Characters / The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

Protagonists

Alex Rider

• The Ace: While Alex works hard to obtain this status, he definitely gains this reputation in both in the intelligence community and to his Malagosto peers.
• Apologetic Attacker: Alex breaks down several times immediately after assassinations.
• Blind Obedience: Played with for Alex. Many, especially the board, think Alex is blindly obedient, as a result of Yassen breaking him. They don’t understand Alex’s loyalty to Yassen, nor his complex motivations for (mostly) following SCORPIA’s commands. Dr. Three did also give Alex a trigger phrase, but it more made him freeze up than made him blindly obedient.
• Break the Cutie: Alex nearly loses all his values and is frequently broken down by training or his work. On the other hand, he grows with responsibility and finds a quasi-family.
• Child Prodigy: Alex, in spades
• Child Soldier: While he’s an assassin rather than soldier, same aspects.
• Children Are Innocent: Played with. Several people at SCORPIA write off Alex’s remorse as due to his age. They believe as he gets older, this will fade. However, Alex’s involvement in SCORPIA frequently shocks outsiders, as they expect this trope. For example, Rensburg, a client in the Congo, was upset about using Alex due to his age.
• Code Name: Orion, of the mythological reference variety.
• Desperately Craves Affection: Alex might not realize this, but some of his attachment to Yassen stems from this.
• The Dragon: Becomes this to Yassen.
• Fake Defector: After hearing about Damian Cray, Alex convinces himself he’s this, and that he’ll take SCORPIA apart from the inside. He had no way out, so this was more a platitude he told himself than anything else at that time.
• Gaining the Will to Kill: Central to Alex’s character arc
• Hitman with a Heart: Central to his character
• Minion with an F in Evil: Alex serves as this. He knows if he gets caught acting too moral, he could jeopardize his safety, so it’s a difficult situation for him.
• Motive Decay: After hearing about Damian Cray, Alex decides to take SCORPIA apart from the inside. However, as time goes on, it becomes clear that this is a platitude Alex using for a situation he can’t escape from. Played with, in that he eventually does take care of the aspects of SCORPIA he doesn’t like, although he also becomes SCORPIA.
• Nominal Hero: While Alex starts as a Pragmatic Hero, there are times when it looks like he’ll slide into this territory. He never loses sight of what matters, in the end.
• Professional Killer: What Alex trains to be and eventually becomes. However, in many operations, if there is any killing, it is incidental rather than the main objective.
• Protagonist Journey to Villain: Played with. There are times where it looks like Alex is sliding this way, but he doesn’t entirely lose his beliefs.
• Stockholm Syndrome: Most characters seem to think Alex has this, believing Yassen was much crueler than reality. It’s complicated and played with in the text. Yassen thinks Alex does have it to some degree, but Alex and Dr. Three disagree. Yassen did give Alex the choice to join, and gave him the option to leave several times, even at risk to himself. However, Yassen was basically the only adult (with any power) looking out for Alex, and he’s a child, so his ability to make decisions should be taken into account.
  • An actual psychologist would probably evaluate Alex for a Trauma Bond, as Stockholm Syndrome in modern psychology is more Hollywood Psychology than an actual diagnosis. Trauma Bonds occur both in military personnel and in children who’ve been groomed. Alex does seem to rationalize Yassen’s behavior, like a Trauma Bond. However, Alex’s self image does not seem to be derived from Yassen. Additionally, unlike in Trauma Bonds, Alex and Yassen’s relationship is not uni-directional.
• Sympathetic Murderer: Poor Alex. His motivations are complex, and he’s been put in a horrible position.
• Trauma Conga Line: After losing his uncle and going on traumatizing missions, he then joins an organization that will kill him if he makes mistakes or if they doubt his loyalty. They increasingly push him to break his morals, and torture him.
• Tears of Remorse: After Alex’s first assassination, and a couple others.
• Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Pretty central to Alex’s character, and the one line he won’t cross.

