History Characters / SawJigsawAndAccomplices

* ClimacticMusic: Zep is more known for the fact that the franchise's climax {{Leitmotif}}, "Hello Zepp", is named after him ([[InconsistentSpelling though his name's spelling is altered]] as a ShoutOut the band "Zapp"), rather than his actual role in the first movie. It ended up becoming an ArtifactTitle, as later films stopped giving variations of "Hello Zepp" new names (e.g. "Hello Eric", "Let Go") and just go with "Zepp (The number of the movie)".

* ClimacticMusic: Zep is more known for the fact that the franchise's climax {{Leitmotif}}, "Hello Zepp", is named after him ([[InconsistentSpelling though his name's spelling is altered]] as a ShoutOut the band "Zapp"), rather than because of his actual role in the first movie. It ended up becoming an ArtifactTitle, as later films stopped giving variations of "Hello Zepp" new names (e.g. "Hello Eric", "Let Go") and just go with "Zepp (The number of the movie)".

* ClimacticMusic: Zep is more known because the franchise's main climax theme "Hello Zepp" is named after him ([[InconsistentSpelling though the spelling is altered]] to shout out the band "Zapp"), rather than his actual role in the first movie. It becomes an ArtifactTitle as later films stop giving variations of "Hello Zepp" new names (e.g. Hello Eric, Let Go) and just "Zepp (The number of the movie)".

* SerratedBladeOfPain: A serrated knife. It's the tool he uses to cut out jigsaw puzzle pieces from dead victims in the traps that he sets up (in contrast to John's more professional scalpel), and his primary weapon for direct murders. Dr. Adam Heffner takes notice of the former case in ''Saw VI'' because of the resulting skin abrasions around the pieces, in comparison to the neater borders of those cut with John's scalpel.

* UncertainDoom: Whether Hoffman perished from Lawrence imprisoning him is currently left in the air. Although [[invoked]]WordOfGod in ''Saw 3D''[='s=] DVDCommentary indicated he died (and that Gordon removed any means Hoffman could have taken advantage of to free himself, like the toilet lid Eric Matthews used to smash his foot in ''Saw III''), Costas Mandylor was asked to reprise his role, but this was put on hold with changes to developmental plans for future installments in the series. Since the release of ''Spiral'', Darren Lynn Bousman claimed that there are discussions to bring back Hoffman for a later movie.

* ArcVillain: Most of the apprentices are this. It doesn't apply to John himself, since he becomes the GreaterScopeVillain of the entire series following his term as BigBad from ''I'' to ''III'' (plus a VillainProtagonist role in ''X'', on chronological terms).

** Hoffman for ''Saw IV'' to ''3D''. After John and Amanda's deaths, he becomes the BigBad of the second half of the franchise's original run. For the most part, Hoffman is not present nor mentioned in the post-revival films that start with ''Jigsaw'', which mostly isolates him to those four films; it's not until ''Saw X'' when he makes a minor appearance in the post-revival movies.

* BadassLongcoat: Whenever she wears a pig mask, it's combined with a red robe (a color inversion of John's). She otherwise doesn't wear it in the testing field.

* AmbiguousSituation: Given how occupied Hoffman is in ''Saw 3D'' evading police and hunting Jill (and unlike in ''V'' and ''VI'', he's never seen directly overseeing the game), some viewers have interpreted the mastermind of Bobby's to be Gordon, which is also in line with his clear disdain for Bobby when the latter visited the Jigsaw Survivor Group meeting.

* AmbiguousSituation: Given how occupied Hoffman is in ''Saw 3D'' evading police and hunting Jill (and unlike in ''V'' and ''VI'' it never shows him directly overseeing the game) viewers have often interpreted the mastermind of Bobby's game to be Dr. Gordon. It is also in line with Dr. Gordon's clear disdain for Bobby when he went to the survivor meeting.

* BigBadWannabe: Despite being John's preferred successor, Amanda shows a lack of mental strength and decisiveness, being very emotionally dependent on John as a father figure. He is heartbroken when she fails his final test. Though dangerous on her own, she shows herself to be far less deadly than either John or Hoffman. Hoffman having leverage over her with his knowledge about her role in John's StartOfDarkness also leaves her powerless against him.

* DeusExMachina: He shows up at the end of ''Saw 3D'' to capture Hoffman, who had just succeeded in killing Jill and over a dozen police officers and was about to [[KarmaHoudini get away scot free]]. The end of the movie reveals Dr. Gordon was John's most trusted and skilled apprentice and was unknown to everyone. Though he appears earlier in the movie, his role as John's ultimate posthumous ace-in-the-hole mostly serves to deal with Hoffman.

* ArcVillain: Most of the apprentices are this, though not John himself, since he's both the BigBad and GreaterScopeVillain of the entire series.
** Amanda's villainous journey and training to be the next Jigsaw makes up the main plot arc of ''Saw II'' and ''III''. Amanda's relevance to the plot mostly evaporates after her death in ''III'', since she doesn't influence people the way John does.
** Hoffman for ''Saw IV'' to ''3D'' after John and Amanda's deaths, he becomes the villain of the second half of the film franchise's original run. Hoffman is not present nor mentioned in the post-revival films that start with ''Jigsaw''. This mostly isolates him to those 4 films, though he gets a cameo at the end of ''Saw X'' and his voice is heard a few times in that movie.
** Logan Nelson is the VillainProtagonist of ''Jigsaw'' and so far has only appeared in that one movie. ''Spiral'' establishes that he's no longer active in the present after he got his revenge on Halloran.

** He hates racist skinhead gangs. The Horsepower Trap barely looks survivable at all, and Kara is tied up with barbed wire when chains would have been perfectly fine, as the rest of the skinheads had them as restraints that were just as effective.

