Characters / The Man in the High Castle Series - Main Characters

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Juliana

Juliana Crain

"I'm not here to kill Nazis. I'm here because I need answers, and I'm not leaving until I get them."

Played By: Alexa Davalos

A native of the JPS in San Francisco, she seems to be happy living under Japanese rule. She's the half-sister of Trudy Walker.

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• Action Girl: While she is not very good with a gun, she's a very good Aikido practitioner. She becomes a very skilled shooter over time.
• Actor Allusion: Alexa Davalos also played a resistance fighter against the Nazis in a 2008 film.
• Adaptational Personality Change: The Juliana in the series is far more assertive, independent and self-driven than the character in the book.
• All-Loving Hero: Her main trait is her sympathy and kindness for all, even her enemies.
• Being Good Sucks: Life is really terrible to the poor girl, despite her kindness.
• Break the Cutie: Her involvement with the Resistance and the powerplays between the Nazi and the Japanese slowly crack her idealism.
• Broken Bird: The ugliness and horrors she finds and experiences gradually come close to breaking her. Smith lampshades that she comes across as being exactly this, but is skeptical whether it's genuine or an act.
• Chekhov's Skill:
  • Juliana uses her Aikido moves to throw an undercover SS intelligence agent over a bridge when he tries to kill her and steal the film.
  • Happens again in season 2. During the finale the New York Resistance break their word of helping her escape and tries to kill her for Karen's death, she uses her Aikido again to break free and kill her assassins.
• Dimensional Traveler: At the very end of season 3, she gains the ability to travel to alternate worlds, escaping from confinement in a secret Nazi base just as Smith shoots her in the shoulder in an attempt to stop her.
• Divergent Character Evolution: Both she and Frank started off as fairly similar people, characterized by their kindness and idealism. But while Juliana's arc is about sticking to her idealism through the horror, Frank's arc is about abandoning it.
• Doting Parent: In the alternate universe, she is shown to be a loving mother, which moves Tagomi into accepting her into his family.
• Driven to Suicide: She is shown intentionally stepping in front of a bus in a flashback. When asked about her hip fracture, she explains it away as an "accident".
• Dumbass No More: She's very naive at first, but she quickly learns of the world's cruelty and how to plan around it.
• The Fettered: Juliana is big on morality and steadfastly refuses to sink to the morality level of the Nazis or the Imperial Japanese, even if it risks her life.
• For Want Of A Nail: In an alternate history encountered in Season 2, Tagomi discovers that Juliana became his daughter-in-law.
• Going Native: While her parents hate the Japanese due to the US losing the war, Juliana admires their culture and even practices Aikido. This is actually illustrated when we see her alternate reality counterpart, who acts and looks much more "American" than Juliana, but still follows Japanese culture and language, and married into a Japanese-American family.
• Good Is Not Dumb: After experiencing the evil of the Nazis, she starts to catch on their techniques and plans around them.
• Good Is Not Soft: Kind she may be, but she can also put her foot down and take you down if you cross her.
• The Hero: Juliana is the show's main protagonist and champion of righteousness.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Juliana's tendency to spare her enemies means the Resistance suspect her of being a Nazi sympathizer.
• Honor Before Reason: She refuses to abandon her comrades like Joe, even when it would be more pragmatic to just leave them.
• Hope Bringer: The Man In The High Castle reveals Juliana is this. Due to her kindness and willingness to see the good in all people, her friendship with Tagomi, helping Joe escape from the Resistance and stopping them from exposing the truth about Smith's son's condition help prevent Heusmann from starting World War 3.
• The Idealist: Her defining trait is idealism. Considering this is a world run by The Nazis and Imperial Japan, two of the most genocidal systems in the history of humanity, this is quite remarkable.
• Important Haircut: In season 2, she cuts her hair after she defects to the GNR.
• La Résistance: By season 3, she joins with guerrilla forces in the Neutral Zone.
• Mandatory Motherhood: Obergruppenfuhrer Smith mentions to her that one of the requirements for a female to enter the GNR is to produce children. He expresses some concern when he discovers her hip fracture from her suicide attempt, but quickly writes it off because he prioritizes her presence under his control over her ability to give birth. It is interesting since she is shown to have a child in the Alternate Universe where the Allies won the war.
• Meaningful Name: Crain, like the bird, just different spelling. To the Japanese, the crane symbolizes good luck and long life, and she needs plenty of both. In a different context, the bird also is a symbol of peace and victims of war, which also apply.
• Nice Girl: Juliana is unusually kind and friendly with everyone she meets.
• Thou Shall Not Kill: She absolutely refuses to kill another human being. When she finally does in late season 2, she breaks down in tears and spends the entire rest of the episode in a state of emotional despair. By the third season, she kills without hesitation.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: At season 2's conclusion, with Juliana breaking down into a Heroic BSoD, the Man in the High Castle approaches and presents Trudy, alive.
• Took a Level in Badass: By early season 1 she's a normal girl with some Aikido skills, but by mid season 2 she's quite adept at surviving no matter the difficulty of the odds and season 3 sees her actively participating in firefights.
• Trauma Conga Line: Juliana's sister dies and she goes to seek the truth. Her life does not improve from then on: Betrayals, several murder attempts, coercion into morally ambiguous acts, death of her friends and loved ones, are some of the things that befall her.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: Juliana is kind and tries to see the good in everyone, which makes her very unique in such a ruthless world. The Man in the High Castle even observes this as her main advantage over everyone else.
• Wild Card: She works with all three factions in the world at different points (the Japanese, the Resistance, and the Nazis). Curiously, this is not because she's some kind of machiavellian player, but simply because of circumstance and her Wide-Eyed Idealist tendencies making so that she is willing to see the good in all the factions.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Juliana, through George Dixon, continues to help the Resistance after helping Joe Blake escape and being blamed for Karen's death; however, once her job is done, she will still receive the death penalty nonetheless by the Resistance, who viewed her as permanently irredeemable. At the end of the second season, Juliana managed to escape the attempt on her life after accomplishing her mission.

Smith

SS-Obergruppenführer/SS-Oberst-Gruppenführer/Reichsmarschall/Führer John Smith

"Satisfy yourself with following orders."

Played By: Rufus Sewell

An SS Obergruppenführer placed in charge of investigating and weeding out any anti-government resistance against the GNR.

