History Characters / FargoSeriesGerhardtFamily

* BadassBeard: Duke is a gun-totting bodyguard with beard that's at least a foot long.

** In relation to Hanzee being an expy of [[Literature/NoCountryForOldMen Anton Chigurh]], the last name "Dent" could also be in reference to [[Film/TheDarkKnight another killer that uses a coin flip to decide his prey's fate]].

* DoesNotLikeMen: After suffering her father's abuse and [[spoiler:Mike's betrayal]], she becomes very distrustful of men in general. As her grandmother points out, this is another way she and her father are NotSoDifferent.

* InTheBlood: She possesses her family's criminal instincts. The first time she goes into the field, she takes to it like a fish to water.

->'''Played By:''' Rachel Keller

* ButtMonkey: He doesn't catch a break in his first [[spoiler:and last]] appearance. [[spoiler:He's humiliated and pressured by his brothers to pay his dues, his attempt at branching ends up involving him into coercion for the overturn of a judge's veredict, which not only fails, but drives him to the point of further humiliation and causes three murders by his own hands. Afterwards, he ends up getting run over by a truck, which leaves him confused and bloody and makes him attack a butcher by instinct, which causes his death. Life hasn't smiled for Rye.]]

* DeerInTheHeadlights: [[spoiler:He gets run over by a truck driven by Peggy Blomquist. For further humiliation, he stays there unconscious in the windshield until she arrives home.]]

* MutilationConga: Gassed, stabbed, run over… He really goes through it all.

* ConsummateProfessional: He seems to take his duty of keeping the Gerhardt's sam seriously, even trying to make two cops hand over their guns when they show up to investigate Rye.

* {{Expy}}: A long-haired enforcer who's scarily competent at his job and will stop at nothing to achieve his goals, despite having been injured? Are we talking about Hanzee or [[Literature/NoCountryForOldMen Anton Chigurh?]]
* FacialHorror: He suffers some nasty burns on his face.

* AbusiveParents: He smacks his daughter Simone around when she displeases or disobeys him.

* BigBrotherBully: To Rye, who he gets into a headlock and threatens to kill.

* YourCheatingHeart: Ricky G casually mentions that Otto had an affair with the Gerhardt maid. Whether this is true and it's a part of their relationship Floyd doesn't talk about or Ricky's just yammering on and being insincere is never elaborated on.

* BadassBeard: Duke is a gun-totting bodyguard with beard that's at least a foot long.
* DeadFootLeadoot: Duke is shot through the chest and in his death throes stomps on his trucks gas pedal, causing it to go forward and hit another parked car.

A high-ranking Gerhardt enforcer and bagman.

* UndignifiedDeath: [[spoiler:Mickey and Joey die in typical criminal ways (shot and garroted, respectively), but Roost is drowned in a filthy toilet.]]
* GenreSavvy: while they do agree to fight back if it comes to that, they also advice Floyd to take Kansas's City's offer, feeling that it's more than fair. Given the way things turn out, it would have been better if she had.

->'''Played By:''' Kieran Culkin

* FauxAffablyEvil: Once he's got Ed in the noose, Dodd starts talking to him like they're friends, rambling about how women are a plague upon women.

* StrayShotsStrikeNothing: Averted. [[spoiler:He does get a shot off at Ed, who ducks, the bullet ricochets off the metal surroundings, and grazes Charlie's head.]]

* TheBully: To his own daughter and his younger brother.

* BoomHeadshot: [[spoiler:After being an uncontrollable force of chaos throughout Season 2, Dodd finally meets his head when Hanzee Dent puts a bullet in his caveman brain.]]

* TheCakeIsALie: Most of his services to the Gerhardt clan have been leading to the day he will finally take command and be its leader. Once that day arrives, not only is he blocked by his mother, but realizes that "the time of crisis" during which she will rule could extend itself to months or ''even years''...

-->''"You know what depresses me? I missed the '60s -- free love, drop acid, Woodstock. Wake up one day, decide you want to call yourself Flower Rainblossom, you just call yourself Flower Rainblossom."''