Yassen Gregorovitch

• The Ace: Basically a legend in his field, and shown to be leagues above typical Malagosto graduates, who already are some of the best in the world.
• Cold Sniper: Yassen is one of the, if not the, best snipers in the world. He also has an incredibly cold personality, even compared to other assassins at SCORPIA.
• Consummate Professional: Never loses his cool, being always stoic and pragmatic.
• The Corrupter: Deconstructed with Yassen. Yassen does teach Alex how to be a killer, and does intentionally weaken Alex’s morals. However, he does it to keep Alex alive. Additionally, his attachment to Alex causes him to warm slightly, and makes him less loyal to SCORPIA.
• Cruel to Be Kind: At least from Yassen’s perspective, this is what Yassen has done for Alex. The worst things he does to Alex are either to protect Alex from the harsher punishment the board would give, increase the board’s trust in Alex (and thus give him a better chance of survival), or to prepare him from the job to come. Of course, it would’ve been better that Alex was never in that situation in the first place, but it’s arguable that that was out of Yassen’s control.
• Dragon with an Agenda: Starts to become this as time goes on.
• The Dreaded: Definitely feared, and deservedly so. Even without knowing who he is, people who meet him, such as Hanna, can tell he’s someone to be feared. And if they know who he is, than they definitely fear him.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Yassen clearly cares about Alex, even if he rarely shows it. However, Yassen is definitely one of the better members of SCORPIA, and is probably better described as True Neutral than “Evil” compared to the other characters in the story.
• Hitman with a Heart: Deep, deep down
• Like a Son to Me: He and Alex certainly pose as father and son, often. However, in some ways Alex serves as this to him.
• Living Legend: Yassen is this due to his skills. It’s deserved.
• Morality Pet: Alex serves as this to Yassen. He’s completely cold in the series, an extremely effective amoral assassin. However, there’s several times where he’s willing to put his life on the line for Alex. For example, when Alex heard about Damian Cray, Alex considered running away, as he’d have a better chance. Yassen lied and told Alex that he’d be fine if Alex ran away. In reality, Yassen probably would’ve been executed if that happened.
• Parental Substitute: Yassen to Alex to some degree. He certainly poses as Alex’s father frequently enough when they’re undercover. The scene where Yassen teaches Alex to shave is a notable moment when he acts as this.
• Professional Killer: Yassen is this. However, while some killing is incidental to their operations, assassination is not the focus of most of their missions. Eventually, Yassen stops being this entirely, as he joins the board.
• Renowned Selective Mentor: Yassen to Alex. Part of Alex’s main selling point to clients was who his mentor is.
• The Sociopath: In-Universe, other characters view Yassen as this, as he’s definitely the coldest of the bunch. Deconstructed, as while he acts the coldest of the group, he’s actually less sociopathic than the other top SCORPIA members. Yassen is capable of forming attachment, and the reason he helped Alex in the first place was in part due to empathy about Alex’s situation. This makes sense with the source material, as Yassen as a teen did not seem sociopathic at all, and couldn’t even kill his first assignment. How cold Yassen acts is likely a response to his trauma and John and SCORPIA’s grooming, and he’s not a true sociopath at all. This explains why he’s capable of slowly growing attached to Alex.
• The Stoic: Yassen is famous for this. One of Alex’s key skills in the series is being able to read him.

SCORPIA

SCORPIA As A Whole

• Blind Obedience: Required of SCORPIA assassins. Dr. Three’s Resistance to Interrogation makes the assassins even more susceptible. Played with in Alex’s case.
• Bond Villain Stupidity: As opposed to the source material, completely subverted by SCORPIA itself. SCORPIA is extremely pragmatic.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Everyone on the board.
• Lack of Empathy: Pretty much everyone powerful at SCORPIA, with the exception of Yassen, who at least has empathy for Alex.
• Murder, Inc.
• Sink or Swim Mentor: SCORPIA is this to Malagosto students. There’s many times where failure would result in death.
• The Sociopath: Almost everyone important at SCORPIA, to varying degrees. In order to do the work they do, they have to be very callous. For the assassins, in order to have chosen (and enjoy) a career that is so dangerous, they have to have limited capability for fear.
• The Spy Master: The board of SCORPIA. Part of Yassen’s arc is learning to be this.
• The Syndicate: SCORPIA, although it’s much more believable as an organization than in the original series, as it’s much more fleshed out.
• Would Hurt a Child: SCORPIA definitely qualifies. This is a point of contention for Alex, as this is the one line he won’t cross. This causes one of the only times that Alex considers fighting back, in order to save Jacob Sullivan. He doesn’t, when he realizes that he would be killed, and Yassen could be killed as well for Alex’s disobedience. Additionally, SCORPIA would still have Jacob Sullivan killed anyway.

Dr. Three

• Lack of Empathy: Can torture SCORPIA’s victims and even his own students without a second thought.
• The Sociopath: Along with Lack of Empathy, clearly enjoys torturing people.
• Torture Technician: An expert on torture, and uses it both to train Malagosto students as well as SCORPIA’s enemies.

Nile

• The Ace: Along with Yassen, leagues above their competition.
• Affably Evil: Very friendly and easy going. However, Alex prefers Yassen, as he knows that if ordered to, Nile would kill him without a second thought.
• Foil: To Yassen, to some degree. Both Yassen and Nile are top operatives and assassins for SCORPIA, and started when they were teens. Both are pragmatic, and relatively amoral. However, Nile is very friendly, personable, and easy-going, while Yassen is stoic, intimidating, cold, and unfriendly. Between the two, Yassen is the person Alex prefers, as Yassen clearly has some standards. He does seem to care about Alex (and did care about John). While both are amoral, they both do have a sense of loyalty. Nile is more loyal to the SCORPIA board member he works under, while Yassen clearly values Alex over the organization as a whole, willing to kill the board off if it fits Alex’s and his desires.
• Lack of Empathy: Nile might seem friendly, but he can murder a child without a thought.
• Master of Disguise: Nile disguises himself as a paunchy white man in his fifties.

Crux

• Master of Disguise: Not only is an expert, but trains Alex as well.
• Nice Girl: Played with. Genuinely nice and friendly to Alex and the other characters. On the other hand, she’s training to be a torturer, and is completely unbothered by this.
• Torture Technician: Apprenticing under Dr. Three.

Sagitta

• The Cavalry: Sagitta, most notably during the Graff operation.