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• Alas, Poor Villain: In his final moments in the Grand Finale. He's already fatally wounded when Juliana finds him sitting on the edge of a cliff. Smith regrets the man that he became in this reality, then shoots himself.
• Anti-Villain: Ruthless and a firm believer of Nazi values, but he has virtues like loyalty, kinship towards his compatriots, and love for his family.
• Armor-Piercing Question: On the receiving end. "Then why don't you sail anymore?", says Rudolph (after Smith explains he used to sail for soul searching before the War). Smith is clearly taken aback by the observation.
• Big Bad: After Himmler's death, it's clear in the final season that Smith is this of the show this whole time.
• Broken Ace: As the series goes on, Smith witnesses horrible atrocities and supernatural events. He pretends that it doesn't concern him in the least, but any night he doesn't obsess over the alternate reality films of better alternatives is spent with nightmares of his dead son and all the people he murdered. In the Season 3 Finale, his wife has left him and taken the kids. Right after Himmler was shot on his watch on public television.
• Cain and Abel: He is the Cain to his (figurative) brother Don's Abel in season 4, especially how John had Don hauled off to imprisonment.
• Death Equals Redemption: For regretting his servitude to the Nazi cause that even hurt his family throughout the entire show, Smith after having a Villainous BSoD Heel Realization Despair Event Horizon kills himself at the cliffside as a means to atone for everything he's done.
• Decoy Protagonist: Starts out as a Villain Protagonist and later thought to be the show's actual deuteragonist after Frank gets taken out of the picture, then in the final season not only he is revealed to be the true Big Bad of the show rather than just The Heavy towards La Résistance as initially thought, in the Grand Finale he is then Driven to Suicide and what's left of the show follows the titular Man in the High Castle as the show's remaining and true deuteragonist.
• Deuteragonist: It's made increasingly and abundantly clear that he is intended to be this of the show this whole time coupled with being The Heavy, especially after the deaths of Joe Blake and Frank Frink, the original holder of this trope, at the hands of of his personal Arch-Enemy Kido in season 3. After his death, the titular Man in the High Castle take over this role in what remains of the overall show's screen time and run time.
• The Dragon: In season 3, he becomes the trusted right-hand man of the new Führer, Heinrich Himmler, who is grooming Smith as his successor.
• Driven to Suicide: At the Grand Finale of the show. His wife is dead, he's fatally wounded, and the resistance is closing in on him. He just saves Juliana the effort of pulling the trigger.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Obergruppenführer Smith comes across as firm, professional, and a dedicated family man. In the book, we see none of the Nazi officers this closely, and all the ones we do see are implied to be monsters. Smith dearly loves his wife and children. When he realizes that Heydrich's faction may be up to no good, he tells Helen to take care of the kids and avoid any contact with him or his subordinates in case he's dead.
  • Losing his son triggers a major Villainous BSoD for him, and remains a central feature of his personal motivation for the rest of the series.
  • He is very protective of his daughters, and in Season 4 struggles to answer when one of them asks why there are no black people in the Reich. After some "Uh, well, uh" stumbling, he tells her that they all went back to Africa, where they live a happy life. He wants to preserve her innocence just as much as he doesn't want to admit to her that he was involved in the genocide.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • Smith clearly abhors betrayal or treachery of any sort.
  • He is stunned into stony silence when he sees the remains of the three "volunteers" who did not make it through the portal, and realizes the plan to keep trying until the process is perfected.
  • When he was told that Caroline died by killing herself, Smith said sorry to Abendsen and said that the plan was not to keep her locked up forever.
• Evil Me Scares Me: Inverted. Upon seeing the other world where the Allies won the war, and learning that this world's version of himself was never a fascist and lived a happy and prosperous life, and never lost his brother and his son, and the rift that drove his surviving family apart therefore never formed in the first place, Smith's faith is completely broken, and he falls into a Villainous BSoD before it eventually culimates in his Driven to Suicide.
• Evil Virtues: As mentioned, despite being a ruthless Nazi, he is loyal, loves his family, and stands up for his compatriots.
• Face Death with Dignity: He is ready to die proudly standing by Hitler, as Heydrich does his coup. A counter-coup on Hitler's part (and a well-placed sniper) save him from such an end, however.
• Fallen Hero: A former member of the United States military during the Second World War, who joined the SS after the Axis victory and occupation.
• Family-Values Villain: He projects the image of a Standard '50s Father... who's also a cold-blooded Nazi.
• Four-Star Badass: Obergruppenführer is the SS equivalent of three-star general rank, and he certainly handles himself well in fights against New York assassins and Heydrich.
• The Heavy: He is a Nazi main character who acts as the enemy to the resistance while serving the higher ups like Himmler.
• Hidden Depths: Smith employs brutal torture and murder seemingly without any remorse in order to keep a twisted Nazi regime in total power. But when an old friend is bold enough to openly question the morality of Smith's actions, it is apparent he has something of a tortured conscience. His face creases with what appears to be self-disgust. Then it's back to business as usual.
• Humiliation Conga: Suffers a major, multi-layered one in season 3. His wife and children leave him due to his strict adherence to the Nazi ideology ruining any chance at healthy communication between the two — any successes he obtains as Reichsmarshall become instantly more hollow as a result. Later on, the Nazis manage to create a device for interdimensional conquest, but Juliana brings up to Smith the wee fact that the Nazis clearly aren't anticipating the apparent dangers of going to war against other dimensions (especially those that have toppled the Nazis already), and are unable to choose which dimensions to invade anyway due to the limitations of the device. Smith remains afloat despite all these revelations, then Führer Himmler gets shot on his watch, and the Man in the High Castle reveals that no one can travel to another dimension without their Alternate Dimension Counterpart being dead first, meaning that any attempt at an interdimensional invasion will likely result in mass Nazi deaths. And then Juliana wills herself to travel to another dimension right in front of Smith's eyes, right as he shoots her in the chest, causing the once stoic Reichsmarshall to fall slack-jawed.
• Hyper-Awareness: Smith often picks up on extremely minor details that no one else would notice. Like how his assistant knows how Heydrich takes his coffee ahead of schedule, which is the strand of information that allows him to unveil Heydrich's entire plot.
• Hypocrite:
  • John Smith enables the Nazi agenda of ethnic cleansing and euthanization of the disabled. But when those agendas affect his family, he suddenly breaks the very rules he upholds to save them.
  • His hatred of betrayal and claims of loyalty and integrity ring hollow considering he’s a former US Army officer who betrayed his country and broke his oath by joining the invading Nazis.
  • Despite expecting and demanding honesty and loyalty from others, he frequently lies, manipulates, and betrays people. This behaviour even includes his own colleagues and agents.
• I Did What I Had to Do: In his view, he (and Nazi Germany in general) did heinous acts, but it was all necessary to stop the Semites from ruling the world. However, Wegener almost gets him to admit that his conscience is not as clear as he claims about the things they did.
• I've Come Too Far: After he grows to doubt the Nazi ideals when their eugenics policies negatively affect his own family and his rivals in the Reich are plotting to remove him from power, Smith concludes that he's too deeply involved in the regime at this point and the only way out is to continue climbing the hierarchy.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: He is very much a Nazi, but unlike Heusmann and his co-conspirators, Smith is opposed to war with Japan and the massive loss of life that would entail, and as an American, he is far more sympathetic to the plights and needs of the Reich's territories than the top brass in Berlin.
• Les Collaborateurs: One of the most prominent examples in the series; he was actually a U.S. Army officer during the war (the flashback to the destruction of Washington DC shows him wearing an Army uniform with captain's bars and Signal Corps insignia) before the Axis powers invaded. Smith then joined the SS and managed to rise to the highest echelons of the expanded Reich by enthusiastically embracing the Nazi ideology.
• Like a Son to Me: Smith tells Joe that he regards him as a son in some ways.
• Manipulative Bastard: Smith often plays people's feelings like a fiddle.
• Nazi Protagonist: A high-level Nazi official and one of the main characters.
• Not Good with Rejection: His response to Alt-Thomas's rejection of him is to plan to kidnap him.
• Not So Stoic: Typically The Stoic, but it's possible to get a major rise out of him. Losing his son clearly takes a toll on his mental state, as does the Humiliation Conga he faces throughout the final episodes of Season 3, wherein Führer Himmler gets shot, he realizes the futility of Die Nebenwelt, he ends up losing his family due to his adherence to Nazism, and ends up losing Juliana to another dimension when he had her right in his grasp.
• Ominous Mundanity: Obergruppenführer John Smith.
• Papa Wolf: Subverts the law of the Reich and kills a man in order to protect his son's life.
• Rank Up: In season 3, Himmler promotes John Smith to Oberst-Gruppenfuhrer, replacing Heydrich, and making him second only to Himmler himself in the SS chain of command. Later that same season, Smith replaces George Lincoln Rockwell as Reichsmarshall (governor) of North America after the latter is ousted from his position. After Himmler's death, Smith takes over Himmler's position in season 4.
• Redemption Rejection: He could have taken his Alternate Dead Counterpart's place in an alternate universe where the Allied Powers won and lived the rest of his life in peace as a Retired Monster with his son Thomas and his best friend Don back in his life without the burden of fascist oppression stuck by his side and causing pain to his family, yet John chooses to go back to his universe to proceed with the Nazi cause in season 4.
• Sanity Slippage: Really starts showing signs of this in Season 4. He spends increasingly more time with Abendsen to better understand the Multiverse, and Abendsen openly notes that Smith seems to be losing it. Smith's descent into madness stems from his son's death, the Reich glorifying it, and Smith being forced to serve a regime that upholds the values that killed his son. And the fact that he knows full well that his alternate universe counterpart was a better man than him in every way can't be helping matters.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: Usually wears his black Waffen-SS uniform, which were manufactured by none other than Hugo Boss.
• Standard '50s Father: With a twist. A devoted father and loving husband with a strong work ethic, who just happens to be a high-ranking officer of the SS. May be even a Take That! towards the trope as his values are what make him so efficient as an SS officer. It also serves as a deconstruction of Nazism, as Smith doesn’t indulge in any of the personal depravity that was common among most of the Nazi leadership, and his family life is exactly what the Nazis claimed as their ideal. Yet despite going all-in for Hitler, the Nazi regime still takes away everything he loves.
• Soft-Spoken Sadist: Sadist may be a stretch, but you don't get to be a general in the Waffen-SS without having done a lot of horrible things to earn it, and we see several glimpses of Smith's utter ruthlessness. But Smith never raises his voice (even in a gunfight for his life), and rarely deviates from his Upper-Middle-Class politeness.
• Start of Darkness: Turning his best friend Don over to the Axis Powers was regrettably his very first act of villainy, as revealed in season 4.
• State Sec: He is a general in the most infamous real-life example of this trope.
• Still Wearing the Old Colors: Among the I-Love-Me wall decorations in his office is Smith's Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal from the US Army, a memento of his combat experience against the Japanese in the Solomon Islands before he switched sides. When Kido notices it, Smith claims that he keeps it as a reminder of the consequences of bad command decisions.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: His preferred method of dealing with any anti-GNR guerrilla fighters in custody.
  Smith: (After being told that the fighter is permanently unconscious) Your orders were to flog this man until he answered your questions... Do as you're told.
  • It should be noted that given the circumstances, it was entirely justified: the SS already had all of the information they needed, they just needed to get the resistance to think they didn't. How better than to convince them that the potential leak was beaten to death without giving them anything?
• Tragic Villain: Smith joined the Nazis when he witnessed the Allied defeat in World War II, becoming a ruthless and feared enforcer for the new regime to provide a future for his family. However, his efforts to make a name for himself only end up drawing him closer into the Nazi center of power and inadvertently making him an even bigger target for any would-be rivals. Then after all his efforts to prevent his son Thomas from being euthanized for his genetic illness, Thomas turns himself in and the prospect of a similar thing happening to their daughters permanently alienates Helen from him. Even after Smith has acquired total power, he's been a Nazi for too long to suddenly stop and dies as a consequence of his own choices.
• Undying Loyalty: Towards Hitler, as Heydrich learns.
• Villain Protagonist: Smith protagonizes a plotline of his own, and he can be safely defined as a villain, even if an Anti-Villain.
• Villainous BSoD: Suffered from this after the death of his son and his wife leaving him and is left slack-jawed at seeing Julianna disappear right before his eyes. He has one final one at the Grand Finale that causes him to be Driven to Suicide.
• Villainous Breakdown: He appears to undergo this in Season 3 after losing his family and then suffering a Humiliation Conga up to Julianna disappearing into another dimension right before his eyes. Then in Season 4, this contributes to Smith's ultimate Redemption Rejection as he finally snaps when Alt-Thomas rejects him for his dark traits that his Alternate Dead Counterpart never possessed that he was unrepentantly and Dramatically Missing the Point over. Smith responds to Alt-Thomas's rejection by planning to kidnap him to replace the son he lost and wholeheartedly embracing his utter Nazi villainy he was self-aware of and conflicted over during past seasons.
• We Used to Be Friends: Smith has this with Rudolph, whom he considers a traitor.
• Worthy Opponent: After being ambushed and nearly killed, Smith rejects the characterization of his opponents as insects.
  They did us great damage today.