* AmbiguousSituation: [[spoiler:After learning of her betrayal, Bear takes her on an execution march into the woods. She begs and pleads for her life, and Bear appears distressed but resolute. We never actually see him pull the trigger, so while her death seems likely, there's still some ambiguity as to whether or not Bear followed through... the 10th episode confirms it.]]

* FilleFatale: She falls back on her sexuality to manipulate her way out of trouble, and attempts to manipulate Hanzee (which fails) and Skip (which semi-succeed). [[spoiler:She later does the same with Ben Schmidt.]]

* GiveHimANormalLife: Bear wants Charlie to go back to school and make something of himself, not involved with the family's business.

* PursuingParentalPerils: Charlie feels constantly attracted to the criminal underworld, despite his father's best intentions; the fact that he wants to stop being seen as a weak person only adds more fuel. [[spoiler:Then, comes the time to actually ''kill'' somebody.]]

* ShoutOut: Roost Bolton is clearly a nod to Series/GameOfThrones' Roose Bolton.

* BewareTheQuietOnes: He may be silent most of the time and soft spoken, but he's still a killer. [[spoiler:He also orchestrates the fall of the Gerhardts and kills Ed all within the last three episodes of the season.]]

* KnifeNut: Sometimes carries a big-ass knife, while in another scene he pulls out a straight razor.

* RaceLift: A rare InUniverse example. [[spoiler:At the end of the season it's revealed he undergoes extensive plastic surgery to become Moses Tripoli, the leader of the Fargo Mob in season one. While Hanzee is Native American, Tripoli is AmbiguouslyBrown, with a Hebrew first name and North African surname (and portrayed by an actor of European descent.)]]

* PragmaticVillainy: [[spoiler:While fleeing from the Sioux Falls Massacre can also be interpreted as cowardice, considering the fact that everyone else ends up dead, he made the smart choice. He also heads to the now deserted Gerhardt compound to steal their belongings to sell for money. Sadly for him, Mike had already beaten him there.]]

* ConsummateProfessional: PlayedWith. He's cold, formal, and efficient, but while he isn't necessarily friendly to him, he's a lot more forgiving of Charlie's screw-ups even when they jeopardize his work.

* GiveHimANormalLife: Bear wants Charlie to go back to school and make something of himself, not involved with the family's business.
* GoodParents: He might be a criminal, but he's keen to keep his son out of the criminal life and get a good education.

* MeaningfulName: "Bear" gives you a pretty idea of his appearance and personality.

* NotSoStoic: While much of the time the silent, contemplative Bear remains placid and unemotional, when Dodd mentions his wife in an insulting way, you can see the anger begins to crack through the blank gaze. He has a much larger breakdown after [[spoiler:he has to kill Simone, who is his own niece]].

** Various variants of "Bear" are quite common among Europeans. "Bjorn", which means "Bear", is very common in Scandinavian languages, for example, and most European countries have some form of "Bear" as either surname, name, or both.

->''"Rye Gerhardt -- raised without the proper moral fiber, I'm thinking."''

* ADayInTheLimelight[-/-]ADeathInTheLimelight: [[spoiler:The first episode "Waiting For Dutch" is entirely devoted to showing his actions leading to the confrontation between Gerhardts and Kansas City.]]

* ButtMonkey: He doesn't catch a break in his first [[spoiler: and last]] appearance. [[spoiler:He's humiliated and pressured by his brothers to pay his dues, hisattempt at branching ends up involving him into coercion for the overturn of a judge's veredict, which not only fails but drives him to the point of further humiliation and causes three murders by his own hands. Afterwards, he ends up getting run over by a truck, which leaves him confused and bloody and makes him attack a butcher by instinct, which causes his death. Life hasn't smiled for Rye.]]

* {{Expy}}: Rye ends up one to Carl Showalter. Both are twitchy wannabe criminals that end up way in over their heads. Like Showalter, the situation escalates from his own incompetence, [[spoiler:and Rye ends up murdering three people]]. Even his murder of [[spoiler:the judge]] ends up similar to Showalter's murder of Wade. Both try and intimidate an unflappable Authority figure who angers them off into shooting them, and both Rye and Carl end up with nasty wounds because their victim wasn't quite dead. Culkin's even made up to look like Buscemi.

