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* KickTheSonOfABitch: You can't deny that a lot of the perps Stabler brutalizes have it coming. Considering their crimes it sometimes seems as if they get off easy.
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* PayEvilUntoEvil: You can't deny that a lot of the perps Stabler brutalizes have it coming. Considering their crimes it sometimes seems as if they get off easy.
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* RatedMForManly: Though in this case, [[MrFanservice it's more for the benefit of the viewing ladies.]]
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!!Elliot Stabler, Sr.
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/stabler_elliot_1237.jpg]]
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' | ''Series/LawAndOrder'' | ''Series/LawAndOrderTrialByJury'' | ''Series/LawAndOrderOrganizedCrime''
!!!'''Played By:''' Creator/ChristopherMeloni
A senior detective in Manhattan's 16th Precinct, also known as the Special Victims Unit, which investigates sex crimes. He is one of the original members of the squad. A former Marine and a dedicated detective, he has a 97 percent closure rate, but his dedication can turn to obsession and cause him to take cases personally. His dedication to the job also makes him the target for several IAB investigations during the course of his 12-year career at SVU.
Ten years after his initial and abrupt retirement from the force, Elliot returns to the job after the murder of his wife, Kathy, and joins the Organized Crime Control Bureau to dismantle every single crime family in the city while also seeking justice for his late wife.
----
[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder:A-E]]
* AbusiveParents: His father was physically and emotionally abusive. His mother had untreated bipolar disorder, and although never intentionally caused harm to her son, inadvertently caused him physical injury and emotional distress during his episodes, particularly during points of mania.
* ActionDad: To five kids.
* AllCrimesAreEqual: When a group of teenagers threw a party with alcohol and a girl drank too much until she choked on her own vomit, Stabler went after the teenagers with the same zeal with which he goes after murderers, rapists, and pedophiles, and was outraged when the judge didn't throw the book at them. Stabler can be expected to lose his perspective (he has very little to begin with) whenever a victim is even remotely similar to his daughter.
* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: Inverted. Stabler is overzealous, tempermental, and has no regard for constitutional rights. He is frequently temporarily partnered with cops who are even worse. Sometimes it seems as if Stabler learns his lesson from working with them, but it [[AesopAmnesia never sticks]].
* AntiHero: Though fundamentally good and wishing to protect the public and catch criminals, he bends the law to get it done, frequently brutalizes suspects, and is very bigoted and close-minded on sexuality issues.
* BadassBiker: Rescues a trafficking victim by chasing her captor on a bike. You can take Elliot out of SVU, but you can't take SVU out of Elliot.
* BadassInDistress: A couple of times; the most prominent being when Dale captures him and begins to torture him in 'Zebras'.
* BadassLongcoat: In winter episodes.
* BaldOfEvil: He sports one as part of his "Eddie Wagner" cover.
* BattleCouple: He and Olivia's TemporarySubstitute, Dani Beck, were a couple for a while.
* BeardOfEvil: He has a beard as part of his "Eddie Wagner" cover. He shaves it off once he dismantles the Kosta family.
* BigNO: He says this as he fails to [[spoiler:stop Angela from driving off a cliff]].
* BlackAndWhiteMorality:
** Deconstructed in "Nocturne". He finds out that the victim (who was molested by his piano teacher) had molested a young boy himself at his piano teacher's insistence. He knows he's a victim, but he pretty much wants to kill him at this point (for [[IHaveAFamily obvious]] [[PapaWolf reasons]]). This wasn't always the case though, see below.
** A minor example is the fact that bipolar disorder runs in his side of the family. In the episode "Turmoil", he nearly strangles his son Dickie when he answers his question, "Have you lost your mind?", with, "I'm not the first Stabler to do so, am I?".
* BlackAndGreyMorality: In the first episode of the second season, after the season one finale reveals that he fantasizes about killing perpetrators, he talks to a shrink about it and the current case, where he admits to doing it again, but the suspect is a 16 year old kid who had spent half his life being raped by his foster dad, and was an honor student who also helped mentally handicapped children play soccer. This troubled Elliot deeply. Later, he also had a case where he spent most of the day trying to get a guy to admit he raped and killed a woman. He was in the middle of berating him for also stabbing women with pins, when Oliva comes in and tells Elliot that the suspect was molested by his mother for years. He then switches to comforting him.