Helen

Helen Smith

Played By: Chelah Horsdal

John Smith's wife.

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• The Atoner: Slowly grows to realize that she has bought her life of wealth and privilege by agreeing to overlook the murder and torture of innocents, and decides to make up for it by helping the Resistance assassinate John.
• Fallen Hero: "Hero" may be a stretch, but during the Second World War, while her husband John was an officer in the U.S. military, she was just another Innocent Bystander loyal to the U.S. Government; however, by the time of the series, she is in league with the Nazi system like her husband and the rest of her family.
• Happily Married: She enjoys a happy marriage with John. It gets tested in season 3, and seemingly falls apart by the finale. In season 4, she returns to him, but while she still loves him, she is horrified by what he's done and agrees to help the Resistance kill him.
• Heroic Sacrifice: In the series finale, she tells the Resistance when her husband's train will be going to the portal, and then tries to beg off the trip herself by saying she's sick. However, John becomes extremely concerned, and she realizes that he might cancel the trip if he thinks she's really ill, so she backpedals and gets on the train anyway to make sure he does, even though she knows she'll probably die when the Resistance blows up the tracks. She does.
• House Wife: It is expected that women in the Reich should fulfill this role, and Helen exemplifies it to a T, with the twist that she's also "queen bee" of the American Nazi social scene.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Her estrangement with her husband's attitude with protecting their family, coupled with her increasing mental trauma from losing Thomas, drives her to take the rest of her children and run away by the end of season 3.
• Stepford Smiler: Resorts to it to keep Gerry's murder, Thomas's condition, and John's plan to save Thomas by making him disappear secret.

Kido

Colonel/Chief Inspector Takeshi Kido

"I am not a monster."

Played By: Joel de la Fuente

The ruthless, efficient head of the Kempeitai's San Francisco branch.