* MutilationConga: Gassed, stabbed, run over... He really goes through it all.

* [[AntiVillain Anti-Villainous]] [[VillainousBreakdown Breakdown]]: In Episode Seven when he realizes how many family members he's lost in the war, is exhausted from having to had deal with Dodd (who mostly caused the avoidable war in the first place), and has to [[spoiler:kill Simone when he discovers she's a traitor]]. He is clearly trying to hold what's left of the family together for as long as he can and realizing it may be futile.

* BigLittleBrother: Bear's taller and broader than his older brother Dodd, and also lot more mature. Angus Sampson himself is younger than Jeffrey Donovan, but his beard makes him seem older than he is.

* LeaderWannabe: He acts and talks like he's the boss of the family, but it's clear his mother, Floyd, is the true one on control.

* SmugSnake: Despite being very physically capable and dangerous, he repeatedly overestimates himself. He is a worse leader than Floyd, Bear beats him viciously until Hanzee intervenes, and Peggy manages to overcome him. [[spoiler:[[NotSoHarmlessVillain He then gets his own back on Peggy and Ed when he wriggles loose of his bonds and nearly takes out both.]]]]

* FamilyValuesVillain: She gets upset when his son, Dodd, curses in the house. Dodd's reaction is to change his statement to a less offensive one. [[spoiler:And right after her husband is left alive after an attack, she's seen hugging him tenderly and even kissing him.]]

* IronLady: Stoic, determined but ultimately reasonable, Floyd keeps a firm grip over her gang. With Otto out, the tough decisions are up to her, and while Dodd may chafe, all the main lieutenants are firmly behind her.

* ALighterShadeOfBlack: They're initially presented as such when against the Kansas City Mafia. The Gerhardts are the family values underdog criminals against the large corporate criminals, and the Gerhardts have far more sympathetic characters than the Mafia. Near the end Floyd even proposes an EnemyMine where they and the cops will stand up to the Kansas City Mafia. In spite of that almost all of the conflict comes from them. Dodd's ambitions are what causes the war in the first place, and [[spoiler:Hanzee]] engineers it so that the climax features the family as the final antagonists. The Mafia's infighting ultimately pushes them out of major conflict with the heroes and they never really sink to a level of evil on par with Dodd or the central antagonists from season 1 and 3.

* EndOfAnEra: His stroke, wheelchair status, [[spoiler:and eventual death]] stands as a metaphor of the power the Gerhardts had at one point fading away, and leaving the room for something bigger and more adept for the current times.

* BadassGrandpa: Even in his old age, he still looks imposing and as strong as ever, at least before his stroke.

* PyrrhicVillainy: [[spoiler:While he doesn't seem to get any comeuppance in Season 2, Hanzee certainly doesn't get a happy ending. Sure, he takes down the Gerhardts and it's implied he'll take down the Kansas City Syndicate with his ruthless ways, but he loses his identity (including his racial identity) and he falls back into the life he was so tired of, not knowing how to do anything else. He takes on a new identity, Moses Tripoli, and will go on to become fat and bored before meeting an ignoble death at the hands of [[PsychoForHire Lorne]] [[BadassGrandpa Malvo]], a fellow force of chaos.]]

* DomesticAbuser: Simone mentions that Dodd would beat her mother if she looked too sad, so she started [[StepfordSmiler wearing a smile all the time]]. He's also readily violent and threatening towards Simone.

* WomenAreWiser: Floyd, along with her son Bear, is the coolest head in the Gerhardt family. Dodd dismisses this as feminine weakness, but her patience and intelligence are huge benefits. She's much more reasonable and intelligent than her sons (again with the exception of Bear) and perhaps moreso than Otto, who was more inclined toward violence than her.

* DroppedABridgeOnHim: [[spoiler:Mike Milligan and his attack team shoot up the Gerhardt household in episode 6. Episode 7 reveals that Otto died, off-camera, likely because he couldn't move from his chair and take cover when the shots were fired.]]