History Characters / OrangeIsTheNewBlackMainCharacters

* MakingLoveInAllTheWrongPlaces: In the prison shower and chapel with Nicky, and later in the visitor's room (against a vending machine, no less!) with Vinnie. Justified because, well, she's in prison. The guards look the other way when she has sex with Vinnie, but only because it's their wedding night, and they've made an allowance for it just this once.

* RealityEnsues: [[spoiler: See MakingLoveInAllTheWrongPlaces. Lorna ends up pregnant from her tryst with Vinnie in the prison lobby.]]

* MamaBear: She clearly adores her children, but [[RealityEnsues is in no position to parent them]], though she still tries hard.

* RealityEnsues: Piper loves the fear and respect (she thinks) her panty business affords her as "the top bitch" in Litchfield, until that same power makes her a target for tougher, more experienced bitches who want to usurp it.

* PsychoLesbian: ''Psycho'' is overstating it, but she's pretty depraved. She threatens Pennsatucky with PrisonRape, and she's pretty cavalier about naming Piper in her indictment, but it later gets played with before being finally subverted when more details of her and Piper's relationship are revealed.

* NoBisexuals: Daya's "gay for the stay" relationship from Season 6 with inmate Daddy. And Daya's SituationalSexuality coming to play. Daya doesn't consider herself gay or bi. By Season 7, Daddy gets killed, with Daya being quickly re-established as strictly heterosexual for the rest of the season (and show).

* BeligerentSexualTension: And how with Figueroa. After she blows him in Season two, the two begin a casual affair of "hate fucking". He is disgusted that he can't resist Figueroa (which gives her pride), while she is annoyed when he accidentally calls her "Natalie".

* AdaptationalAttractiveness: Surprisingly--given how Chapman's appearance stands out in prison holding the Hollywood standard of beauty--averted. The real life Piper is the only one of the original main three (her, "Alex" and Larry) who shares definite physical resemblance with the on-screen character based on her.

** A sheltered, upper middle class white girl being thrown in a cage with psycho lesbians, murderers, and religious fanatics? It was an inevitability.

** She attempts this in Season 4 with Piscatella. It works for a bit when she tattles on Maria's gang and gets Maria framed for the panty business, but eventually Piscatella gets fed up with her.

** She gets much worse in the third season. She is generally much more comfortable by lying and using people than before. She cheats on Alex--without the justifications of feeling overwhelmed and meeting a long lost love, which she may have had when cheating on Larry. This time she just thinks that the terrified-for-her-life Alex is boring and Stella is hot so it's okay. She also executes a petty revenge on a girl who was just representing everybody's interests in having some profit from their contribution to Piper's panty business (long story) and delivers the mother of DisproportionateRetribution to another girl who has stolen from her. It's safe to say that by the end of the season she may count as a VillainProtagonist.

* VillainProtagonist: In season 3 and early season 4. By the end of the Season 3 she isn't actively villainous in a sense of wanting to harm anyone (who hasn't crossed her first, that is), she has hit the heights of LackOfEmpathy and isn't hesitant to crush anyone who gets on her bad side. She isn't even present at the final heartwarming scene when the other inmates visit the lake; the last we see of Piper this season is her alone, power-drunk and content with being in a prison, giving herself a vanity tattoo. Throughout Season 4, we see the ramifications of her trying to be a badass and top prison bitch. The rest of the inmates either don't care, don't take her seriously, or want to bring her down. Plus, she inadvertently starts a White Power movement. She gets better.

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* {{Expy}}: Of Catherine Cleary Wolters.

* [[MamasBoy Mamas Girl]]: Alex adored her StrugglingSingleMother, Diane, and is devastated when she dies in her backstory.

* ProperlyParanoid: DoubleSubverted. Initially it seems like she is right about Lolly being sent by Kubra to kill her. She is wrong. ''Then'', however, it's revealed that one of the new guards is working for Kubra, who very much wants to kill her.

* IWasQuiteALooker: Red says she was once quite attractive, and laments the effects that age has on her looks. Flashbacks reveal she was indeed quite a pretty young woman.

--> '''Nicky:''' She said you were a squirter.
--> '''Piper:''' I don't--that's-once! It happened ''once!'' It took us both by surprise!
--> '''Nicky:''' Wow! I was kidding, but good to know!

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* CharacterDevelopment: Begins the series as a fanatical religious fundamentalist who despises gay people, transgender people, non-whites, Catholics, Buddhists, etc. In later seasons she goes on to become best friends with Big Boo (a butch lesbian), helps Nicky (a Jewish lesbian) through detox, and befriends Suzanne (a black lesbian). She also goes from a volatile woman with violent mood swings to a much more even tempered woman who is typically friendly to her fellow inmates.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: [[spoiler:In Season 5. After getting the promise of having all of the possible demands of the prisoners met in season 5, her RevengeBeforeReason streak concerning Bayley leads her to abandon the negotiations, which combined with the untimely release of the hostages by Maria leads... well, straight to hell.]]

* VitriolicBestBuds: With Poussey.

* BaldWoman: She keeps her hair cut extremely short. In flashbacks she has a short mohawk.

