History Characters / BoardwalkEmpireDarmodyFamilyAndAssociates

* APupilOfMineUntilHeTurnedToEvil

%% * BadassInANiceSuit

%%* DecoyProtagonist%% ZCE

%%* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: He's a very loving father who goes into crime as means of providing for him.

%%* HazyFeelTurn

[[folder:Tropes related to the Soprano Family]]

* DecoyProtagonist

* HazyFeelTurn

* VillainProtagonist

* ChristmasCake: She tried several times when Jimmy was young, but never got married.

* AntiVillain: [[SlidingScaleOfAntiVillains Type II.]]

%%* BadassLongcoat
%%* HandicappedBadass

* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: So very averted.

* FreakinessShame

* ItsPersonal: He will [[BestServedCold wait as long as it takes]] to get his revenge. On the other hand, he sees no reason to seek revenge for things that occur as part of a war (or a MobWar) if no innocents were harmed. He takes bloody revenge for Angela's murder but sees no cause to avenge Jimmy's death. In his view there is nothing personal about soldiers killing and dying during a war. Similarly, Richard threatens Mickey Doyle after he takes credit for Manny's death at Richard's hands.

* PlayingGertrude: Gretchen Mol is only 9 years older than Michael Pitt. Justified by the character's background.

* AmbiguousDisorder: [[spoiler: There is clearly something off with him in the 5th season and no doubt had a part to play in him deciding to shoot Nucky.]]

%% Doesn't explain what the reaction is. * Berserk Button:

* BadassInANiceSuit
* BerserkButton:
** People lying about military service/expressing "chickenhawk" attitudes seems to be this for him.
** Never make lewd comments about Jimmy's mom. Or look at her lustfully. Or put your hand on her, one way or the other. In fact, just be very polite to her in his presence.

* BerserkButton: Disrespecting or hurting anyone close to him: Jimmy, Angela, Tommy, Julia...

[[Characters/BoardwalkEmpire Return to Boardwalk Empire Characters]]

* BigBadWannabe: A [[DownplayedTrope downplayed]] example in Season 2 after succeeding his father, Louis Kaestner "the Commodore", as an Atlantic City kingpin. Despite being a formidable player in the criminal underworld, Jimmy proves to be out of his depth as a politician and lasts as long as he does against Nucky Thompson only due to [[WorfHadTheFlu the latter's preoccupation with a federal prosecution set in motion by the Commodore]]. [[spoiler:Upon alienating his father's wealthy backers, he seeks the support of out-of-state mobsters who [[AllTakeAndNoGive saddle him with debts he can't pay]]. Later, when Nucky floods Atlantic City with cheap Irish whiskey while orchestrating a massive strike crippling its economy, his support among the city's ward bosses begins to disappear. Ultimately, after his wife is murdered as a result of his shoddy business dealings, a grief-stricken Jimmy kills the Commodore before seeking peace with Nucky. For his trouble, he meets his death on account of two shots to the face.]]

* [[AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents Amazingly Embarrassing Mother]]: Oh boy.

* [[InvincibleHero Invincible Anti-Hero]]: He wins every fight that he's in, is never really touched in any confrontation and it's implied that he'd kick the asses of the historically based young gangsters, though this could be attributed to the tendency in historical fiction to make real life characters [[ButtMonkey butt monkeys]] compared to stronger, smarter fictional characters. This is eventually subverted during his fight with the Commodore... who he still manages to deal with.

* [[HoistByHisOwnPetard Hoist By Her Own Petard:]] Tries to kill Gyp Rosetti using the seduction followed by heroin injection method she used on Roger the Jimmy look-a-like, but he catches her, and promptly injects ''her'' instead. She at first appears to die from it, but is later found utterly strung out in the hallway by Nucky and Eli. The next season reveals that [[spoiler:she's still addicted to it eight months later, having lost everything to the habit.]]

* {{Housewife}}

* [[WouldHitAGirl Would Mob Hit A Girl]]: Conversed with Jimmy. While he seems adamantly averse to laying hands on a woman, he is perfectly fine with dispatching them by other means if it serves the purposes of a MobWar. [[spoiler:However, he undergoes much CharacterDevelopment over the course of the series, and when he actually does shoot an innocent young woman by accident, he's absolutely horrified.]]

* NiceHat: Favors a newsboy cap but wears a fedora when he [[spoiler: asks Nucky for a job]] in season 4.

-->Manny (examining Richard's face): What happened to you?
-->Richard: I put my nose where it didn't belong.

* KnifeNut: Very skilled with his trench knife, he's very good at delivering a SlashedThroat.

* CharacterTics: Darmody has a habit of clenching and unclenching his right hand whenever he is getting agitated and would like to deliver a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown on someone.