* AmbiguousSituation: Given how occupied Hoffman is in ''Saw 3D'' evading police and hunting Jill (and unlike in ''V'' and ''VI'' it never shows him directly overseeing the game) viewers have often interpreted the mastermind of Bobby's game to be Dr. Gordon.

* TheDragon: More or less takes this role in ''Saw 3D'' to the posthumous GreaterScopeVillain John.

* FaceHeelTurn: He was indoctrinated into Jigsaw's philosophy after John nursed him back to health.

** In the same film, in the last shot of Hoffman before he's first seen in the Ice Block Trap, an almost-obscure pig mask can be seen hanging on a wall in the dark background. This is the same mask he wore while subduing Rigg in the previous scene beforehand, subtly giving away the identity of Rigg's abductor. Hoffman being "kidnapped" is him making a call and camera focusing to the Pig Mask in the back, which at a glance makes it look like someone wearing the mask is standing in the dark, and followed by a frightening zoom editing effect on the mask. The audience never sees someone grab or jump Hoffman.

* PetTheDog: A downplayed if not subverted example. [[WouldHurtAChild John clearly had something horrific planned for Jeff's daughter if he failed his final test as part of another game.]] Given Jeff gets murdered shortly after learning about this game, Hoffman finds an opportunity by aborting that game and appearing to save her [[VillainWithGoodPublicity for good will.]]

** This gets exaggerated in ''Saw 3D'' where Hoffman assaults a police station and kills over a dozen police officers like he's [[Franchise/{{Terminator}} The Terminator]]. He succeeds without getting meaningfully hurt and only gets captured later by Dr. Gordon.

* CombatPragmatist: During the voice interrogation scene in ''Saw VI'' whilst his tape is being decoded by Sachi under the supervision of Agents Erickson and Perez, Hoffman, visibly on edge, walks around the room, observing his surroundings as the other agents pay attention to Sachi's progress. After the tape is fully decoded to reveal him as a Jigsaw apprentice all along, Hoffman quickly uses the environment to his advantage, swiftly slitting Erickson's throat to cause chaos, throwing a hot coffee onto Perez's face before she can fire upon him, cutting the power to the outpost to turn out the lights and lessen his visibility, and using Sachi as a HumanShield by the time Perez recovers to use a pistol. Upon disposing of Sachi's corpse and taking advantage of Perez running out of ammo, Hoffman quickly lunges onto her, stabbing Perez viciously several times to ensure that she has no

** In the same film, in the last shot of Hoffman before he's first seen in the Ice Block Trap, an almost-obscure pig mask can be seen hanging on a wall in the dark background. This is the same mask he wore while subduing Rigg in the previous scene beforehand, subtly giving away the identity of Rigg's abductor.

* PetTheDog: A downplayed if not subverted example. [[WouldHurtAChild John clearly had something horrific planned for Jeff's daughter if he failed his final test as part of another game,]] but Hoffman exploits this by aborting that game and appearing to save her [[VillainWithGoodPublicity for good will.]]

* TheStarscream: A flashback in ''Film/SawVI'' reveals that he blackmailed Amanda into failing her test in ''Film/SawIII'', setting off the chain of events that led to the deaths of both her and John in quick succession. Jill later catches onto this deception, and [[PayEvilUntoEvil angrily tries to sabotage Hoffman's test]].

* BigBadWannabe: Despite being Jigsaw's preferred successor, Amanda shows a lack of mental strength and decisiveness, being very emotionally dependent on John as a father figure. He is heartbroken when she fails his final test. Though dangerous on her own, she shows herself to be far less deadly than either Jigsaw or Hoffman.

* TheDragon: Jigsaw blackmails him into this position in the first film. Though later films show that he was already working with Amanda and Hoffman directly on that game.

* LaterInstallmentWeirdness: In ''Jigsaw'', Billy has curly hair, glowing red eyes, and appears to be slightly larger than (chronologically) later versions of the puppet.

* MouthOfSauron: Jigsaw uses him to deliver remote messages.

* SerialKiller: Although John would vehemently deny being this, this is what the Jigsaw killers are. Amanda in particular doesn't even make any pretenses about not being one.

** Both use their positions as people involved with law enforcement or crime-scene work as a means of manipulating evidence, turning attention away from themselves, and even framing other people for their crimes.

* MistakenForRelated: A single-receptor variant involving multiple relatives in ''Film/SawIV''. In his last meeting at the police station with Strahm and Perez before the film's main game begins, Hoffman shows up carrying Corbett Denlon's teddy bear. Looking at the teddy bear, Perez assumes that Hoffman has a wife and a child, which he denies as being a "short story".

* NotSoStoic: Hoffman has had two emotional breakdowns that broke [[TheStoic his usual stoic, composed demeanor]] without any pushbacks.
** It's strongly implied in the flashbacks from ''Saw V'' that Hoffman had a long-term breakdown after being informed of his sister's death and seeing her corpse in person, given that the scenes set after this show him [[DrowningMySorrows as little more than a drunken mess]] and it's the thing that provokes his desent into mysanthropy and vengance-fueled killing.

* DeckOfWildCards: ''Oh boy.'' Just about every apprentice or recruited accomplice aware of the others' existence has tried this at some point, whether it be out of jealousy (Amanda), a desire to take over the Jigsaw mantle entirely (Hoffman), or simple pragmatism in the face of someone violating John's code (Lawrence). Needless to say, [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome this doesn't keep stability for the cause]], and by the time of ''Spiral'', everyone in John's original group of killers seems to have either died out or left the cause.

* {{Irony}}: From his time with Logan, John claimed that the work of Jigsaw must not come from anger or vengeance. Every Jigsaw killer, however, undermines this belief in their way.
** John's most significant victims after Cecil are people he has a history with, such as his former friend Art Blank and William Easton, who denied him health insurance. While John outwardly holds no strong feelings, it's shown that he's deeply resentful of them for perceived betrayals.