* BuryYourGays: After the events of season 4.
* ButchLesbian: Downplayed. Poussey is a lesbian and her looks -- even by prison standards -- and mannerisms are conventionally unfeminine, but she still appears rather androgynous than butch and apparently doesn't identify as a latter.

--> '''Flaca:''' "I use my time very efficiently. I'm almost never late."
--> '''Poussey:''' "She was late ''today''."
* DrowningMySorrows: Both in present day and in her flashback. Often leads her to confront her problems violently.

* SchoolgirlLesbians: In her teenage years, as shown in flashbacks.

* TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth: Downplayed. She may have been in prison for a reason, but it was not a violent offense. Plus she was the friendliest inmate- kind to everyone. Yet she dies young in prison- and not as a direct result of anything wrong she did.

* ComedicSociopathy: For as obnoxious, self absorbed and pushy as she is, there's probably only ''one'' instance in either season where it isn't PlayedForLaughs. This is largely what keeps her from coming off as antagonistic as the likes of Pennsatucky or Mendez.

* OverreactingAirportSecurity: Her job before she went to prison.

* ProfessionalSlacker: Which Vee calls her out on.

* SmugSnake: Particularly when she's working for Vee.

-->'''Sophia:''' I think a nice faux-hawk will give that 'don't fuck with me' vibe, you know?
-->'''Gloria:''' I mostly use my face for that.

* RedOniBlueOni: The Blue to Aleida's Red.

* BigBeautifulWoman: A milder case than most, but she has a rather full figure and feels 'not that hot' because of it, and all of the men she's been with comment how attractive they find her specifically because of it.

** After losing the gun and thus her place in the riot, she retires to the yard and begins painting a large, very well done mural of Bennett.

* LoserSonOfLoserDad: Gender-flipped with her and Aleida. Aleida neglected Daya and her siblings growing up. And Daya aspired to become something better than her poverty stricken life and drug selling mother. Only to end up in prison herself for the exact same crimes.

* TookALevelInJerkass: ''Big-time'' in Season 7; with [[spoiler:the Denning Sisters having killed each other in the previous season finale, followed by Daddy dying from an overdose, Badison being transferred to another prison, and Hellman's plan to have Alex sell drugs for him quickly falling apart]], she fills the resulting power vacuum and becomes far worse than her mother ever was, at one point making an all-too-serious threat to ''castrate'' the prison's GED tutor unless he agress to smuggle contraband in for her.

* AlphaBitch: More like AlphaBitch all grown up. In prison she makes frequent jabs people's looks, spreads rumors, and pettily excludes people.

** Left Daya at summer camp when she begged her mother, crying to not leave her. While a previous conversation with her own mother shows that Aleida ddid so [[ShooTheDog because she honestly thought it was for Daya's good]], instead of explaining this to Daya she told her that she was dumping her at camp so she could have personal time.

* MamaBear: Despite her own shortcomings as mother, she would do anything to protect her daughters, even beating up Eva's drug dealing boyfriend and telling him to stay away from her.

* ArchEnemy: To Piper in Season 4.

* TookALevelInBadass: From a minor character to full blown Hispanic Gang leader in the span of a few episodes.

** He takes it UpToEleven in the first season's finale when he's willing to to let Piper ''die'' just because she has outsmarted him and caused him getting chewed out by Figueroa.

-->''"You have not seen crazy until you've seen two hundred women with anger issues fighting over who's going to be the ass end of a camel."''

* BiggerIsBetterInBed: While not in bed, even Figueroa had to comment on how big his member is, apparently known by his old classmates as "beer can". It goes further, though: in Season 3, she's sleeping with him occasionally, chiefly because he really is--and this is a direct quote--"a good lay."
** Subverted in season five, when Linda mentions that he's actually a little ''too'' big for her.

* NotSoDifferent: He eventually realizes that he is this to Figueroa, as his job makes him do worse and worse things, and apologizes to her for judging her.

* Laxative Prank: Daya becomes pregnant as a result of a SecretRelationship with one of the corrections officers. She knows this isn't going to go well, and that the officer in question could get in ''huge'' trouble if this were to come out, so she asks Gloria to make up an abortifacient tea for her. Gloria ''does'' indeed make an herbal tea for Daya, but it's not an abortifacient, it's a ''laxative''. It turns out that Daya's heretofore estranged mother (who is in the same prison) spoke to Gloria first, and asked her ''not'' to help Daya abort, because [[IWantGrandkids she wanted grandchildren]].

%%* LoserSonOfLoserDad: Gender-flipped with her and Aleida.

* GoOutWithASmile: While her death itself was a frightening moment, the season closes with a flashback of her life outside the prison. The last shot we see of her character is her looking directly into the camera and smiling.

->'''Played By:''' Taylor Schilling

->'''Played By:''' Creator/KateMulgrew & Xenia Leblanc

->'''Played By:''' Yael Stone

->'''Played By:''' Lea [=DeLaria=]

->'''Played By:''' Adrienne C. Moore

->'''Played By:''' Jackie Cruz

->'''Played By:''' Elizabeth Rodriguez

->'''Played By:''' Jessica Pimentil

->'''Played By:''' [[Creator/MichaelHarney Michael J. Harney]] & Zachary Doran

->'''Played By:''' Nick Sandow

* AllLesbiansWantKids. At first Piper wanted a kid. Only after babysitting her niece does she change her mind.