* BrooklynRage: From New York and has a [[HotBlooded passionate drive]] and a [[HairTriggerTemper rabid temper.]]
* BrokenPedestal: Dick Finley, who he named his son after.
* TheBusCameBack: After his departure following the Season 12 finale, Elliot is slated to return in Season 22 as a SequelHook for his SpinOff show.
* CharacterizationMarchesOn: It's strange to see him in earlier seasons actually spending time with his kids (reading bedtime stories, playing soccer with his daughter) considering his interaction ([[ParentalAbandonment or lack thereof]]) with them in later seasons. Or how he was the calming influence to Olivia's hotheadedness.
* CharacterTics: He has a tendency to squint slightly when troubled, or when he's lying, [[LampshadeHanging something his mother catches on to very quickly.]]
* ChickMagnet: Throughout the series, Stabler has been on hit on by numerous women: Civilians, suspects, criminals, etc.
* CowboyCop or RabidCop: Depending on the episode.
* CrusadingWidower: His first major plotline in ''Organized Crime'' is finding the bastard who killed his wife.
* DadTheVeteran: A former member of the USMC during the birth of his first two children. He had three more following his official retirement from service after UsefulNotes/TheGulfWar.
* DefectiveDetective: A combination of marital problems and an increasingly over-stressed psyche really start to crack him up. Being forced to put down a deranged victim forces him into retirement.
* DivorceIsTemporary: He and Kathy split during Seasons 6-8.
* TheDreaded: When Benson is in a room with her kidnapper and she got the drop on him she mentions that if her old partner was with her that he'd beat the shit out of him. Direct reference to Stabler.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: His actor was credited as "Chris Meloni" throughout Season 1.
* ExaltedTorturer: SVU doesn't endorse his third-degree tactics, but damned if they don't heavily rely on them. And Stabler gets way more latitude for it from the brass than he really should.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:F-O]]
* FamilyMan: Elliot will do ANYTHING for his wife and children. To the point where he [[spoiler: nearly beats a man to death when he finds his younger daughter's picture on a pedophile group's child porn database.]]
* FamilyThemeNaming: With his children '''Eli'''zabeth and (obviously) Elliot, Jr.
* FatalFlaw: Elliot and his marital problems at home. Also his temper and tendency to resort to [[JackBauerInterrogationTechnique legally dubious tactics]] when chasing down criminals gets him into quite a few spots of trouble, even among his squadmates.
* FreudianExcuse: His personality is implied to be as a result of his [[AbusiveParents father's]] upbringing [[spoiler:as well as his [[MissingMom mother]] [[ParentalAbandonment abandoning both of them]].]]
* HairTriggerTemper: Against pedophiles. But has been known numerous times to hand out beatdowns to plenty of criminals and even fellow officers for being [[JerkAss Jerkasses.]] This major problem often gets him into trouble and [[UnstoppableRage he can't really control himself when he's in this state]] and ends up with the victim of his wrath in a [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown bloody pulp.]]
* HeroicBSOD:
** Seemed to be coming closer and closer towards one [[spoiler:after Kathy got fed up, left him and took the kids with her.]]
** [[spoiler:Suffers one at the end of the twelfth season, and retires by the time the next one starts.]]
* HotBlooded: Stabler is most known for this trope as he is more than likely to get into plenty of fights and can barely hold on to his emotions when he gets angry unlike other detectives.
* {{Hypocrite}}: Expresses frustration and disgust with the "don't snitch" attitude he encounters on the streets, but he calls Internal Affairs "the rat squad" and holds them in contempt, even though he has done plenty to warrant being investigated and he himself had investigated fellow officers. When Internal Affairs wanted SVU to investigate an abused dead girl who may or may not have been accidentally killed by police, he and Olivia said they had "some nerve" asking for a favor after all the times they had investigated the squad, clearly forgetting that investigating child abuse is supposed to be their job. The only positive thing Elliot ever said about his father was "My father was no rat." Apparently, Elliot thought his father's refusal to testify against a crew of corrupt cops was a good thing.