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• Affably Evil: Is often polite to the people he meets, but he won't hesitate to lock up, torture, and execute anyone if he deems it to be necessary, including completely-innocent relatives of suspects. Sometimes averted when he would rather intimidate someone.
• Anti-Villain: While he's in charge of putting down resistance in the JPS, he does it with such dedication that he'll even refuse a bribe from the Yakuza. Somewhat like Tagomi, he's also wary of a war with Germany.
• Authority Equals Asskicking: He's one of the most combat-capable characters in the series. One Yakuza boss notes that Kido could probably singlehandedly take out an entire bar full of Yakuza members.
  • He later personally (and successfully) goes undercover to locate and apprehend Frank.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He's very polite and friendly towards Frank's sister and her children just before he has them locked in a room and gassed to death.
• Colonel Badass: By Season 4, he's a colonel in the Kempeitai and you really do not want to get on his bad side.
• Create Your Own Hero: His torture of Frank Frink and execution of Frank's sister, niece, and nephew over something Frank really wasn't involved in (transporting one of the films) left an embittered man desperate to hurt the Japanese any way he could. Frank went on to make a functional weapon out of one of the nonfiring Colt Peacemaker replicas he fabricated for a living, acquires some ammo, and sets out to assassinate the Crown Prince, though he changes his mind at the last second. When the Crown Prince is shot by a Nazi officer, Kido must use the mysterious "gunman in the crowd" as a scapegoat. This leads to Frank's best friend Ed McCarthy being caught with the gun and claiming he was the shooter to protect Frank. Frank then comes to Kido's office and insists that he is the assassin (which is 98% true) to save Ed. When Kido brushes him off, Frank grabs his sleeve and begs Kido, saying "I'm the one who's supposed to die!" Frank eventually becomes an active member of the resistance and sets off a bomb in the building with himself, Kido, and General Ogusa inside.
• Cruel Mercy: He spares Frank from facing a firing squad, but after gassing his sister Laura and her two small children to death, he forces Frank to live with this fact along with getting vindictively Misblamed in-universe by his widower brother-in-law Ben for their deaths and being hated by Ben because of that as well. Frank proceeds to become a massive thorn in Kido's side afterwards, plotting to kill the Japanese Crown Prince, bombing the Kempeitai headquarters with Kido inside, and spreading resistance artwork. When Kido finally recaptures Frank, he admits that he erred once before and executes Frank for real. Ironically, he himself in the final season ends up at the receiving end of this, as while he is not killed, he's forced to become a member of the Yakuza (which he despises) in order to save his son Toru.
• Disappeared Dad: He has a wife and children back in Japan that he loves dearly, but refuses to allow them to join him in California, because he doesn't want them to see what he does for a living. This comes back to bite him in Season 4 with his oldest son Toru, a Shell-Shocked Veteran of the rebellion in China. Toru throws his pep talk about duty in his face and reminds him that he wasn't there for his kids.
• The Dreaded: Is very much so this to everyone in the JPS. Everyone, from the Resistance to members of the Japanese government, and even Smith to a degree, tread lightly around him, and view him as a boogeyman.
  • Even a pair of bounty hunters, themselves established to be dangerous and ruthless, and who do not know who Kido is, back down after being intimidated by Kido's steely nerves.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Kido loves and misses his wife and kids, who still live in Japan at his insistence. In the final season, his son Toru, now an IJA enlisted soldier, is stationed in San Francisco and lives with him. Kido tries to help Toru with his combat PTSD, but is barely able to connect with him after his prolonged absence. Then when Toru is kidnapped by the Yakuza, Kido goes Papa Wolf to rescue him.
• Evil Virtues: Despite his ruthlessness, he is completely unwilling to accept bribes even from the Yakuza, and respects Tagomi enough to cover up his involvement with a German agent, which could otherwise result in Tagomi's execution for treason.
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul: His glasses enhance his icy demeanor. Notably, whenever Inspector Kido is feeling more emotionally vulnerable, he takes off his glasses.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: In "The New World", Kido shows off his Kempeitai ID, which reveals his full name as Hidetoshi Kido. His first name is retconned in later seasons to Takeshi.
• From Camouflage to Criminal: At the end of the series, with the Japanese Army pulling out of the Pacific States, Kido is forced into becoming a member of the Yakuza to settle his son's debts.
• The Heavy: He shares this with Smith, as the show's secondary antagonist with the healthy amount of screen time.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: An unusual variant of this trope in that his alignment never changes; it's rather a matter of which other main character he interacts with. With Frank, he's pretty much the Big Bad. But at the same time, he respects Minister Tagomi enough to cover up his involvement with a German agent (that Tagomi and Wegener are trying to save Japan wouldn't matter; their association alone could result in Tagomi's execution for treason), and supports his cause enough to destroy all evidence of Nazi involvement in the assassination attempt and is willing to commit seppuku in order to Prevent the War.
• Hidden Depths: First seen in the Season Two premiere, when Frank begs Kido to arrest him and let Ed go. Though he composes himself after a few seconds, for a moment Kido has a look on his face revealing that he feels downright shitty over everything that he's done to an innocent man, and that he knows that whatever Frank has done since then is the direct result of Kido and the Kempeitei pushing him over the edge. An escort later raises an interesting theory about Kido: That his icy cold demeanor and detachment is not a result of sociopathy, but a way to detach himself from his work because he actually despises it and does not wish to confront it. Kido himself seems taken aback by this observation. Indeed, later on we see he can be actually friendly with people in some situations, so he's not all ruthlessness.
• Honor Before Reason: He believes in the traditional Japanese ritual suicide, the Sepukku, and if he fails, he will do it.
• Hyper-Competent Sidekick: He comes off as this to his military superiors; while they are technically above him in the chain of command, it is Kido who seems to actually keep the military under control. This becomes apparent in Season 4 when Kido turns the soldiers under his command against Yamori, the general in charge of the JPS.
• I Did What I Had to Do: He simply tells Frank that he's "free to go" after having his sister, niece, and nephew killed. When questioned about it, he claims, "I am not a monster." Yeah, asshole, keep telling yourself that.
  • It's repeatedly shown that Kido's ruthlessness haunts him, and that he regrets many of his actions, such as killing Frank's family. However, his unwavering sense of duty prevent him from changing his ways.
• I Have No Son! Says this word for word to his first born son Toru after Toru denounces the Japanese Empire for the massacre of civilians he committed in Manchura.
• Judge, Jury, and Executioner: Appears to hold the authority to detain, judge, and execute anyone who threatens the government, at least in milder cases. Justified in that the Kempeitai did this in occupied territories in the Asia-Pacific region in real life.
• Lampshade Hanging: Any issues with Joel de la Fuente’s spoken Japanese are excused in Season 3 when Admiral Inokuchi observes that Kido has picked up an American accent.
• Married to the Job: Kido has no personal life other than his profession. He technically does have a wife and family, but they're in Japan, so in America he's all business.
• Million to One Chance: Kido is shot fifteen seconds before a bomb explodes under his feet, and he lives with minor injuries. There's a plane-sized hole where he was standing and Kido was pushed into a relatively safe corner of the room despite being shoved into the stairs by the gunshot.
• My Country, Right or Wrong: Kido's duty is to protect the Empire, and he does his duty, period, no matter how immoral he considers it to be. If that means murdering an innocent woman and her children in a gas chamber, or making deals with vicious Yakuza kingpins, he will always try to square it with his conscience by insisting that it was necessary. On the flip side, he will also cover up Tagomi's secret meetings with Wegener because they led to Japan gaining nuclear deterrent capability and almost certainly prevented a devastating war with Germany. He's also perfectly willing to sacrifice his own life for the sake of his country.
  • This becomes an important plot point in Season 4. Kido's loyalties to the Army and belief in the JPS make General Yamori think that Kido, even if he uncovers the Army's role in assassinating Tagomi, will cover it up. However, Kido gave a vow to the Crown Princess that he would bring Tagomi's killers to justice. The Crown Princess even points out how grateful she is, as turning on Yamori went against Kido's political beliefs.
• Papa Wolf: When his son is taken hostage by the Yakuza in the final season, Kido springs into action.
• Principles Zealot: Very big on the principles of Imperial Japan, to a fanatic degree.
• Properly Paranoid: Kido is extremely suspicious of the catering staff at Childan's auction. They're all Resistance members, and are there to assassinate Japanese VIPs..
• Rabid Cop: Investigates any subversive activities in the JPS, with all the brutality necessary.
• Scary Shiny Glasses: From time to time, when the lighting is just right.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: He's always dressed in an impeccable suit to depict him as the height of bureaucratic evil. On more formal occasions, such as when he's summoned by his superiors, he wears his military uniform.
• State Sec: The Kempeitai (Military Police Corps) is the Japanese equivalent of the SS.
• Straight Edge Evil: Kido doesn't really enjoy drinking or partying.
• Torture Technician: He oversees the torture of subversives to the state.
• Tragic Bigot: Some of his particularly hardline stances towards the conquered Americans seem to have some origin in his experiences during the war, as he describes how he was part of the liberation of the Japanese-American internment camp at Manzanar. According to Sarah (who was locked up at Manzanar), however, Kido's feelings were not representative of the rest of the Japanese army, who regarded Niseis as traitors and didn’t particularly care about them.
• Would Hit a Girl/Would Hurt a Child: Or specifically gas Laura and her two children to death, even though he knows they are uninvolved and unaware of any resistance activity.
• You Are in Command Now: In late season 2, a bomb attack wipes out most of the Pacific State Japanese leadership, leaving Chief Inspector Kido as their provisional leader until Admiral Inokuchi arrives to take command.

