship with her where it’s a mix of consensual degrading and affection.
• Parent-Preferred Suitor: Part of why he goes for Tabitha is “Logan would be all over that” (confirmed later when Logan asks where she is), other parts being trolling Tom (she got him to swallow his own load) and they’re genuinely Birds of a Feather.
• Perma-Stubble: Often sports this as part of his "fashionably dishevelled" look.
• Pet the Dog:
  • When Kendall angsts early on that he’s Hated by All (the stock price has gone below 130), Roman reassures that he’s in the same boat.
  • He rescues Kendall from a group of hardcore drug addicts. He's too late to stop his brother from falling off the wagon, but he still gets him out before anything worse can happen.
  • On the way to the bachelor party, and when everyone knows that Kendall is Off the Wagon again, Roman asks if he’ll be okay around all the booze and coke, and offers to make sure nobody does it around him.
  • While they don’t know what’s going on (and let themselves get angry because from their perspective, he’s got away with everything), he and Shiv are concerned for Kendall in season two, and Roman notices that his brother (who at least tries to be a better dad than Logan) can’t even hug his daughter on her birthday.
  • While it's only a brief line, Roman ensures that his partner during management training, Brian, gets fast-tracked at Way Star headquarters, calling him a "rough diamond" despite having been aloof toward him in person.
  • He’s gentle when he’s in a Hostage Situation with Karl and the man starts having a panic attack.
  • In a very rare moment of sincerity, he genuinely praises Kendall for his performance on the stand, and follows up by trying to meaningfully reach out to him and Shiv. Unfortunately, his siblings react to this with immature sarcasm.
  • He's quite clearly disgusted and immediately objects to Kendall being chosen for The Scapegoat for the cruise scandal.
  • He's against exposing Kendall's personal problems to the world as a way to destabilize him.
  • Even though they all wavered before the donuts, he protects Shiv in front of Logan and says she was solid instead.
  • When Kendall is crying in the Season Three finale, Roman proves he's kinder than Logan, supporting him and trying to make him laugh with dumb jokes.
  • He calls Connor from the car as he, Kendall, and Shiv are on their way to use their supermajority to force Logan out, showing he's taken Connor's anger at being dismissed seriously and is working to make up for it.
  • When Kerry has her breakdown while Marcia is kicking her out of Logan's wake, Roman is the only one who shows any sort of sympathy towards her.
• Please, Don't Leave Me: He proposes to Gerri because his siblings are or have been married, and she gently calls him on thinking it’s a way to get someone to not leave him.
• Politically Incorrect Hero: He makes fun of trigger warnings in an early episode, and is openly sexist compared to Kendall, who says he's not misogynistic, but ignores women whenever they tell him anything he doesn't want to hear. Roman also gets extremely close to hooking up with a fascist (ambiguously coded as a Nazi), Mencken, in season three. He has gone further than ever in "America Decides", in which he fully aligns himself with Mencken, spouts alt-right rhetoric, and drops more shockingly harsh misogynistic and racist lines than usual.
• Power Dynamics Kink: He is treated as Ambiguously Gay in Season 1, as he never sleeps with either of his girlfriends but he has a lot of sexual tension with his (male) trainer, whose job it is to push him physically. Season 2 confirms that Roman has little interest in sex; he jerks off multiple times to Gerri humiliating him and verbally attacking him for being a loser and a dumbass, and he can only try to have sex with his girlfriend when she's pretending to be dead.
• Powerful People Are Subs: Played with. Roman is extremely wealthy and in theory powerful as a Board Member and COO of Waystar, but he is constantly mocked and undermined by his family and those around him. He gets out his...frustrations by being mocked and dominated by Gerri and his personal trainer.
• Pride Before a Fall: Twice. His joy over Greg, Karl and Tom being humiliated leads Kendall to figure out that he was the one who snitched to Pierce, and his couple weeks trying to be Logan because he’s finally the new favourite ends with a dick pic crash.
• Princeling Rivalry: Alluded to in “Hunting”, as Roman - who thinks Kendall is daddy’s fave again - wants to do a good deal so it’ll “kill” Kendall. But it blows up in his face, and when he’s faced with evidence that Kendall really is destroyed, he’s upset.
• Professional Butt-Kisser: When his relationship with Logan is going well, or at least as well as it can with Logan, Roman turns into an insifferable brown noser who can't go three seconds without talking about how amazing his dad is.
• Rape as Backstory: Implied.
  • He makes cracks about Connor sexually abusing him to rile Connor up, and later makes similar comments about a camp counsellor, but it’s left ambiguous if he was actually sexually abused by an adult figure or not.
  • When Uncle "Mo" Lester is brought up in his presence, Roman gets a Thousand-Yard Stare and seems to have a very negative attitude to memories of Lester. Lester being a serial abuser and molester who the Roy kids were told "not to get in the pool with" makes Roman's reaction more than a bit ominous.