* IHaveNoSon: Inverted. Elliot has mentally erased his childhood and parents to the point of breaking down crying in front of a therapist when he finally starts talking about an incident in which his father called him a failure, and he only goes to visit his mother when Kathleen [[spoiler:is in jail and needs proof that bipolar disorder runs in the family to get Kathleen treatment instead of jail time]].
* InsaneTrollLogic: Whenever he's interrogating someone and he runs out of questions he'll sarcastically say "You've got an answer for everything don't you?" or he'll turn to a third person and sarcastically say "The guy's got an answer for everything." It seems Stabler believes that having a satisfactory answer for all of a detective's questions is evidence that a person must be guilty of something.
* IronicName: He has a tendency to be both uncontrollable and unpredictable.
* JackBauerInterrogationTechnique: Is prone to tweaking suspects. In the episode "Pandora", he's working on apprehending a child pornographer in Prague. The US frowns upon roughing up suspects. [[IAmNotLeftHanded Prague is not in the US.]]
* KarmaHoudini: He has sent innocent people to prison, beaten confessions out of suspects, harassed and insulted people he knew were innocent because he just didn't like them, thrown childish temper tantrums in the squad room, and suffered zero consequences.
* KickTheSonOfABitch: You can't deny that a lot of the perps Stabler brutalizes have it coming. Considering their crimes it sometimes seems as if they get off easy.
* KnightTemplar: Some of the suspects he inflicted physical violence on turned out to be innocent. He also sent one innocent man to prison who, even after everyone realized he was innocent, has no way of ever getting out.
* LanternJawOfJustice: Courtesy of Christopher Meloni, who's got a chin to rival Jay Leno.
* LetMeAtHim: Stabler should probably be the ''TropeNamer''.
* ManlyFacialHair: Prior-service Marine-turned-NYPD detective. Even after he reveals himself as a cop to Reggie, he still keeps the beard (as he was still under cover).
* MeaningfulName: Back in Season 1, Stabler was this because he was the level-headed one and Benson was the hot-headed one.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: At the end of an episode dealing with an abusive parent, Stabler said he had this moment after hitting one of his daughters as a toddler over some spilled juice. [[spoiler:At the end of the episode "Smoked", this was exactly the look on his face after shooting a girl who shot the men responsible for her mother's death, plus an innocent bystander, causing him to retire.]]
* NeverTrustATrailer: His return and new spin-off are advertised with a voice-over of him saying "The world has changed and so have I." Within a few minutes of his return, he's forced his way into an interrogation he has no business being part of, and almost immediately tries to beat a confession out of the (innocent) suspect. In the second half of the crossover, his new superior calls him out on his crap and his response is "I was a damn good cop then, and I'm a damn good cop now." Clearly, he hasn't changed in the slightest.
* NobleBigotWithABadge: He's somewhat closed-minded about sexual orientation and transgender issues, although not hateful about it. Possible result of a Catholic upbringing.
* OnceDoneNeverForgotten: His admitting that he occasionally fantasizes about killing perps is almost always brought up when his ability to competently do his job is brought up.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:P-W]]
* PapaWolf: Bringing up his children in an argument is a surefire way to piss him off. Going after his family is a surefire way to get the snot beat out of you.
* ParentsAsPeople: Don't get us wrong - Stabler loves his kids. He is, however, far from a perfect parent, and he knows it.
* PlatonicLifePartners: With Olivia, until his departure. They are partners and very good friends. The closeness of their relationship sometimes causes friction with their colleagues, but never threatens Stabler's relationship with his wife and four [[spoiler:(later five)]] children. Their relationship does occasionally cause some marital friction. Kathy sometimes finds it difficult to deal with the fact that Elliot confides in Liv instead of her. There are also the unfortunate times when Liv has to be the go-between (when Elliot is undercover and unreachable, for example) and Kathy clearly objects to being kept out of the loop of her own husband's life. Still, it doesn't come up nearly as often as you'd expect and Elliott and Liv really are just friends. Kathy does seem to have accepted the relationship after [[spoiler:she gets back together with Elliott]], at one point referring to Liv jokingly as Elliott's "work wife."