* TheScapegoat: Ends up taking the fall for [[spoiler:Piscatella’s death thanks to CERT setting up the prisoners, with the first episode of Season 7 establishing that she was sentenced to life without parole]]. Somewhat unusually, this is a case of her being scapegoated for something that [[spoiler:she's only indirectly responsible for rather than completely innocent of, as things would never have gotten to the point where Piscatella got killed if she hadn't blown off the state's offer on the grounds that it didn't include a guarantee that Bayley would be jailed for his part in Poussey's death]].

** His defense of Gerber in Season 4 after the latter's AccidentalMurder of Poussey. The inmates get outraged and it causes a riot.

* KickTheSonOfABitch: [[spoiler:She shoots C.O. Humps when he's on his knees with his hands in the air, softly begging for mercy. Of course, since he's an utterly {{sadist}}ic, [[TheSociopath sociopathic]] AssholeVictim who terrorized the inmates for weeks, illegally brought the gun in himself, and had instigated the riot with his own vile treatment of the inmates in the first place, the scene feels oh so satisfying. Tragically deconstructed later, when his injuries ultimately lead to his death, and Daya has to take the fall.]]

* SituationalSexuality: Despite never having once showed the slightest bit of interest in other women, and even having acted with mild revulsion when other prisoners have tried to proposition her, in Season 6 she gets into a relationship with Daddy. She justifies this by pointing out that seeing how she got a life sentence for her part in Humphrey's death, it means her options essentially boil down to either getting involved with another woman, or never being in any sort of relationship ever again.

* ButchLesbian: She even refers to herself as a 'diesel dyke'.

* AnyoneCanDie: [[spoiler: Overdoses on heroin in Season 7]]

* HonorBeforeReason: [[spoiler: In Season 5, she shoots off Leeann's finger and lets Coates escape. The inmates put her on trial, and Boo miraculously convinces the jury to let Penn go. Despite this, Penn decides to repeatedly proclaim her guilt, resulting in her getting locked in the porta potty for a good portion of the season.]]

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: {{Invoked}}. She sees ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory'' as a movie about a cowboy who's king of the castle, but then an astronaut comes in and tries to take over, so the cowboy tries to murder him, but then the astronaut is taken hostage by an evil psychopath, so the cowboy has to rescue him, then they become really good friends. Rosa eventually breaks the stunned silence with, "You've got one fucked-up perspective on the world, kid."

* BerserkButton: Anyone, ''anyone'' criticizing her [[ButchLesbian looks]]. She manages to fake being a newborn christian in front of a homophobic reverend, up to the point where he asks her to hide her "Butch" tattoo.

* {{Hipster}} : As shown in Season Three.

* CharacterDevelopment: In a BusCameBack moment in Season 6, Healy has become an AntiNihilist, and encourages Caputo to simply accept the disappointments and frustrations in life and find happiness.

* DatingCatwoman : Well, banging Catwoman. As of Season 3, he's sleeping with Figueroa. He also points out she's the only person he can talk to, and she tells him how pathetic he is.

* DudeWhereIsMyRespect: He is accused by his former girlfriend and senior [=CO=]s of behaving in this manner, "holding the door open for [them] and getting angry when they don't say thank you."

* YourCheatingHeart: Starts up a relationship with ex-girlfriend Alex whilst engaged to Larry. Then, after managing to get her back to Litchfield for parole violation just so she wouldn't be alone and they could re-start their relationship, she cheats on Alex with Stella. In the final season, she cheats on Alex again with a woman named Zelda. All in all, it doesn't seem like monogamy--or honesty--are her strong suits.

* YourCheatingHeart: She cheated on her girlfriend Sylvie by getting together with Piper for the first time.

* YourCheatingHeart:
** Despite being engaged to a fellow named Christopher, she's having a passionate sexual relationship with Nicky. Of course, she was never engaged to Christopher in the first place. She breaks it off nonetheless as to ''her'' it's cheating.
** After Nicky comes back she tries to tempt Lorna into cheating on her new husband Vinnie since the two can't physically touch each other. Lorna ''almost'' succumbs a few times, but so far she's sticking to her guns. Even after she thinks Vinnie is cheating on her with her sister. [[spoiler: She breaks in Season 5 and tries to hit up Nicky.]]

->'''Played By:''' Dascha Polanco

->'''Played By:''' Selenis Leyva

->'''Played By:''' Uzo Aduba

->'''Played By:''' Danielle Brooks

* {{Adorkable}}: In later seasons, with her insecurities and genuine efforts to be kind, she becomes one of the most lovable characters.

* BiTheWay: She had a passionate relationship with Alex for many years, but gets engaged to Larry before going to prison. She states that she likes 'attractive people' whatever their gender.

* UncertainDoom: The last time we see her, she's in the middle of being strangled by her mother. Dascha Polanco herself wasn't sure what happened to Daya at first, but the show's writers clarified to her that she did survive.