History Characters / Empire

* ReplacementScrappy: InUniverse. He's this to Andre, as Vernon who previously was Lucious' right-hand man and business partner had practically raised him and his brothers. In Thirsty's case, however, Andre immediately took a dislike to him.

* WomanScorned: And how!
-->'''Anika''': I'm a debutante. Do you know what that means? It means I can cut your throat without messing up my pearls.

* ButNotTooBlack: While the Lyon family are all pretty fair-skinned themselves, Anika takes the cake and Cookie is quick to call her on it. Turns out she's [[MixedAncestry mixed]] (white father, black mother).

* BodyguardCrush: Towards Cookie. The feeling is mutual.
* {{Expy}}: Of [[KingArthur Sir Lancelot]].

* ArchEnemy: Lucious sees him as this.
* BeardOfEvil: Has a goatee.

* NotSoDifferent: Andre does share some traits with his father Lucious, such as being a SmugSnake.

-->'''Becky:''' I told them I was [[{{Transgender}} pre-op]] and they didn't want to check!

* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: Lucious lampshades this as [[spoiler:Olivia's boyfriend threatens the family]], acknowledging that pretty much everyone hates him with good reason.

* YourCheatingHeart: Doesn't even pretend not to chase other women. He even admits it.
-->'''Lucious''': Well, I've been with a whole lot of women, Cookie.

* YourCheatingHeart: In Season 1, he seduces an assistant district attorney in order to help his father. It's also implied that he and Rhonda had other affairs with other people, but both were seemingly okay with it. [[spoiler:In "True Love Never," he finds himself tempted to sleep with the same assistant district attorney to help Empire, but instead he {{blackmail}}s the woman.]]

* YourCheatingHeart: [[spoiler:It's revealed that she has a partner, but Mimi frequently cheats on her with other women.]]

* YourCheatingHeart: [[spoiler:Michael cheated on Jamal with his boyfriend's photographer.]]

-->'''Played by''': Jussie Smollett

-->'''Played by''': Kaitlin Doubleday

-->'''Played by:''' Andre Royo

* BadassGay: Jamal, a gay man, is capable of taking care of himself. Hakeem learned this the hard way when he confronted Jamal.

* BadassGay: Has dealt with daddy issues of his own, but became stronger for it. He is also not the least bit intimidated by Lucious.
-->'''Ryan''': If he doesn't like [me being gay], he can kiss my arse.

* TheChessmaster: Possibly even more than Andre, their schemes brings conflicts in the Lyon family. She's often the one with the first idea.

* BiTheWay: Subverted. He has a one-time fling with female pop singer Skye Summers, and Lucious is a little too quick to celebrate his son being "fixed". However, Jamal and Skye discuss what happened between them, and it's clear that while he's able to have sex with a woman (which he's done before), he can't form a romantic bond with one, hence why he identifies as gay. They part on good terms, but unfortunately the story moves on before Lucious could learn this valuable lesson (but then again, he'd probably just go back to thinking being gay is a choice).

* {{Hypocrite}}: Tiana calls him out on this when he gets upset at her for having a [[BiTheWay girlfriend on the side]] even though he does too.

* BiTheWay: [[spoiler:In the Season 2 premiere, she slept with Mimi on Cookie's orders.]]

* BiTheWay: Has a girlfriend on the side. Later on in season 6, an ex-boyfriend brings a new girlfriend with him when confronting Tiana. Tiana ends up stealing the girlfriend away.

* BiTheWay: She makes out with Lucious in "True Love Never" and nearly engages in a threesome with him and another woman, advancing on the other woman after Lucious leaves to take care of some personal business.

* BiTheWay: [[spoiler: After dating Hakeem in season one, she comes back as Mimi Whiteman's partner in season two.]]

* BrutalHonesty

* BiTheWay: Has a girlfriend on the side.

* HairTriggerTemper: His biggest issue as he's shown to be quite the loose cannon when he gets angry.

-->'''Played by''': Creator/TerranceHoward

-->'''Played by''': Terrance Howard

-->'''Played by''': Trai Byers

** Of Geoffrey Plantaganet fitting into the ''The Lion in Winter'' in a record label thing.

** Also of UsefulNotes/RichardTheLionheart fitting in with the ''The Lion in Winter'' in a record label thing.

* MoralEventHorizon: [[spoiler:Pushes Rhonda down the stairs in order to induce a miscarriage.]] Applies in-universe as well, since the characters treat it as the vile action it is: [[spoiler:Rhonda literally tries to kill her when she figures it out, no one else believes Rhonda because it's so shocking and even Cookie doesn't believe Anika is ''that'' evil (although time will tell), and Lucious seems to believe Rhonda privately and tells Anika so--[[OhCrap no telling what he's planning after Anika gives birth.]] Andre confronts her about this in season 3 and he is PISSED.]]

* TheRival: To Cookie.