* PutOnABus: Starting Season 13. Forced to shoot and kill a teenage girl to stop her from killing someone is pretty much enough for him to retire for nine years.
** [[spoiler:He returns in Season 22, joining the NYPD's Organized Crime Control Bureau as a lead-in to the SpinOff series ''Law & Order: Organized Crime''.]]
* QuipToBlack: Tied with Munch for these.
* RatedMForManly: Though in this case, [[MrFanservice it's more for the benefit of the viewing ladies.]]
* RedOniBlueOni: He is the Red to Benson's Blue.
* ReasonYouSuckSpeech: Gets a pretty scathing one from Fin after he dumps Fin's phone in "Cold":
-->'''Elliot''': Look, the situation got a little heated and I want to say I'm sorry about that.
-->'''Fin''': You're a bulldog, Stabler. Quick to assume, slow to admit when you're wrong. Makes for a good cop, but a lousy human being...
-->'''Olivia''': Fin, hear him out.
-->'''Fin''': Stay out of it, Liv. That being said, I know what it cost you.
-->'''Elliot''': Appreciate that.
-->'''Fin''': I'm not done. The problem is you will still be the same rat bastard tomorrow, and nothing you say will ever change that.
* SecretKeeper: He and Olivia are the only ones who knew about Alex only FakingTheDead and being in WitnessProtection. They kept their silence until the act was forced to be dropped over a year later.
* SemperFi: Served as a Marine during [[UsefulNotes/TheGulfWar Desert Storm]] and has a Marine Corps tattoo on his arm. One suspect even refers to him as a "Jarhead cop."
* SexWithTheEx: He and Kathy have occasional hookups during their separation. Their youngest child Eli was a product of one of these.
* StrictlyProfessionalRelationship: He always works with a woman, usually Benson. Once he was partnered with a man. It didn't go so well. He was briefly romantically involved with Dani Beck while separated from his wife. He took it fairly hard when she quit. It's also implied that he may have slept with Jo Marlowe when they were partnered together.
* TallDarkAndSnarky: Not quite as tall as Munch, but just as snarky.
* TemporaryBlindness: Goes blind for an episode in "[[MeaningfulName Blinded]]".
* TookALevelInKindness: {{Downplayed|Trope}}. Losing Kathy left him solemn and morose, but it also made him more caring about his remaining family and the people close to him, as well as more open about his feelings. He ''still'' has a temper and ''could'' go off the handle if pushed far enough, but such incidents are much rarer now, helped by the changing political climate making his actions while part of SVU no longer acceptable and blatant police brutality, forcing him to keep his temper in control even when people push him.
* {{Transplant}}: He is set to return as the lead star of ''Law & Order: Organized Crime''.
* {{Tuckerization}}: Named after the series creator's son.
* UltimateJobSecurity: Despite an entire career of ignoring warnings and orders given by Cragen, beating suspects, acting abrasive to detectives and attorneys he's assigned to work with, and using outright torture to extract confessions in investigations, Stabler is never fired. He only leaves the show when he chooses to resign.
* UsedToBeASweetKid: As his mother stated.
* WaistcoatOfStyle: He sports one while at OCCB, something he never wore while he was in SVU. Sometimes it's as part of a three-piece suit, others it's with five-pockets as part of a casual outfit.
* WhatTheHellHero: Has been on the receiving end on quite a few of these.
[[/folder]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/stabler_elliot_1237.jpg]]
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' | ''Series/LawAndOrder'' | ''Series/LawAndOrderTrialByJury'' | ''Series/LawAndOrderOrganizedCrime''
!!!'''Played By:''' Creator/ChristopherMeloni
A senior detective in Manhattan's 16th Precinct, also known as the Special Victims Unit, which investigates sex crimes. He is one of the original members of the squad. A former Marine and a dedicated detective, he has a 97 percent closure rate, but his dedication can turn to obsession and cause him to take cases personally. His dedication to the job also makes him the target for several IAB investigations during the course of his 12-year career at SVU.