Tagomi

Nobusuke Tagomi

"Peace is not a weakness."

Played By: Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa

A Japanese Trade Minister representative living in the JPS.

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• Actual Pacifist: His philosophy.
• Almighty Janitor: He's the Trade Minister, a relatively high rank in the Japanese government, but still seems to have more influence than he should, as observed by the fact The Crown Prince of Japan (and particularly the Princess) seem to rely a lot on his advice. Akihito and Michiko seem to regard him as an old mentor, which combined with his far-reaching influence seem to indicate that he probably is (or was) close to the Emperor. His pacifism has a very tragic quality to it, like he adopted it after he lost something dear to him, especially when he visits the shrine to his wife and son (who is pictured in an Imperial Army uniform). Perhaps Tagomi wasn't always a diplomat.
• The Atoner: It's implied his pacifism is driven by this mindset. And in the alternate timeline, he tries to make up for his counterpart's abuse to this version of his family. He ultimately succeeds in earning their forgiveness.
• Benevolent Boss: Treats all his workers with respect and dignity, regardless of race, as well as acting very personable and friendly, often having more casual chats with them. As a result, Kotomichi is unflinchingly loyal to him, and Juliana sympathizes very deeply with him. Even Chief Inspector Kido of the Kempeitei seems to hold him in high regard.
• Chekhov's Skill: Shown to be a practitioner of bojutsu and might even be at a master's level, which saves his life against a would-be assassin's attack.
• The Chessmaster: Tagomi operates quite the gambit in an attempt to Prevent the War between Japan and Germany.
• Cool Old Guy: Tagomi is an enlightened man who simply wants the world to find peace. He strikes up a friendship with Juliana, a painter, and endears himself to his alt-self's family, despite being a Jerkass in the alt-world.
• Crazy-Prepared: He confirms Victore Baynes' identity as Rudolf Wegener when he arrived at the JPS since both their leaders will sentence them to death if they knew about their secret meetings.
• Culture Clash: Tagomi's ideals are very rooted in Japanese culture, so he runs into problems when dealing with American culture from time to time. This is even more pronounced when he ends up in our alternate reality, where he's positively alien in 1960s American culture.
• Decoy Protagonist: He appeared to take over from Joe Blake as the Tritagonist; alas, in the final season, he is killed in his car.
• Dimensional Traveler: Learns how to travel to alternate timelines by meditating, a skill passed to him by his assistant Kotomichi.
• Guile Hero: His cleverness aids his heroism.
• Hero Antagonist: He is technically an antagonist to the Resistance, but there's no doubt he's a heroic character.
• Heroic BSoD: Tagomi starts breaking down when he begins to wonder if all his efforts won't be fruitless, but he snaps out when one of his coworkers reminds him the good things he has done.
• The Lost Lenore: His wife and son died during the war, a fact which he's clearly not over yet.
• My Country, Right or Wrong: Tagomi still owes his loyalty to Japan, despite its awful atrocities. Tagomi is actually a good example of the second half of the trope-naming quote being put into action: "My country right or wrong: if right, to be kept right; if wrong, to be set right."
• The Needs of the Many: Conquest and power don't even cross Tagomi's mind. All he seeks is to avoid the loss of lives.
• Odd Friendship:
  • With Colonel Rudolph Wegener of the Waffen-SS. They bond over how both break rules to maintain peace.
  • Then with Juliana, as both are fighting to save the world from another war, and For Want Of A Nail they would have been family.
• Only Sane Man: Tagomi seems to be the only one to fully realize a war with Germany is a terrible idea, both because they'd lose and because of the loss of lives.
• Papa Wolf: Becomes this to Juliana in Season 3 since learning that in another life she would have been his son's wife and mother of his grandchild.
• Prevent the War: He wants to prevent a war between the GNR and JPS by any means necessary.
• Punch-Clock Villain: Tagomi is by all accounts a stand-up person, he just happens to be working for a ruthless, tyrannical Empire.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Due to his actor being unavailable for the final season as Tagawa was busy on Lost In Space, Tagomi is killed at the beginning of the final season.
• Real-World Episode: Season one ends with him being drawn into what appears to be our universe: the Allies won the war, the United States still exists, and John F. Kennedy is president. It could also be the universe of The Grasshopper Lies Heavy or one of the other, as yet unseen newsreels from the show.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: As he admits, what he's doing (i.e consulting with a Nazi officer and sharing state secrets with him without authorization) amounts to high treason, but he's doing it to avoid a nuclear war between Japan and Germany.
• Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: He is killed at the beginning of season 4.
• Token Good Teammate: Much like Rudolph is "the Good Nazi", Tagomi is "the good Imperial Japanese".
• Tritagonist: It's made increasingly and abundantly clear that he is intended to be this of the show this whole time, especially after the death of Joe Blake, who was initially thought to be this, but is eventually revealed in season 3 to be designated to be an antagonist the whole time, until season 4 where he was finally assassinated.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: He fears being one (and to some extent he is) after knowing that his actions may well cause a nuclear war instead of preventing it since the Japanese military, especially following the assassination attempt, have no interest in avoiding a war. Instead, now that they have the secrets of the Heisenberg Device (the official name for the Atomic Bomb in The Man in the High Castle timeline), they may launch a Nuclear first strike against the Nazi Empire.
• When Elders Attack: Tagmoi successfully kills an elite Nazi assassin sent to kill him.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: His attempts to bring peace in season 1 only slow down the inevitable conflict escalation, and in season 2, travelling to a alternate dimension where his family lived shows that he was a terrible man in that world, so his family is estranged from him, and just as he starts patching things up, he realizes he has to return to his reality to avoid a nuclear war.

Childan

Robert Childan

Played By: Brennan Brown

An antique dealer of pre-19th century goods in the JPS.

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• Boomerang Bigot: He has a very contradictory perspective in that he both admires the Japanese culture and resents them because he's not one of them, thus hating Americans at the same time he is also an American.
• Category Traitor: An American man who sucks up to the Japanese to a disturbing degree.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Mentions that he went into hiding after the IJA captured the western part of the United States with mass executions being a common thing.
• Dirty Coward: Childan lacks any backbone to speak of and will go along with anyone who has any degree of leverage on him. Of course, this also gives him the survivability of a cockroach.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: By the end of Season 4, he's found a genuinely loving wife, indirectly helped the Crown Princess' cause which led the Japanese to abandon North America, and possibly gained the chance to fulfill his dream to emigrate to Japan. It's left ambiguous whether he got there safely.
• Foreign Culture Fetish: Childan's obsessed with Japanese culture.
• Heel–Face Turn: Seems on the way to this in the finale of Season 3, after Ed gives him a The Reason You Suck lecture and reveals that Frank was executed, along with his own What Have I Done? actions.
• Hidden Heart of Gold: He's not a complete asshole, as he develops quite a liking for Ed.
• My God, What Have I Done?: His exact words when he realizes Ed and his friends will be found and likely killed because he spilled his guts out under Kempeitai interrogation.
• Not So Above It All: It's revealed in "Land O' Smiles" that he's not opposed to smoking the occasional joint, his "one vice" as he describes it. Helps that the Japanese have much more liberal attitudes towards marijuana than the Americans did.
• Only in It for the Money: He agrees to help fund Frank's escape from JPS territory by convincing him to make accurate replicas of pre-19th century items to sell to upper-class Japanese clients.
• Otaku: Childan is a sort of a proto version of the trope with his obsession with Japanese culture and tendency to lapse into Japanese terms apropos to nothing.
• Pretender Diss: Is on the receiving end of that by the Japanese people whose culture he gleefully adopts. It is obvious that he wants the Japanese people to see him as one of them, and a particularly nasty rebuff from an upper-class Japanese couple he hoped to befriend is enough to convince him to help Frank.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: Robert Childan tries to sell a necklace supposedly from a famous Native American Chief to the Kasouras, who are American Memorabilia collectors. Mr Kasoura at first thinks the necklace is a fake, but Mrs Kasoura is convinced the necklace is genuine as she feels the owner's pain and suffering of his people. The necklace is a fake, but the part of the pain and suffering is correct; however, it's on the part of the creator Frank and his people, the Jews.
• Small Role, Big Impact: The one contribution he makes to history is an inadvertent part he ended up playing that leads to a domino-effect during which the voices for occupation-withdrawal gained the upper hand over the Japanese Army's push for military-escalation on the Pacific States.