* {{Expy}}: Of ''[[Film/TheGodfather The Godfather]]'''s Michael Corleone: He starts off as a [[UsedToBeASweetKid sweet kid]] completly uninvolved in the mob lifestyle with a boss as a father (or father figure). Attends an [[IvyLeagueForEveryone Ivy League]] school. Goes off to war and comes back different. Commits a shocking act of violence when he gets home, in his case the woods massacre, and takes a sabbatical. Comes back with [[ExpositoryHairstyleChange slicked back hair]] a full member of the organization. The only difference is his mother issues, which are vaguely reminiscent of [[Film/WhiteHeat another gangster]].

* TheHeavy: In Season 2, Darmody is entrusted by his father,[[BigBad "Commodore" Louis Kaestner]] with overseeing his criminal empire in Atlantic City.

** Probably because of [[DeliberateValuesDissonance the attitudes of the time]], he has no problem cheating on Angela while he is away and even considers abandoning his family altogether and moving to California before his lover dies, but he reacts violently when he merely suspects that Angela was having a relationship with a photographer while he was in the army. He is, however, surprisingly cool when he learns that she was actually seeing the photographer's wife.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: In the second season, Jimmy tries to rob Nucky of his position of power and run his criminal empire, unfortunately his ambition only got him so far. Jimmy's volitvity, rash actions, and ruthlessness isolated him more and more from his business partners, save for Harrow, and it costed him a lot. [[spoiler: Including Angela, who Manny Horvitz killed when he didn't pay him the money he owed him.]]

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: After meeting with Meyer and Lucky in New York City, Jimmy is mugged by a pair of men. He easily dispatches them with his knife. However, the two men were nephews of Joe Masseria who were sent to talk to Meyer about their gambling den in his territory. Masseria obviously assumes Meyer and Lucky had something to do with their deaths and Rothstein is forced them to pay Masseria two thousand dollars and 10% of their card games. Rothstein then decides to assign Meyer and Lucky as a protection duty on a liquor shipment which leads to the two of them plotting to overthrow Rothstein.

* GreenEyedMonster: She is jealous that Richard has a better relationship with Tommy than she does and she eventually kicks him out when, among other reasons, she thinks Richard's girlfriend will supplant her as a maternal figure to Tommy.

* PromotedToOpeningCredits: In Season 2.

* ReallyGetsAround
* SingleMomStripper

* PromotedToOpeningTitles: In the second season.
* RedOniBlueOni: Blue to Jimmy's Red.

-->'''Richard''': Would you fight for me?
-->'''Jimmy''': 'Course I would, right down to the last bullet.

* VillainousBreakdown[=/=]HeroicBSOD: In Season 4, Richard's guilt finally catches up with him and he actually spares the life of man he was hired to kill after finding out he had a family. He futher breaks down when he can't even work up to the nerve to [[ShootTheDog put a dying dog out of its misery]] and declares that he's done with killing.

* [[WouldHitAGirl Would Mob Hit A Girl]]: Conversed with Jimmy. While he seems adamantly averse to laying hands on a woman, he is perfectly fine with dispaching them by other means if it serves the purposes of a MobWar. [[spoiler:However, he undergoes much CharacterDevelopment over the course of the series, and when he actually does shoot an innocent young woman by accident, he's absolutely horrified.]]

* StuffedIntoTheFridge: Murdered by Manny to get back at Jimmy.

* BigBad: In Season 2 by default. After being incapacitated by a stroke, Jimmy's father, the Commodore, entrusts him with running his criminal empire and seeing through his plan to usurp Nucky's control of Atlantic City.

* Shout Out: Richards character greatly resembles The Phantom of the Opera and The Tin Man of Oz. He's a disfigured dangerous man in a partial prosthetic mask who desperately wants Love and companionship, like the Phantom. Sometimes he is even accompanied by creepy organ music from the Phantom of the Opera. Like the Tin Man he has a metal face and believes wrongly, that he doesn't have a heart. He actually specifically calls himself the Tin Man once.

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: [[spoiler: His reaction to killing Chalky's daughter, which in turn leaves him too stunned to make a break for it after the hit on Narcisse goes wrong, resulting in his getting shot and eventually dying.]]

* RealityEnsues: In the second season, Jimmy tries to rob Nucky of his position of power and run his criminal empire, unfortunately his ambition only got him so far. Jimmy's volitvity, rash actions, and ruthlessness isolated him more and more from his business partners, save for Harrow, and it costed him a lot. [[spoiler: Including Angela, who Manny Horvitz killed when he didn't pay him the money he owed him.]]

* TheChainsOfCommanding: He's incredibly dangerous in a brawl or gunfight, but he has nothing close to the talent men like Nucky and the Commodore demonstrate for management. During the brief period in which he thinks he's usurped Nucky as king of Atlantic City, he alienates existing allies left and right while failing to bring new ones into the fold, and botches every crisis that comes his way. By the time Nucky starts undercutting him via mass importation of Irish Whiskey, he's already effectively a beaten man.

* TheChainsOfCommanding: In Season 2.