** Hoffman chases after and murders Jill purely out of spite, slaughtering an entire police precinct in order to do so, and prior to that had killed three FBI agents to avoid detection and rigged a trap for his sister's murderer out of the simple desire for revenge.
** Logan later uses John's philosophy as a cover to exact personal revenge on Edgar and Halloran by murdering them outright.[[note]]Although, in all fairness, Halloran cheated by claiming he and Logan are to work together and then betraying him, before learning his true identity, so he may have doomed himself in his game.[[/note]]

* BeneathSuspicion: A variant. At first, he's seemingly set up to be an innocent who's accused by Halloran of being the one behind the new Jigsaw killings, what with him trying to eliminate or otherwise block access to potential evidence that could point towards him with help of Eleanor. However, during the climax, Halloran proves himself right when it turns out that Logan was faking at being a victim in the Laser Collars.

* DarkAndTroubledPast: He was tortured as a prisoner of war during his time as a military medic.

* TraumaButton: Seems to have issues with people approaching him or attempting to get his attention from behind; he noticably startles and has to calm himself down a bit after Eleanor does it to him twice, and when Halloran does the same and threatens to kill him at the pig farm, he visibly flinches, goes incredibly tense and still, and doesn't speak until basically made to. It's up to the viewer whether or not this specific response comes from his time and torture in the military or from the experience of being drugged and waking up to having his back sliced open by circular saws during his experience in the Barn Game.

* ArcWords: "Right now, you're feeling helpless." While not a {{Catchphrase}} of his, as he says it only once in the Pendulum Trap's tape, but it's particularly emphasized between ''Saw V'' and ''VI''as Hoffman descends further and further into villainy; in the latter, it plays on a progressively ominous-sounding BrokenRecord basis during a voice recognition process at the FBI's tech lab during the climax, setting the tone for Hoffman's brutal CurbStompBattle and subsequent slaughter of the agents once he's discovered.

* GutturalGrowler: His default tone whenever he's not speaking with strong emotion.

* BigBadWannabe: Despite being Jigsaw's preferred successor, Amanda shows a lack of mental strength and decisiveness, being very emotionally dependent on John as a father figure. He is heartbroken who she fails his final test. Though dangerous on her own, she shows herself to be far less deadly than Hoffman.

* EvilSoundsDeep: When he makes his reappearance at the end of ''3D'', his voice deepens to GutturalGrowler levels.

* KickTheSonOfABitch: Condemning Hoffman to painfully starve to death in the bathroom he was tested in. Before he leaves, he also tauntingly disposes of Adam's hacksaw within his reach.

* ClimacticMusic: Zep is more known because the franchise's main climax theme "Hello Zepp" is named after him (though the spelling is altered to shout out the band "Zapp"), rather than his actual role in the first movie. It becomes an ArtifactTitle as later films stop giving variations of "Hello Zepp" new names (e.g. Hello Eric, Let Go) and just "Zepp (The number of the movie)".

* SpellMyNameWithAnS: He's commonly mistakenly referred to as "Zepp" by viewers and fans due to his name being written as such in "Hello Zepp". Charlie Clouser deliberately spelled his name in the song's title like that as a ShoutOut {{Pun}} to the jazz band Zapp.

* KickTheSonOfABitch: While Jill was reluctantly willing to place the Reverse Bear Trap 2.0 on Hoffman per John's will, upon discovering his role in blackmailing Amanda and subsequently causing her and John's deaths, she rigs his game by making escape impossible.

* CultOfPersonality: John is an expert at emotional manipulation and predicting people's actions. Most of his apprentices and accomplices, barring Hoffman, are drawn to him through his incredible charisma and StockholmSyndrome. He later passed his orating skills on to Lawrence, who was capable of swaying test survivors to his side.

** John wanted each victim to gain a "new outlook on life", and feels they can only do that by forcing them to survive a gruesome near-death experience. All John accomplished was cultivating murderous followers through StockholmSyndrome or leaving people with PTSD for the rest of their lives.

He was also a colleague of Matt Gibson an unknown time before the series' start. Not much of their past relationship is known, aside from an insident involving Hoffman saving Gibson from being shot and killed by a homeless man by killing the man himself. According to Gibson, Hoffman killed the man despite him willingly dropping his weapon and surrendering. Later, Gibson tried to report this incident to the department's leadership, which only led to Hoffman [[RankUp getting a promotion]] and Gibson being moved to the department's InternalAffairs division, leaving the latter with a major grudge against Hoffman that persists into ''Saw 3D.''

* BigBad: After John's death in ''Saw III'', he became the Big Bad from ''Saw IV'' to ''3D'' (totalling to four films, which was one more than the films where John had the role within the first seven movies before ''Saw X'' balanced the number with John regaining the role). However, it took a couple of films to solidify Hoffman as a legit threat.

* CrazyPrepared: [[DownplayedTrope Not as much as John]], as he relies more on [[XanatosSpeedChess acting]] than preparation, but he carries at least a hidden weapon in just about any scenerio where things have the potential to go awry. It pays off in ''Saw VI'' when he's almost apprehended at the FBI's local technical lab, and is able to slit Gibson's throat and slaughter the rest before they can do anything to stop him.

* DragonAscendant: After John and Amanda's deaths.

* ScrewThisImOutOfHere: He tries to pull this off at the end of ''Saw 3D'' -- key word being ''tries''. He accomplished his goal of killing Jill, and with his identity known to the public, there was no reason for him to stick around. After packing a lot of cash, a gun and setting his lair on fire, he makes to leave. Whether he was planning to get a new identity and put his Jigsaw life behind him or just wait until the heat had died down will likely never be answered, since Lawrence intervined before either could occur.