Wyatt

Wyatt Price/Liam

Played By: Jason O'Mara

An Irish immigrant and former U.S. soldier turned black market operator, he joins with Juliana and becomes inspired by her to carry on the Resistance.

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• Cynicism Catalyst: Inverted when he sees Juliana's film. He decides he has something to believe in again, and takes up the fight again.
• Fighting Irish: Wyatt fought the Nazis in his native Ireland before crossing the Atlantic to join the US Army. When the Axis Powers won, he fought with the American Resistance Army until it fell apart. His gun fighting skills are quite lethal.
• Good Is Not Nice: A given in this Crapsack World, but Wyatt makes it perfectly clear to one of his Nazi contacts that he will take vengeance on the man's family if he tries to screw him over.
• Hyper-Awareness: Being good at reading people is a necessity in his line of work. Wyatt is quite observant of people's behavior and is able to spot two SD agents based on a momentary glance from a contact he doesn’t trust.
• It's Personal: Reveals to Juliana that the Nazis killed half of his family in Ireland and the other half in New York.
• Passing the Torch: After Juliana is captured by the Nazis in the finale of season 3, he immediately takes up her mantle of spreading the alternate timeline reels to the rest of occupied America and begins the next round of major resistance against the fascist occupiers.
• Replacement Goldfish: He appears to build up to be this for Julianna, especially following the deaths of the latter's original lovers Frank and Joe.
• Tritagonist: He appears to take over from Tagomi after his death in season 4.

Frank

Frank Fink a.k.a. Frank Frink

Played By: Rupert Evans

The boyfriend of Juliana Crain. He is secretly Jewish and hides his real name and heritage for fear of being arrested and executed by the Kempeitai.

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• Alliterative Name: Frank Frink.
• As the Good Book Says...: He occasionally alludes to the Torah.
• Became Their Own Antithesis: Comparing the nice and friendly Frank pre-Resistance with the ruthless and merciless Frank post-Resistance is quite shocking. The show even illustrates this by including flashbacks to his happier days, so we can see how the war damaged him.
• The Blacksmith: He's a weaponsmith and a excellent one at it. His skill with tools comes up quite often.
• Break the Cutie: Being tortured breaks Frank's Nice Guy behavior for quite some time.
• Character Development: And not necessarily for the better: Frank starts as a meek, kind and Nice Jewish Boy whose suffering at the hands of the Japanese slowly turn him into a more serious and ruthless man dedicated to bringing as much suffering to the Japanese as possible.
• Chekhov's Skill: Frank works at a factory making replica pre-war Colt revolvers to sell to Japanese tourists and collectors. In "The Illustrated Woman", he uses those skills to make a functioning pistol to take his revenge against the Japanese, presumably as it would be difficult for a civilian to acquire a weapon in the strictly controlled JPS.
• Cosmic Plaything: The world seems to hate him. Of course, he's a Jewish man living in a world where the Nazis won.
• The Cynic: After his Character Development, Frank became a very bitter man driven by revenge against the Japanese. But separating himself from the resistance allows Frank to mellow and become more appreciative of his lot in life, more remorseful about his mistakes, and more loving towards those around him.
• Dare to Be Badass: His arc is all about learning to fight back against his tyrants. In death, the propaganda images he created end up becoming symbols for fomenting a rebellion.
• Death Seeker: His will to live is slowly sapped away until vengeance against the Japanese is all he has left.
• Decoy Protagonist: He acts as the Deuteragonist of the show during the first two seasons, but by the third season, he is executed by Kido.
• Deuteragonist: To Juliana, the love of his life. However, after he is killed by Kido in Season 3, John Smith took over this role from him.
• Divergent Character Evolution: Both he and Juliana started off as fairly similar people, characterized by their kindness and idealism. But while Juliana's arc is about sticking to her idealism through the horror (despite gaining some cold, hard lessons in pragmatism), Frank's arc is about abandoning it... and eventually recovering it by reflecting on past mistakes.
• Face Death with Dignity: After he's recaptured by Chief Inspector Kido, his nemesis takes him to the former site of a Japanese internment camp to personally execute Frank, who calmly accepts his fate, stating that he's long since lost the fear of death. Before Kido cuts off his head, he recites the Shema Yisrael several times, a prayer that devout Jews recite as their last words.
• Heroic Sacrifice: He is willing to undergo a mission that will likely kill him to bring harm to the Japanese. And it does result in him blowing up at the end, although he survives with heavy scarring.
• Jade-Colored Glasses: Frink's niceness gives way to a hardcore cynicism.
• Hope Bringer: By Season 3, Frank's become a propagandist — painting symbols reflective of the oppressive state imposed by the Japanese and the Nazis and encouraging thoughts of an uprising. One of his paintings ends up becoming the symbol of an up-and-coming rebellion by the end of the season.
• Informed Judaism: Justified. He has Jewish blood, but he does not practice Judaism (though he seems to still hold on to its beliefs to some extent) due to the obvious fact of living close to a Nazi-occupied America. He gets a bar mitzvah in Season 3. He even recites the Shema Yisrael before Kido executes him.
• Mighty Whitey and Mellow Yellow: He expresses frustration at the inversion of this trope, where Sarah is expected to be dominant toward him in public. One of his motivating factors against the JPS is the blatant racism they show toward whites and the subsequent societal roles he is expected to fulfill.
• Nice Jewish Boy: He's a Nice Guy and Jewish. Subsequently he's this.
• Nice Guy: Up until the point he is tortured, he's very polite and friendly.
• Off with His Head!: He's beheaded by Chief Inspector Kido with a katana in a ceremonial execution.
• Pass Fail: Frank Frink is actually Jewish, with the birth name "Frank Fink".
• Pay Evil unto Evil: He even alludes to the famous biblical event of this, "bringing plague to the pharaohs".
• Replacement Goldfish: He falls into a romance with a Japanese-American resistance fighter after Juliana leaves for the GNR, but ends up separated from her and the Resistance after planting a bomb which kills General Okada as well as a number of Kido's men. He reunites with Juliana in Season 3.
• Teach Him Anger: On the receiving end. The Resistance more or less teaches him how to channel his anger into actions.
• Took a Level in Badass: After all the pain he suffered, he starts dishing a lot of pain out once he joins the Resistance.
• Took a Level in Cynic: Frink becomes a cynic after the death of his sister, niece, and nephew.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: The horribly traumatic experiences he suffers make him a lot more dour towards people. However...
• Took a Level in Kindness: Separating himself from the toxic Knight Templar influence of the Resistance enables Frank to reflect on his past misdeeds. Though he still chooses to fight against the regimes of both the Nazis and the Japanese, he does so through propaganda and non-violent means, stirring up thoughts of rebellion.
• Trauma Conga Line: Oh boy things go wrong for him, to a tragic degree.
• Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: By Season 3, Frank is finally Killed Off for Real.
• Uncertain Doom: The last we see of him in Season 2, he was inside a building which exploded, and the explosion seems to have engulfed the place he was in, but we never see his body or any confirmation of his death. In season 3, it's revealed that he survived, albeit with heavy burns, and has taken refuge with an underground Jewish community in the Neutral territories.
• Worthy Opponent: Chief Inspector Kido eventually comes to regard Frank as such, giving Frank what Kido considers an honorable death by driving him out into the desert, donning his military dress uniform, and beheading Frank while he kneels down.