  • He can't pee in front of other men for reasons he doesn't understand, and had issues with bedwetting, both of which can be symptoms of sexual abuse. These details feel suggestive in combination with his black humor about sexual violation, especially once we learn he was forced to attend military school (such institutions are often plagued by sexualized hazing and violence).
• Replacement Goldfish: In late season three, Shiv fucking up by not being enough a monster, he slides into the number one boy role. It doesn’t go well, him also playing as Bootleg Logan and flying too close to the sun before destroying his chances with a misplaced dick pic.
• Repressed Memories: He knows at least he was a victim in his childhood, but also really wants to believe it was just a game and there’s no line, bristling when there’s proof of actual misery. As he tells Gerri, his brain is a pandora’s box and there’s just more dicks in there.
• Repression Never Ends Well: He “hides” his issues by being a Sad Clown because he knows full well what being openly fragile does to you in his world, but it just means said issues become even louder targets.
• Sad Clown: He puts up a facade as a carefree, hedonistic jokester, using it to hide a lonely, insecure manchild who is terrified of his abusive father.
• Sarcastic Confession: Roman makes a tasteless joke about having had a sexual encounter with Gerri the previous night. Gerri, unfazed, rolls her eyes and acts disgusted at the thought. Only the two of them know that Roman wasn't really joking.
• Self-Serving Memory: Played for tragedy, as even the times he does admit to feeling victimised the others will dismiss and see as he actually liked it, so he’ll agree with Logan that the hit never actually made contact. Culkin’s view of it is that he will troll Kendall and Connor about abuse to cover up his dad’s crimes and because they’re relatively safer.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: He’ll use them, and get upset when it looks like he’s won because of his name, not because he as a person has any intrinsic value.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Has a habit of just leaving the conversation or the room whenever someone actually mentions his abuse.
• Slimeball: He actively tries to be as big of a scumbag as possible. He's even called a "slime puppy" by Gerri.
• Smug Smiler: His default expression is an incredibly self-satisfied, shit-eating grin that rarely leaves his mug.
• Smug Snake: He's always unbearably smug and full of himself, especially when he believes he's in Logan's good graces. He gets so bad in Season 3 that even Shiv can barely stomach being around him.
• Sour Outside, Sad Inside: He’ll often be the one to make (or start) the gross and boundary-crossing jokes, but that’s how he deals with a humiliating childhood where he feels like he wasn’t allowed boundaries to begin with.
• Stepford Snarker: He always has a snide remark handy as his way of dealing with his awful childhood and fear of his dad and desperation for his approval.
• Tears of Fear:
  • When he learns that Kendall will be co-COO with him after trying to take over with Sandy/Stewy, he tries to stand up to his dad, but one look and he backs down wiping his face from tears.
  • He’s so terrified in the Season Three finale confronting Logan that even with his siblings looking out for him (Shiv angry crying herself, Kendall Too Broken to Break), he's literally shaking.
• Thousand-Yard Stare: When asked if Logan ever came to his aid when he needed him, he refuses to answer and gives a pained look into the distance.
• Tragic Villain: Like Kendall and Shiv, Roman was shaped into the Jerkass he is by his father's abuse, and everything he does is in a misguided attempt to make Logan proud of him.
• Trauma Button: Being called not a real person brings out the Dull Eyes of Unhappiness and then makes him even more savage than usual, recreating his dad’s abuse (his own and his siblings’) on all of them.
• Troll: He initially seems to exist only to goad and annoy everyone in the vicinity.
• Troubled Child: Logan deemed Roman the weaker of the attack children, and punished him with physical abuse which appears to be exceptional within the family, making the boy an emotionally stunted Sad Clown mostly associated with sick dogs, something that continued in adult life.
• The Un-Favourite: To the point where when he’s finally the fave for about a week, he thinks his older siblings are just stuck up cunts who are mad that their father isn’t fucking them anymore.
• Villains Out Shopping: Nasty heir to an empire of corrupt propaganda he may be, Roman is regularly seen doing fairly "normal" things for someone like him, be it participating in the family baseball game (albeit on an island accessed by their privately owned helicopters), or hosting his brother-in-law's bachelor party in an underground rave.
• Weight Woe: The only thing he eats, even when there’s Food Porn, is fruit, and in “Sad Sack Wasp Factory” he has his shirt undone and looking painfully into a mirror. Shiv mentions that as a kid Roman ordered expensive food and got beaten until he cried, so that probably has something to do with it. Culkin has confirmed that Roman suffers from some sort of eating disorder.
• Would Hit a Girl: Gives Shiv a bitchy slap during one of their arguments, though Shiv quickly overpowers him.

---