* AssholeVictim: Downplayed. Amanda may be perverting John's philosophy with inescapable traps, but the third film thoroughly explores Amanda as a ''deeply'' troubled person who suffers from StockholmSyndrome, making her desperate for John's approval. Hoffman preyed on her emotional instability to sabotage John's last test for her, as revealed in ''Saw VI'', leading to Jeff shooting her in the throat. The subsequent moment where she bleeds out is played out as pitifully tragic rather than satisfying.

* BarefootCaptives: For whatever reason, Amanda spends her whole time in the Nerve Gas House lacking shoes or socks. Especially notable because she helped set the trial up, and doesn't bother taking shoes from the dying prisoners. In fairness, the first three victims are male, meaning their shoe size would be much larger than Amanda, and one of those three is killed by fire, rendering his shoes useless anyway. By the time a female captive dies, it would have looked a bit awkward having her pull said victim's shoes off after "comforting them" as they died. Amanda's choice may have also been deliberate. She sports fresh bandages from the work to save her after her "suicide attempt," and even lies to Daniel that she "wasn't taking care of herself," suggesting Jigsaw targeted her again because she attempted to kill herself rather than "appreciate the life Jigsaw gave her." The clothes she wears you would expect to find on someone confined to a mental instituion, where she logically would have been taken if the suicide attempt were real. It also further adds to the deception that she's just another victim, as her clothes and lack of shoes and socks make her appear more defenseless than the rest of the captives, and makes it seem she was kidnapped from a mental institution and brought to the house.

* BrokenBird: She's been the victim of AbusiveParents, framed for a crime she didn't commit, sent to prison because of it and became addicted to heroin while inside, was very nearly killed in a death trap set up by a serial killer as well as being forced to kill a man in the process, basically developed StockholmSyndrome towards said serial killer, was blackmailed by a rival apprentice into killing an innocent woman, and finally is shot to death. The image of her bleeding out on the floor, desperately trying to put pressure on her own wound, is hard to forget.

* CuteAndPsycho: Amanda is a mousy, petite young woman who just so happens to be a murderous and vicious criminial engineer. Even throughout most of ''Saw III'' she acts [[FauxAffablyEvil like a cutesy teenage girl while she's holding Lynn hostage.]]

* StockholmSyndrome: She comes to think of John as a father figure and is intensely loyal to him. She says that he "helped [her]"... by kidnapping her when she was asleep/unconscious, duct-taping her to a chair with a Reverse Bear Trap on her head that we later find out causes a gory death if it goes off, and basically gets her to kill a guy to enable her very narrow escape from certain DeathByDisfigurement.

* OohMeAccentsSlipping: Especially in the first film. Cary Elwes just didn't know how to fake an American accent. ''Especially'' in the more dramatic scenes, where his British accent tends to show up. He basically gives up on the effort entirely by the time of ''Saw 3D.''

* TheDragon: Jigsaw blackmails him into this position.

!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Film/SawI'' | ''Film/SawII'' | ''Film/SawIII'' | ''Film/SawIV'' | ''Film/SawV'' | ''Film/SawVI'' | ''Film/Saw3D'' | ''Film/{{Jigsaw}}'' | ''[[VideoGame/{{Saw}} Saw: The Video Game]]'' | ''VideoGame/SawIIFleshAndBlood''

!!Jigsaw killers:

[[folder:Lawrence Gordon]]
!!Dr. Lawrence Gordon
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lawrence_looks_at_the_saw.png]]
!!!'''Portrayed By:''' Creator/CaryElwes (movies)
!!!'''Voiced By:''' Stan Kirsch (''Saw: Rebirth'')
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Film/SawI'' | ''Film/Saw3D'' | ''Saw: Rebirth''

After surviving his horrific game, Lawrence was nursed back to health by John and inducted into his cause. He would often assist John in searching for victims and lending his surgical expertise for some games. However, he designed no traps of his own and his existence was a mystery to Hoffman and Amanda, the former of which he was keeping a close eye on from the shadows. Lawrence ultimately took it to himself to end Hoffman's life after he committed a mass murder revenge spree that eventually culminated in Jill Tuck's death.