Ten years after his initial and abrupt retirement from the force, Elliot returns to the job after the murder of his wife, Kathy, and joins the Organized Crime Control Bureau to dismantle every single crime family in the city while also seeking justice for his late wife.
----
[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder:A-E]]
* AbusiveParents: His father was physically and emotionally abusive. His mother had untreated bipolar disorder, and although never intentionally caused harm to her son, inadvertently caused him physical injury and emotional distress during his episodes, particularly during points of mania.
* ActionDad: To five kids.
* AllCrimesAreEqual: When a group of teenagers threw a party with alcohol and a girl drank too much until she choked on her own vomit, Stabler went after the teenagers with the same zeal with which he goes after murderers, rapists, and pedophiles, and was outraged when the judge didn't throw the book at them. Stabler can be expected to lose his perspective (he has very little to begin with) whenever a victim is even remotely similar to his daughter.
* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: Inverted. Stabler is overzealous, tempermental, and has no regard for constitutional rights. He is frequently temporarily partnered with cops who are even worse. Sometimes it seems as if Stabler learns his lesson from working with them, but it [[AesopAmnesia never sticks]].
* AntiHero: Though fundamentally good and wishing to protect the public and catch criminals, he bends the law to get it done, frequently brutalizes suspects, and is very bigoted and close-minded on sexuality issues.
* BadassBiker: Rescues a trafficking victim by chasing her captor on a bike. You can take Elliot out of SVU, but you can't take SVU out of Elliot.
* BadassInDistress: A couple of times; the most prominent being when Dale captures him and begins to torture him in 'Zebras'.
* BadassLongcoat: In winter episodes.
* BaldOfEvil: He sports one as part of his "Eddie Wagner" cover.
* BattleCouple: He and Olivia's TemporarySubstitute, Dani Beck, were a couple for a while.
* BeardOfEvil: He has a beard as part of his "Eddie Wagner" cover. He shaves it off once he dismantles the Kosta family.
* BigNO: He says this as he fails to [[spoiler:stop Angela from driving off a cliff]].
* BlackAndWhiteMorality:
** Deconstructed in "Nocturne". He finds out that the victim (who was molested by his piano teacher) had molested a young boy himself at his piano teacher's insistence. He knows he's a victim, but he pretty much wants to kill him at this point (for [[IHaveAFamily obvious]] [[PapaWolf reasons]]). This wasn't always the case though, see below.
** A minor example is the fact that bipolar disorder runs in his side of the family. In the episode "Turmoil", he nearly strangles his son Dickie when he answers his question, "Have you lost your mind?", with, "I'm not the first Stabler to do so, am I?".
* BlackAndGreyMorality: In the first episode of the second season, after the season one finale reveals that he fantasizes about killing perpetrators, he talks to a shrink about it and the current case, where he admits to doing it again, but the suspect is a 16 year old kid who had spent half his life being raped by his foster dad, and was an honor student who also helped mentally handicapped children play soccer. This troubled Elliot deeply. Later, he also had a case where he spent most of the day trying to get a guy to admit he raped and killed a woman. He was in the middle of berating him for also stabbing women with pins, when Oliva comes in and tells Elliot that the suspect was molested by his mother for years. He then switches to comforting him.
* BrooklynRage: From New York and has a [[HotBlooded passionate drive]] and a [[HairTriggerTemper rabid temper.]]
* BrokenPedestal: Dick Finley, who he named his son after.
* TheBusCameBack: After his departure following the Season 12 finale, Elliot is slated to return in Season 22 as a SequelHook for his SpinOff show.
* CharacterizationMarchesOn: It's strange to see him in earlier seasons actually spending time with his kids (reading bedtime stories, playing soccer with his daughter) considering his interaction ([[ParentalAbandonment or lack thereof]]) with them in later seasons. Or how he was the calming influence to Olivia's hotheadedness.