Joe

Joe Blake/Josef Heusmann/Joe Cinnadella

"I'm not afraid to die."

Played By: Luke Kleintank

A native of New York who has his life changed forever when he joins with an anti-government guerrilla group. He starts by fleeing the Greater Nazi Reich to reach the Rocky Mountain States.

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• Adaptation Expansion: The show gives him a lot more to do.
• Adaptational Heroism: He's conflicted about his duties as a Nazi agent and eventually abandons his position to go on the run to Mexico. His book counterpart, Joe Cinnadella, has none of this. Subverted in the third season, following the death of his father, he begins to follow more closely to his counterpart, right down to adapting the fake last name Cinnadella like in the original book.
• Alas, Poor Villain: In Season 3, he is killed by Julianna after viewers got to know him sympathetically in the past seasons before his complete Face–Heel Turn. As he dies, the expression on his face is one of pure agony, regret, and shame.
• Anti-Villain: Sympathetic and not without moral compass, Joe is definitely one of the more complex characters on the Nazis' side. Sadly, when his eventual brainwashing by Himmler renders him fully subservient to the Reich's cause (and drives him insane), Juliana is forced to kill him in self-defense.
• Asshole Victim: He is killed by Julianna in self-defense, but at this time any sympathy that viewers and Julianna herself had for him has vanished when he became just another sociopathic and unapologetic Nazi scumbag antagonist, even if he was Brainwashed and Crazy.
• Awful Truth: Much to his disgust, Joe learns that he was part of a Super Breeding Program called Lebensborn whose aim was to birth racially pure Aryans. His mother, a participant of the program, grew disgusted with the Nazis and fled Germany to America.
• Being Tortured Makes You Evil: In Season 3, his torture leads to his Face–Heel Turn.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: By Season 3, the Joe from the last two seasons is gone and is nothing but a facade that hides the sociopathic and deluded fanatic he has turned into.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: After being arrested on suspicion of involvement in his father’s conspiracy, Joe suffers weeks of physical and psychological torture at the hands of the Gestapo and Josef Mengele, culminating in being forced to execute his father. He is then released to become one of Himmler’s lebensborn assassins. It quickly becomes clear that the Joe Blake of Season 3 is no longer the man from the last two seasons and nothing more but a soulless shadow.
• Broken Pedestal: He becomes this to Julianna after his Face–Heel Turn, when Julianna finally realized it was a dire mistake to spare his life and help him escape at the end of Season 1 that especially got her in trouble with the resistance in Season 2 and she should have carried out her original given mission to have him executed, which she accomplishes by slashing his throat.
• Conflicting Loyalty: He has some problems regarding who he should be loyal to.
• Continuity Nod: His fake identity in season 3 while he's stationed as a spy in San Francisco, Joe Cinnadella, is the name of his book counterpart.
• Death Seeker: Admits as much to Juliana in season 3. It's likely this is genuine, considering that the death of his father was a major tipping point in Joe's sanity and morality.
• Decoy Protagonist: In the first two seasons, he acts as one of the protagonists, even after being revealed as a Nazi Protagonist in the first episode. However, after his father's death and getting tortured, he becomes just another Nazi antagonist and is killed by Julianna in the third season. The Reveal in the show's premiere as a Nazi mole likely foreshadowed him being this for the entire show this whole time and had always been destined to be one of the show's antagonists before meeting his eventual end.
• Disappeared Dad: His birth name turns out to be Josef Heusmann. His German father, who was never around to raise him, is now a current member of Hitler's cabinet. Joe doesn't have any warm feelings for the man when his dad calls him to Berlin for a face to face meeting.
• Double Agent: Works for the GNR military to weaken anti-government resistance forces.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Of a sort. When he's told by Smith to not follow orders from Heydrich's faction, he decides to escape from the GNR by hitching a ride to Central America. Then subverted when he's drawn back into Smith's orbit.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Joe may tacitly support the Nazi system, but he tends to be very big on loyalty and helping his friends. He also detests nuclear weaponry. He's also dismayed when the Nazis blow up the ship that holds him for ransom instead of paying them as they promised in "The Tiger's Cave", and is clearly disturbed when he discovers he is the product of a breeding program meant to produce pure Aryan children. In Season 3, despite his Face–Heel Turn, he cannot bring himself to kill Tagomi.
• Face–Heel Turn: The downfall and subsequent execution of his father, with Joe obligated to literally deliver the shot himself, and his imprisonment and torture break him of any hope or belief that anything other than the Nazi regime would win and succeed, and he begins to follow it as a cold, sociopathic, and hardened killer without reluctance or questioning.
• Foreshadowing: In the TV series, during Blake's roadtrip, he is represented by a red line (compared to Juliana's blue one) and you can hear Wagner's music playing in the background. Both of these details serve as hints to where his loyalties truly lie.
• The Heavy: Of Season 3, following his Face–Heel Turn.
• Heel–Face Door-Slam: Season 1 gave him the chance to start anew at its season finale, but by the next two seasons, he finds himself Trapped in Villainy and eventually becomes a full-blown villain who is killed by Julianna.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: Joe keeps swinging between vaguely supporting the Nazis and working against them, and it takes him being indoctrinated with months of torture into choosing the Nazis.
• Karmic Jackpot: He saves Juliana multiple times, which leads her to save him in turn including giving him another chance when his identity as a Nazi spy is revealed and helping him escape when the Resistance wants to kill him.
• Irony: He was conceived as part of a Nazi breeding program to birth pure Aryans, yet he respects and gets along with other races and hates the things the Nazis have done.
• La Résistance: He joins one in the pilot episode.
• The Mole: He was this for the Nazis when he was sent to infiltrate the resistance cell.
• Nazi Protagonist: He's a Nazi spy for much of the series, but his faith in the Nazi cause is shaken on several occasions as he witnesses more of its crimes. By season 3, when he truly becomes totally and blindly committed to the Reich, he's more of an antagonist.
• Pet the Dog: In Season 3, despite his Face–Heel Turn, he was hesitant to kill Tagomi despite the orders to do so.
• Protagonist Journey to Villain: Due to serving the Nazi Party to begin with, the series follows Joe's eventual destiny to become one of the show's main antagonists in season 3.
• Pure Is Not Good: He was part of the Lebensborn program, a breeding program that puts emphasis on racial purity. While this is subverted in the first two seasons since Joe is a reasonable protagonist, this is played more straight after his brainwashing and Face–Heel Turn in season 3.
• Redemption Failure: Julianna helping him flee into hiding at the climax of Season 1 would have opened the door for him to start over and redeem himself, but by the next couple of seasons, he finds himself Trapped in Villainy before getting tortured, then pulling a Face–Heel Turn into a complete Nazi bastard villain before getting killed in self-defense by Julianna, who realized that what she suffered at the hands of the Hero Antagonist resistance in Season 2 for trying to help Joe escape was to be All for Nothing upon learning Joe's betrayal.
• Sins of Our Fathers: Gets arrested when it is revealed that his biological father, whom he had just recently met and acknowledged, is taken in for plotting against Hitler. After months of torture, he is ultimately pardoned after he personally executes his father.
• Slashed Throat: In season 3, Juliana cuts his throat with a straight razor after he confirms his loyalties to the Reich and reveals their plans to invade other dimensions.
• The Sociopath: Joe becomes this after his Face–Heel Turn, especially with no qualms of threatening Julianna at gunpoint.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Goes hand-in-hand with Adaptational Heroism. Because Joe Blake effectively undergoes a Heel–Face Turn, Juliana gives him help and he escapes to Mexico. His book counterpart, Joe Cinnadella, does no such thing, and Juliana kills him herself. Subverted in the third season, as he is still killed by Julianna after his Face–Heel Turn.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: With Juliana. Both she and he admit to harboring feelings for one another, despite being on opposing sides. By the time Joe goes Brainwashed and Crazy thanks to Himmler, she and he end up exploiting each other for information to use for their respective factions, but it's clear there's genuine mutual affection in their interactions. Unfortunately, Joe's brainwashing is so ingrained within him, and Juliana's desire for freedom so strong, that Love Cannot Overcome and Juliana is forced to kill Joe when push comes to shove.
• Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: By Season 3, Joe is finally Killed Off for Real.
• Sudden Sequel Heel Syndrome: By Season 3, Joe becomes an absolute antagonist.
• Super Breeding Program: He was part of the Lebensborn program.
• That Man Is Dead: By Season 3, Joe is no longer the sympathetic Punch-Clock Villain character, driving further by adapting the new identity as Joe Cinnadella.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: After his father's death drove him to have a Face–Heel Turn.
• Tritagonist: He was initially believed to be this of the show. Then comes his Face–Heel Turn in season 3, afterwards Tagomi took this role over from him.
• Unwitting Pawn: The only reason John Smith took Joe under his arm years ago was so that Smith could potentially use him to influence Reichsminister Heusmann. It pays off.
• We Can Rule Together: Says something to this extent when the depths of his Face–Heel Turn becomes apparent to Juliana, inviting her to join the Nazi Regime alongside him because the freedom she seeks is something he believes is impossible in a world ruled by the Reich.
• White Male Lead: He suits the part as a male, heterosexual, square-jawed American hero. The trope is then decked in the face when it's revealed he's actually a Nazi agent. Not only that, his father is one of the most senior Nazis in the Reich, and another his godfather. And even further, he looks the way he does because he is a product of the Lebensborn program.