* AnArmAndALeg: Cuts off his right foot in order to escape at the climax of the first film.
* ApologeticAttacker: He tells Adam he's sorry as he shoots him to save his wife and daughter, and breaks down screaming and crying afterwards.
* ArtificialLimbs: He's given a prosthetic foot by Jigsaw, but it leaves him a limp that he needs to correct with a cane.
* BackForTheFinale: He comes back for ''Saw 3D'', which was planned to be the series' original finale. Up until that point, he hadn't been seen since the first film, six movies ago.
* BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil: Of all of the people who continued John's work, he seemed to get it the closest.
* BeneathSuspicion: An interesting variant. The previous films where he was absent had various small hints to him having become an accomplice behind the scene, but this film has no foreshadowing to it at all before his reveal; the closest thing that gets to a hint is him sarcastically praising Bobby's claims in the Jigsaw Survivor Group meeting.
* BleedEmAndWeep: He was already desperate and near-tears when he picks up the gun to shoot Adam, but the second he pulls the trigger and Adam falls to the floor, he breaks down sobbing and screaming.
* ChekhovsGunman: The best example in the series. While he does show up at the beginning of the film, his sudden reappearance at the end of ''Saw 3D'' is to stop Hoffman once and for all. It isn't seconds later when it's explained that John had inducted him into his philosophy.
* ClusterFBomb: He delivers a litany of them during the climax of the first movie, after having kept himself completely devoid of swearing up until that point.
-->'''Lawrence, trying to attack Zep''': You bastard! I'll fucking kill you! I'll fucking kill you! '''YOU FUCKING BASTARD! I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!'''
* DeadpanSnarker: He only seemed to show up to Bobby's meeting to snark at him.
* TheDragon: More or less takes this role in ''Saw 3D'' to the posthumous GreaterScopeVillain John.
* DragonWithAnAgenda: Although nowhere near as rebellious as John's other disciples, WordOfGod suggested that even after his FaceHeelTurn, [[PetTheDog he was going to go back and free Adam]]. Sadly, Amanda already got to him by then.
* DramaticUnmask: Does it upon himself in his sudden appearance shortly after the climax of ''3D'', apparently in response to Hoffman's "What the fuck?"
* EvenEvilHasStandards: Being a survivor himself, and a Jigsaw accomplice, he knows that Bobby was never tested, and is appalled by his scheme to pretend that he was to get rich and famous from his book about "surviving" the ordeal.
* EvilSoundsDeep: When he makes his reappearance at the end of ''3D'', his voice deepens to GutturalGrowler levels.
* FaceHeelTurn: He was indoctrinated into Jigsaw's philosophy after John nursed him back to health.
* FatalFamilyPhoto: Notably averted. Gordon shows Adam a picture of his family in the first movie, and yet he is still alive in the seventh one. Considering the series' ludicrously high mortality rate, his survival would be impressive even if he didn't tempt fate with this trope.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: His FaceHeelTurn is revealed in ''Saw 3D'', but it was already hinted in previous movies:
** Perhaps an unintentional hint, the wall clock in Lawrence's house as seen in the first film vaguely resembles a row of machinery gears, and has jigsaw puzzle-like pieces between the numbers. There's also a number of other clocks present in the house, similarly to how John used to own a number of them from what is seen in flashbacks of ''Saw IV''.
** The BodyHorror of his handiwork is within an expertise John and his apprentices couldn't possibly be familiar enough with to perform well. What's more, the mysterious man depicted within the Death Mask's video tape in ''Saw II'' is walking with a severe limp; none of the Jigsaw killers displayed such physical handicaps.
** The fact that there were other living accomplices/apprentices (those who didn't do become such as part of their tests, specifically) besides Hoffman at the time is implied in John's claim from the autopsy tape in ''Saw IV'' that he's ''probably'' the last one alive. He didn't explicitly say that Hoffman was the only living Jigsaw disciple after John and Amanda's deaths, even if he was still the only one seen throughout the next two movies.
* FreakOut: Goes completely nuts when he thinks his family has been killed, leading to him cutting off his foot and shooting Adam.
* ICantLookGesture: As soon as Adam delivers the first blow to Zep's skull, Lawrence immediately puts his head down and looks away.
* {{Irony}}: He was originally suspected by Tapp of being Jigsaw. He was innocent at the time, but after going through his test, he ended up becoming Jigsaw's most valued accomplice.
* KickTheSonOfABitch: Condemning Hoffman to painfully starve to death in the bathroom he was tested in. Before he leaves, he also tauntingly disposes of Adam's hacksaw within his reach.
* MadDoctor: After being brainwashed into Jigsaw's philosophy, he uses his surgical expertise for traps that require it. He also experienced a SanitySlippage in the process, though he appears to be pretty sane by the time of ''3D''.
* MetaphoricallyTrue: In the first film, he says that newspapers dubbing the Jigsaw Killer as such is inaccurate, because technically speaking, he never killed anyone directly; he just puts them in situations where death is very likely. The point is really moot, as almost any jurisdiction would consider putting someone in such a situation to be murder, combined with other possible crimes like kidnapping. ''Saw II'' does at least have the {{Jerkass}} detective Eric call Jigsaw out on this defense: "putting a gun to someone's head and forcing them to pull the trigger is still murder." Plus, that ignores one of the flashbacks to Lawrence's explanation of Jigsaw, in which the latter lures Sing into a booby trap, resulting in his death; this was in turn preceded by a very straightforward attempt to murder Tapp by slashing his throat.
* MrExposition: He serves this purpose in the first film to explain the previous Jigsaw incidents and Tapp's story.
* NeverSentAnyLetters: In a variant with an anonymous letter, he was to one who sent the "I know who you are" letter that Hoffman received in his office in ''Saw V'', which the latter likely believed came from Strahm (with Jill also being a potential suspect for the viewer).
* NobleDemon: After his FaceHeelTurn. He's complicit when it comes to the games, mostly by assisting with medical procedures/surgeries to set up traps. Albeit, he seems to stick closer to John's moral code than Amanda or Hoffman, and seems to mostly have kept to himself and not really gone out of his way to be involved. He at least doesn't do anything evil in ''Saw 3D'', and his only real contribution to the film is [[LaserGuidedKarma putting Hoffman in his place.]]
* OohMeAccentsSlipping: Especially in the first film. Cary Elwes just didn't know how to fake an American accent. ''Especially'' in the more dramatic scenes, where his British accent tends to show up. He basically gives up on the effort entirely by the time of ''Saw 3D.''
* PetTheDog: WordOfGod confirms that his desire to go back and rescue Adam from where he'd left him in the bathroom trap was entirely genuine, and was only unable to because Amanda had already intervened and killed him herself by the time he was in any sort of position to manage it.
** A FreezeFrameBonus in ''Saw V'' shows a file with Adam's name on it as Strahm goes through the folders of information on Jigsaw's victims. Given that none of the other apprentices ever cooperated with the police at any point and therefore never could have mentioned it, that John never seems to make any particular effort to have his victims' bodies found after their deaths, and that the bathroom trap's existence seems to be entirely unknown to outsiders (Adam, Zepp, and Xavier's bodies are all still there by the end of ''3D,'' this would almost certainly mean that Lawrence, who would have been one of the only people aware that Adam was dead, took the risk of getting involved enough with law enforcement to make sure that his death and disappearance would wind up ackowledged by anyone besides himself.
* RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver: He's briefly seen wearing a black cloak with red interior similar to Jigsaw's in the flashback from ''Saw 3D'' that reveals his identity as the mysterious figure from the video tape in the opening scene of ''Saw II''.
* RetiredMonster: Implied by the time of ''Jigsaw''. He is essentially the best candidate for John's successor and leads numerous acolytes, but until the time Logan decided to continue the work, no similar murders were said to be happening.
* SanitySlippage: WordOfGod is that after being nursed back to health by John and released, he developed a severe mental instability that led to his wife divorcing him.
* SarcasticClapping: He does it (along with sarcastic verbal applause) at the Jigsaw Survivor Group meeting in ''Film/Saw3D'' after Bobby gives a particularly dramatic, self-serving speech to its members.
* ThatLiarLies: After being told by his wife that Adam is lying. "Stop the lies! You're a liar!"
* UncertainDoom: His fate was left hanging and never made clear until the seventh film.

