History Characters / ArrestedDevelopmentTheBluths

* HundredPercentAdorationRating: Surprisingly, the rest of the family really liked Tracey.

* MeaningfulName: While he, to some degree, deserves it, his constant suffering draws parallels between him and his namesake [[Literature/TheBible Job]]. Lampshaded in season 4.

* {{Catchphrase}}: "I've made a huge mistake" and "Come on!".

* AmbiguouslyBrown: As white as he appears, there are repeated hints that he is actually a very pale black man.

* PsychopathicManchild: [[spoiler:Downplayed, then subverted. In his Season 4 focus episode, "Off the Hook," Buster gets a job as a drone pilot for the army, and takes great glee as he gets to fly out and shoot people and places up, including weddings and hospitals. But then he finds out [[HeelRealization that the drone-controls are not a video game and that he has been shooting at real people the whole time]]. He reacts to this new knowledge with shock and disgust before going all out in a violent panic attack.]]
** On the other hand, [[BewareTheNiceOnes his untapped wellspring of violent anger toward his mother]] has been a part of his character from his first focus episode, Season 1's "Bringing Up Buster," and in "The One Where Michael Leaves" Michael takes him fairly seriously when he hints that he might kill her ("Maybe Buster killed her already"). In "Good Grief" we find out that the family has been lying to keep him happy since childhood because of the destruction he can wreak when especially upset. The show is not oblivious to the risk inherent in [[spoiler:arming such an unstable person with a hook or an oversized prosthetic, his [[SanitySlippage breakdown]] in Season 4 was an obvious homage to ''Film/{{Psycho}}'', and by the end of the season he has not only beaten Herbert Love badly enough to put him in a coma but is the prime suspect in the murder of Lucille Austero, whom he blames for turning Lucille against him.]]
** [[spoiler: ZigZagged throughout Season 5, but ultimately played straight by the finale, where it's revealed that not only did he kill his own grandmother (albeit in childhood and by accident), but also Lucille Austero.]]

* AmbiguousDisorder: He has a childish understanding of the world, suffers from crippling panic attacks and is dependent on other people to look after him. No one's as troubled by this as they should be. [[spoiler: It's revealed that this is likely due in large part to residual trauma from accidentally killing his grandmother Mimi in his childhood; Lucille and Tobias implanted a memory to make him believe that Lucille was the one who'd really killed her, so that he wouldn't blame himself for her death.]]

* ADegreeInUseless: Instead of getting a real job, Buster has spent most of his adulthood bouncing between graduate degrees in fields like Archeology, Cartography, Native American Tribal Ceremonies and 18th Century Agrarian Business.

!!!Played by: Justin Lee

!!!Played by: Jeffrey Tambor

* DotingGrandparent: He's a much better grandfather than a father, which is admittedly not saying much, and he draws the line at involving them in his schemes or treating them as he did his kids.

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

%% Doesn't explain what the reaction is. * Berserk Button: Don’t call Lindsay old.

* EvilCostumeSwitch[=/=]EvilMakeover: [[spoiler:In Season 4's "Red Hairing". See GenerationXerox.]]

%% Doesn't explain what the reaction is. * Berserk Button: Calling him a monster in Season 4.

* BerserkButton: Don’t call Lindsay old.

* BerserkButton: Calling him a monster in Season 4.

Michael's niece, Maeby is the daughter of Lindsay and Tobias. A BookDumb and materialistic girl as a result of her upbringing and neglect as a child. At one point she pretends to be a wheelchair-bound IllGirl named Surely Fünke (the supposed twin sister of Maeby herself) as a way to [[BatmanGambit cheat on tests and better her grades]]. In Season 2, she eventually cons her way into a job as a movie producer, despite still being a teenager at the time.

* CharacterDevelopment: At first he's a straight-up NiceGuy, but as the series goes on, he becomes a slightly more flawed character. In Season 4, [[spoiler:this is ramped UpToEleven, and by the chronological end of the season, he's almost nothing like he was before.]]

* LukeIMightBeYourFather: [[spoiler:Believes he is Buster’s father and is a crusader for this idea through the show. He's right.]]

* TookALevelInJerkass: [[spoiler:Over the course of "Borderline Personalities" after a full year of working the sweat lodge and the sudden discovery that George Sr had only bought the land to build the Wall, he gets fed up with George Sr.’s TwinSwitch act, and exploits it for his own ends instead. He also rekindles his affair with Lucille, but starts one with Lucille 2 at the same time.]]
* TwinSwitch:

* ManChild

* SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan: While she starts off liking Steve Holt (who ''isn't'' a jerk but is the boistrous jock type), she begins to seriously fall for the sweet, timid and {{Adorkable}} George-Michael, despite the whole "cousin" thing.

* MasculineGirlFeminineBoy: Maeby's Masculine Girl and George Michael's Feminine Boy
* MasterOfTheMixedMessage: To George Michael, especially in early episodes.

* HollywoodNerd: The nerdiest of the Bluths by far; even in adulthood, he still makes his Star Wars training footage.

* ParentalObliviousness: As attached as he is to his son he's incapable of picking up on his emotional state, notably George Michel has confessed his KissingCousins relationship with Meaby to him three times and [[IgnoredConfession was ignored all three times]].
* ParentsAsPeople: He is probably the most loving parent in the show, but that doesn't make him a totally great one either, as his constant pressure for George-Michael to succeed has taken a toll in the boy's psyche, making a lonely, nervous wreck, which he realizes [[AesopAmnesia many, many times]]. It's even lampshaded early on that he is, in essence, doing the same to his son that his father did to him.

--> '''Michael:''' Goodbye forever.
--> '''Lucille:''' See you tonight!
--> '''Tobias:''' See you tonight!
--> '''Michael:''' ''(walking out)'' See you tonight.

** This may have a bit of RealitySubtext in it, as her role as Maeby is Alia Shawkat's only real claim to fame.

* GutturalGrowler: Due to being played by Will Arnett, who let's not forget voiced [[WesternAnimation/TheLEGOMovie Batman]], after all...

* StaticCharacter: It's right there in the title.

* WhatIsThisFeeling: He is confused when [[spoiler:the realization that Steve Holt is his son]] makes him experience an emotion that he can't identify as "envy" or "hungry".
-->'''Michael:''' Could it be love?\\
'''Gob:''' ''(annoyed)'' No, I ''know'' what an erection feels like, Michael! No, it's the opposite. It's... it's like my ''heart'' is getting hard.

* OutnumberedSibling: The only female Bluth child.

* LargeHam: He hams it up considerably as a performer.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: There are things that he feels are legitimately wrong like Gob giving George Michael an illegal job to do or Michael apparently falling to his death. He also puts his foot down with regard to Michael wanting to scare George Michael to teach a lesson, and when Michael asserts that George had always made use of "lessons" before, George point blank states that it was wrong of him to do so.

!!!Played by: Maria Thayer