Ed

Ed McCarthy

Played By: DJ Qualls

A colleague of Frank Frink in a San Francisco factory, he works in creating replica American souvenirs for Japanese residents to buy a relic of American history.

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• All Take and No Give: As Childan (somewhat bluntly) observes, his relationship with Frank is very unequal.
• Les Collaborateurs: Kido forces him to become one and report on the Yakuza activities.
• A Friend in Need: Despite the risk of being caught by Kempeitai soldiers, he offers money to Frank and Juliana, as well the opportunity of disposing of the revolver Frank made in the factory.
• Guile Hero: Repeatedly shown to be very good at thinking on his feet, making him a resourceful survivor.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Frank, but their relationship slowly starts to crack.
• Hidden Depths: Childan pretty much even Lampshades this about Ed.
• Nice Guy: Genuinely the most selfless person in the show.
• Odd Friendship: He starts a kinship with Childan.
• Scapegoat: Offers to be one to get the Kempeitai off Frank's back.
• Regretful Traitor: He collaborates with the Japanese to some extent, but the guilt heavily looms over him.
• Straight Gay: He's actually gay, but he has to keep his business private because it's frowned upon by the Japanese occupiers.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: He doesn't appear in Season 4, and no mention is made about him at all.

Nicole

Nicole Dörmer

Played By: Bella Heathcote

A Nazi filmmaker and propagandist; daughter of a wealthy pharmaceuticals tycoon.

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• Anti-Nihilist: Takes delight in the mortality of all men and how utterly meaningless their endeavors are. Mainly in that the mistakes of one generation cannot last forever.
• The Beautiful Elite: Like Joe, Nicole is very pretty and a product of the Lebensborn.
• Bourgeois Bohemian: She's part of a nascent subculture among the German youth (Nazi hippies!) that enjoys the luxuries of the Reich but is also beginning to question their parents' generation and exploring with drugs and free love. Despite this she remains a firm follower of Nazi ideology and in Season 3 she's one of the main executors of Himmler's "Jahr Null" project.
• Historical Character's Fictional Relative: She's a niece of Joseph Goebbels and also works for the Ministry of Propaganda.
• Honey Trap: Joe deduces that his meeting Nicole was no chance encounter. She confirms his suspicions when she tells him that his father, a high ranking Nazi, set her on Joe to give him another reason to stay in Berlin. This ends up working a little too well, as they actually start liking each other, and by the end of the second season it's implied that they've begun a relationship.
• Manic Pixie Dream Girl: For Joe, though a twisted example given she's a Nazi. He is about to go back to New York after his disillusionment with his position in the German power pyramid before Nicole becomes his new love interest and renews some energy in him.
• Laser-Guided Karma: She fully supports Himmler's "Jahr Null" project, which aims to erase United States history and American identity to fully indoctrinate American youth into Nazi ideology. Then she's arrested by the very regime she's serving and sent by Himmler to "re-education".
• Nepotism: She clarifies that she's Joseph Goebbels' niece "in a manner of speaking". Given Goebbels' penchant for philandering and that she is lebensborn, it's likely that she is actually his bastard daughter. In any case, she isn't afraid to use his position as Reichsminister of Propaganda to get herself a lucrative propaganda film project.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: She's able to get out of being arrested under the GNR's anti-homosexuality laws when she's caught in a police raid on a lesbian bar by using her position in the Nazi Propaganda Ministry and status as a German national. However, this only gets her so far, since it turns out that the raid was ordered by Himmler himself, who then has her shipped back to Germany for "re-education".
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Her whereabouts after Himmler has her arrested and sent to a reeducation camp in Germany are never brought up in Season 4.

Bell

Bell Mallory

Played By: Frances Turner

A member of the Black Communist Rebellion and survivor of an extermination camp in Alabama.

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• Can't Stop the Signal: Takes over the airwaves to tell the truth about the death camps and urge Nazi soldiers to defect. (For bonus points, she interrupts a Nazi broadcast about definitely real letters about the plight of white people in BCR territory.)
• Didn't Think This Through: Like Elijah and the others, she seemingly hasn't considered what the nuclear-armed Nazis would do if the BCR actually succeeds, and is rather annoyed when Wyatt points this out.
• Enemy Mine: While the Resistance is pretty much equal-opportunity, BCR is an extremist organization for blacks only. The Resistance wants to free and re-establish the USA, while the BCR's goal is to establish a Marxist black ethnostate. Bell later seems to soften on this point, although she still doesn't trust the Nazi defectors with real weapons. Suffice it to say, there's no love lost between them, and the Resistance only suggests cooperation because they are desperate. Bell is receptive to the idea, but mainly on the grounds that the BCR could use the Resistance as cannon fodder.
• If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him!: Once the BCR takes over, she elects to imprison Kido so that they can later put him on trial, on the grounds that they need to be better than Kido.
• La Résistance: She's a member and later leader of the Black Communist Rebellion, a guerrilla group that aims to create a nation for African Americans in the territory of the JPS.
• More Deadly Than the Male: After the death of Equiano Hampton, when the BCR cell leaders begin fighting among themselves over leadership issues and each threatens to go their own ways, Bell devises the plan to launch simultaneous bombings all over the West Coast to cripple the oil supply of the Japanese Empire and which also leads the Emperor to order the withdrawal of all Japanese nationals from the JPS.
• Pet the Dog: When ordered to pull out and abandon Wyatt's Resistance fighters after the Kempeitai have been alerted at the auction, she still keeps her team in place to try to cover their escape.
• The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: She and the other BCR leaders are completely apathetic about civilian casualties.
• Sole Survivor: Her entire family was killed when the Nazis implemented the Holocaust in the American Reich.

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