[[folder:Jill Tuck]]
!!Jill Tuck
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%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=16920977210.46100100
%% Please don't change or remove without starting a new thread.
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[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/s3djill.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"I'm only carrying out John's final request."'']]
!!!'''Portrayed By:''' Betsy Russell (movies)
!!!'''Voiced By:''' Whitney Anderson (''Saw: Rebirth'')
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Film/SawIV'', ''Film/SawV'', ''Film/SawVI'', ''Film/Saw3D'', ''Saw: Rebirth'' (onscreen) | ''Film/SawIII'' (in flashbacks)

John Kramer's ex-wife. The founder of a drug rehabilitation clinic, Jill suffered a miscarriage when druggie Cecil Adams hastily broke in at night looking to score. With the downward spiral of her relationship with John after this and his cancer diagnosis, she divorced him. After John became the Jigsaw Killer, she was privy to his identity, machinations, and accomplices but did not want anything to do with him or turn him in. Despite this, following his death, John entrusted Jill to place the Reverse Bear Trap 2.0 on Hoffman, as his successor was never properly tested.
------
* AscendedExtra: She first appears in flashbacks in ''Saw III'', only to become a more prominent character later.
* ChainedToARailway: Only in a dream, though, in ''Saw 3D''.
* DamselInDistress: In ''Saw 3D'', she's under permanent police protection and surveillance from Hoffman. Justified in that Jill is a relatively normal civilian while Hoffman is a former elite detective and SerialKiller out for her blood.
* DeathByIrony: In ''Saw VI'', Jill intended to kill Hoffman in a newer version of the Reverse Bear Trap, but managed to survive. In ''Saw 3D'', Hoffman ends up killing Jill by putting her in the original Reverse Bear Trap.
* HappyFlashback: In a more depressing example than the trope's typical depiction, she hallucinates a series of these (involving her times with John before their divorce) just before her death in ''Saw 3D''.
* HospitalHottie: She worked as a counselor at a drug rehabilitation center, and looks pretty attractive (at least [[UglyGuyHotWife when compared to John]]).
* ImperiledInPregnancy: She lost her and John's unborn son when Cecil accidentally slammed a door to her belly.
* InSeriesNickname: Gibson repeatedly calls her "crazy" due to her involvement in the Jigsaw conspiracy.
* KickTheSonOfABitch: While Jill was reluctantly willing to place the Reverse Bear Trap 2.0 on Hoffman per John's will, upon discovering his role in blackmailing Amanda and subsequently causing her and John's deaths, she rigs his game by making escape impossible.
* LightIsNotGood: Subverted. She was privy to everything with John and his accomplices, but was thoroughly repulsed by his villainy. It's implied that the sheer trauma of everything she went through with him rendered her incapable of turning them in, coupled with John's expertise at emotional manipulation.
* ThePenIsMightier: When Hoffman finds her cell in ''3D'', she stabs him in the neck with a pen in an attempt to escape from him. It doesn't hinder Hoffman at all.
* SomberBackstoryRevelation: One of the plot lines of ''Saw IV'' involves her being interrogated by the police and FBI. Over the course of the line, Jill reluctantly tells numerous tragic past events that led to John becoming Jigsaw, adding to John's own claims about his motivation in ''Saw II''.
* TookALevelInBadass: At first, she seems to be an innocent victim of John's schemes due to her implicit involvement as his ex-wife. At the climax of ''Saw VI'', she knocks out Hoffman with an electrocuted chair and puts him in the Reverse Bear Trap 2.0, all without a hint of remorse in her face.
* UglyGuyHotWife: John is not really ugly-looking, but Jill looks way better for her age than John does his own.
* YourHeadAsplode: The only complete victim of the Reverse Bear Trap.
[[/folder]]

!!Miscellaneous:

[[folder:Billy the Puppet]]
!!Billy the Puppet
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/billy_52.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ct8uQZn-Fec (High-pitched maniacal laughter)]]]]
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Film/SawI'' | ''Film/SawII'' | ''Film/SawIII'' | ''Film/SawIV'' | ''Film/SawV'' | ''Film/SawVI'' | ''Film/Saw3D'' | ''Film/{{Jigsaw}}'' | ''[[VideoGame/{{Saw}} Saw: The Video Game]]'' | ''VideoGame/SawIIFleshAndBlood''

->''"Congratulations, you are still alive. Most people are so ungrateful to be alive, but not you. Not anymore."''

Not a living character, but possibly the franchise's most iconic face. Billy is a creepy puppet in a snappy suit, usually used by Jigsaw to deliver messages to his victims via video screen.

* AdvertisedExtra: Despite his prevalence in marketing, he doesn't appear in most traps and has limited screentime.
* AssistCharacter: Given how closely tied to the franchise the little guy is, he appears in ''VideoGame/DeadByDaylight'' as part of the "Jigsaw Boxes" survivors need to solve in order to escape Amanda's Reverse Bear Traps. If the player fails, [[KickThemWhileTheyAreDown Billy laughs at them.]]
* BaldOfEvil: He has a receding haircut that shows off [[ForeheadOfDoom his prominent brow]].
* CanonDiscontinuity: According to the ''Saw: Rebirth'' comic book released alongside ''Saw II'', Billy was made in the toy factory where John worked at long before he began his crusade as Jigsaw. In John's backstory seen in ''Saw IV'', he built Billy at some point after testing Cecil, though he did previously make a different doll (named Bobby) from which he took the idea for Billy's design.
* CompanionCube: He's an iconic part of the Jigsaw brand, even after Hoffman takes over.
* CreepyCrossdresser: Downplayed. His shoes are a pair of red Mary Janes.
* CreepyDoll[=/=]PerversePuppet: He's not designed to look snuggly, let's put it that way.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: In the original short film, he had a little bowler hat and a higher, raspier voice.
* EvilCounterpart: Of a nicer-looking harlequin doll John made for his unborn son, named Bobby the Puppet.
* EvilSoundsDeep: Invoked. His voice is the voice of whoever is controlling him, digitally altered to sound deep and menacing.
* FromNobodyToNightmare: Likely to reflect the transformation of his owner, Billy was inspired by an innocent, even cute little doll created as a gift to a newborn baby. When said baby was stillborn, Billy was built from said puppet's design with a much less cuddlier appearance, and took on a horrifying role...
* GigglingVillain: Manic and shrill, but it ultimately makes him more horrifying.
* GothSpirals: Red ones on his cheeks.
* HiddenWeapons: Part of his head explodes in ''Saw IV'', launching shrapnel into Detective Perez's face.
* LaterInstallmentWeirdness: In ''Jigsaw'', Billy has curly hair, glowing red eyes, and appears to be slightly larger than (chronologically) later versions of the puppet.
* MascotVillain: For the franchise as a whole.
* MonsterClown: His design, in an ironic contrast to the tone of the rest of the series.
* MouthOfSauron: Jigsaw uses him to deliver remote messages.
* NoNameGiven: His name is never actually given in the films; it was originally a ProductionNickname given to him by the producers before it became official.
* NotSoHarmlessVillain: Normally relegated to mascot, he gets a moment to shine in ''Saw IV'' when he takes down Perez with a cleverly-placed explosive in his head.
* RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver: He has this for a color scheme, with a little white thrown in as well.
* RedEyesTakeWarning: Wouldn't be as terrifying without them.
** A version of Billy in ''Jigsaw'' had glowing red eyes, but it appears that John dropped that feature for future puppets after the barn game.
* SentimentalHomemadeToy: As ''Saw IV'' establishes, this is the origin of Billy's design, in the form of a harlequin doll known as Bobby the Puppet, which John had made for his unborn son. He became very possessive of it during his depression after [[ImperiledInPregnancy Jill's miscarriage]]. In one flashback, John is seen softly touching Bobby after putting it back on a table from which Art accidentally knocked the doll over. Bobby was later seen in the background of ''Saw V'' and ''Saw 3D''.
* TragicKeepsake: Bobby, the doll from which Billy was inspired, is this for John. It's all but stated that John has kept Bobby around as a reminder of his lost child.
* UncertainDoom: All individual copies of Billy are incinerated when Hoffman blows up his lair in ''Saw 3D''. Since it's not shown if Logan incorporates Billy in the recreated barn game, the doll is presumed to be retired.
* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: For a horrifying puppet from hell, he doesn't get many comments on his appearance. Finally averted in ''Jigsaw'', when Ryan sarcastically comments that Billy's "not creepy at all".
* VocalDissonance: His deep, ominous "voice" is probably not how you'd expect a tiny clown doll to sound. Inversely, his laugh is high pitched and child-like.
* WaistcoatOfStyle: It's hard to see in most scenes, since it's black like his suit jacket, but it's there.
[[/folder]]

!!Video game-exclusive:

[[folder:Pighead]]
!!Pighead
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pighead.jpg]]
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''[[VideoGame/{{Saw}} Saw: The Video Game]]''

A mysterious henchman of Jigsaw who appears in the first video game. Unlike most of the other Jigsaw killers and accomplices, we never learn his identity or why he's serving John. ''Like'' them though, his loyalty is dubious and he's violently homicidal. After his death in the game, he's replaced by Pighead II in ''Saw II: Flesh and Blood''.
----

After surviving his horrific game, Lawrence was nursed back to health by John and inducted into his cause. He would often assist John in searching for victims and lending his surgical expertise for some games. However, he designed no traps of his own and his existence was a mystery to Hoffman and Amanda, the former of which he was keeping a close eye on from the shadows. Lawrence ultimately took it to himself to end Hoffman's life after he committed a mass murder revenge spree that culminated in Jill Tuck's death.

* OohMeAccentsSlipping: Especially in the first film. Cary Elwes just didn't know how to fake an American accent. ''Especially'' in the more dramatic scenes, where his British accent tends to show up.

[[quoteright:232:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screen_shot_2013-08-17_at_7_33_37_pm_2927.png]]
[[caption-width-right:232:''"I found myself a father... a leader... a teacher."'']]

[[quoteright:245:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/saw_mark_hoffman-w350-h350_5486.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:245:''"Right now, you are feeling helpless."'']]

->''"You told me the only way to help people reach true enlightenment was to detach emotionally."''
-->-- Hoffman to John in ''Film/SawV''

Jigsaw's second canonical apprentice and the third full-term Jigsaw Killer (after Amanda Young). Mark Hoffman started out as a detective of the Metropolitan Police Department's Homicide Division simply assigned to the Jigsaw case. At some point before that, his sister Angelina Acomb, whom he himself states to have been his only family, was murdered by her [[DomesticAbuse abusive boyfriend]] Seth Baxter; even though Seth ended up receiving a life prison sentence, Hoffman had a depressive breakdown that lasted for an unknown time upon first seeing Angelina's dead corpse.

He was also a colleague of Matt Gibson. Not much of their past relationship is known aside from Hoffman once saving Gibson from being shot by a homeless man. Because Hoffman killed the criminal despite willingly raising his hands to him, Gibson tried to report this incident to the department's leadership, which only led to Hoffman [[RankUp getting a promotion]] and Gibson being moved to the department's InternalAffairs division, leaving the latter with a bitter taste on Hoffman.

By the time of the Jigsaw investigation, Hoffman used the knowledge he acquired of Jigsaw by virtue of following the case to murder Seth using Jigsaw's MO, after the latter was freed from his imprisonment on a technicality. This [[JackTheRipoff frame job]] made it to the news and caught John Kramer's attention, who blackmails Hoffman into helping him. Not long afterwards, Hoffman became John's first full-tenured apprentice (after the latter's initial attempt with Logan Nelson), doing a good bulk of jobs before Amanda (whom he constantly competed against for John's praise) came in.

Eventually, Hoffman began to fall in love with his carnage and, like Amanda, didn't completely buy into Jigsaw's philosophy. After [[TheStarscream overthrowing John]] by deliberately causing his and Amanda's deaths in ''Saw III'' (the surrounding incident of which led to Hoffman being promoted to Detective Lieutenant in ''Saw V''), Hoffman continued the Jigsaw work until ''Saw 3D'', doing his best to avoid being exposed to the Metropolitan Police Department and the FBI (who were also involved in the case) and facing numerous people threatening his identity, the most active of which was John's ex-wife Jill Tuck, who was acting at a posthumous request from John. In the middle of a subsequent investigation for a "second accomplice" after the games set by him began to pop up, his true identity as Jigsaw's successor was first discovered by the FBI in ''Saw VI'', but (due to him immediately destroying their found evidence and killing the investigators in response) was only revealed to the Metropolitan Police Department at large by Jill in ''Saw 3D'', at which he decided to try and leave the city via airplane in order to get away unscathed, while fending off the prosecution on him led by Gibson.

* ArcWords: "Right now, you are feeling helpless." While not a {{Catchphrase}} of his, as he says it only once in the Pendulum Trap's tape, but it's particularly emphasized between ''Saw V'' and ''VI''as Hoffman decends further and further into villainy; in the latter, it plays on a progressively ominous-sounding BrokenRecord basis during a voice recognition process at the FBI's tech lab during the climax, setting the tone for Hoffman's brutal CurbStompBattle and subsequent slaughter of the agents once he's discovered.

* TraumaButton: Seems to have issues with people approaching him or attempting to get his attention from behind; he noticably startles and has to calm himself down a bit after Eleanor does it to him twice, and when Halloran does the same and threatens to kill him at the pig farm, he visibly flinches, goes incredibly tense and still, and doesn't speak until prompted.

* AmbiguousSituation: Whether he follows Kramer's philosophy or is closer to Amanda's or Hoffman's MO, which isn't given much detail about. He seems to kill Edgar despite having completed the game he assigned him, and while Halloran points out that he is supposed to have a choice and is shut off, it can be argued that he had already lost his game by betraying Logan in the beginning. Aside from being informants of Halloran, we don't know who the victims of his recreation of the barn game are supposed to be, either.

* CatchPhrase: "I speak for the dead." Appropriate because of his job and avenging people whose deaths went unpunished, and carrying out Jigsaw's work from beyond the grave.

* {{Hypocrite}}: He's told by John "We can never come from anger, or from vengeance," as he learned from erroneously putting Logan into a trap. Ten years later, he kills Edgar and Halloran for their supposed role in his wife's death, after both of them passed the tests they were given. For the latter case, though, Halloran arguably failed when he attempted to get Logan killed in the trap.

* NotProven: His motivation for putting Edgar Munsen in the game, and for ultimately killing him, is that Edgar murdered his wife. Halloran points out before he dies that it was never proven. Logan doesn't seem to particularly care.
* OfCorpseHesAlive: What he tries to do with John's corpse. He digged up John's grave and took his body, placing Edgar's in its place so as to keep up rumors that the original Jigsaw Killer is still alive and out there.
* OptOut: He was taken as an apprentice when John was more focused on punishing the guilty rather than testing if people had the will to live or not to advance the species. When John shifted to the latter ideology, Logan left him, not because he didn't believe in the initial ideology, but rather because he knew John would attempt to correct him (test him again) if he tried to put his ideology into practice. Logan simply waited for him to die of cancer, and five extra years to be sure, before beginning his own run as Jigsaw.

* SmallRoleBigImpact: In-universe when he was still an intern, as detailed below.

!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Film/SawI'', ''Film/SawII'', ''Film/SawIII'', ''Film/SawVI'' (in flashbacks), ''Film/SawX'', ''[[VideoGame/{{Saw}} Saw: The Video Game]]'' (onscreen) | ''The Scott Tibbs Documentary'' (in a video clip)

!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Film/SawI'', ''Film/SawII'', ''Film/SawIII'', ''Film/SawVI'' (in flashbacks),''Film/SawX'', ''[[VideoGame/{{Saw}} Saw: The Video Game]]'' (onscreen) | ''The Scott Tibbs Documentary'' (in a video clip)

!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Film/SawI'', ''Film/SawII'', ''Film/SawIII'', ''Film/SawVI'' (in flashbacks),''Film/SawX'',''[[VideoGame/{{Saw}} Saw: The Video Game]]'' (onscreen) | ''The Scott Tibbs Documentary'' (in a video clip)