* CharacterTics: He has a tendency to squint slightly when troubled, or when he's lying, [[LampshadeHanging something his mother catches on to very quickly.]]
* ChickMagnet: Throughout the series, Stabler has been on hit on by numerous women: Civilians, suspects, criminals, etc.
* CowboyCop or RabidCop: Depending on the episode.
* CrusadingWidower: His first major plotline in ''Organized Crime'' is finding the bastard who killed his wife.
* DadTheVeteran: A former member of the USMC during the birth of his first two children. He had three more following his official retirement from service after UsefulNotes/TheGulfWar.
* DefectiveDetective: A combination of marital problems and an increasingly over-stressed psyche really start to crack him up. Being forced to put down a deranged victim forces him into retirement.
* DivorceIsTemporary: He and Kathy split during Seasons 6-8.
* TheDreaded: When Benson is in a room with her kidnapper and she got the drop on him she mentions that if her old partner was with her that he'd beat the shit out of him. Direct reference to Stabler.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: His actor was credited as "Chris Meloni" throughout Season 1.
* ExaltedTorturer: SVU doesn't endorse his third-degree tactics, but damned if they don't heavily rely on them. And Stabler gets way more latitude for it from the brass than he really should.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:F-O]]
* FamilyMan: Elliot will do ANYTHING for his wife and children. To the point where he [[spoiler: nearly beats a man to death when he finds his younger daughter's picture on a pedophile group's child porn database.]]
* FamilyThemeNaming: With his children '''Eli'''zabeth and (obviously) Elliot, Jr.
* FatalFlaw: Elliot and his marital problems at home. Also his temper and tendency to resort to [[JackBauerInterrogationTechnique legally dubious tactics]] when chasing down criminals gets him into quite a few spots of trouble, even among his squadmates.
* FreudianExcuse: His personality is implied to be as a result of his [[AbusiveParents father's]] upbringing [[spoiler:as well as his [[MissingMom mother]] [[ParentalAbandonment abandoning both of them]].]]
* HairTriggerTemper: Against pedophiles. But has been known numerous times to hand out beatdowns to plenty of criminals and even fellow officers for being [[JerkAss Jerkasses.]] This major problem often gets him into trouble and [[UnstoppableRage he can't really control himself when he's in this state]] and ends up with the victim of his wrath in a [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown bloody pulp.]]
* HeroicBSOD:
** Seemed to be coming closer and closer towards one [[spoiler:after Kathy got fed up, left him and took the kids with her.]]
** [[spoiler:Suffers one at the end of the twelfth season, and retires by the time the next one starts.]]
* HotBlooded: Stabler is most known for this trope as he is more than likely to get into plenty of fights and can barely hold on to his emotions when he gets angry unlike other detectives.
* {{Hypocrite}}: Expresses frustration and disgust with the "don't snitch" attitude he encounters on the streets, but he calls Internal Affairs "the rat squad" and holds them in contempt, even though he has done plenty to warrant being investigated and he himself had investigated fellow officers. When Internal Affairs wanted SVU to investigate an abused dead girl who may or may not have been accidentally killed by police, he and Olivia said they had "some nerve" asking for a favor after all the times they had investigated the squad, clearly forgetting that investigating child abuse is supposed to be their job. The only positive thing Elliot ever said about his father was "My father was no rat." Apparently, Elliot thought his father's refusal to testify against a crew of corrupt cops was a good thing.
* IHaveNoSon: Inverted. Elliot has mentally erased his childhood and parents to the point of breaking down crying in front of a therapist when he finally starts talking about an incident in which his father called him a failure, and he only goes to visit his mother when Kathleen [[spoiler:is in jail and needs proof that bipolar disorder runs in the family to get Kathleen treatment instead of jail time]].
* InsaneTrollLogic: Whenever he's interrogating someone and he runs out of questions he'll sarcastically say "You've got an answer for everything don't you?" or he'll turn to a third person and sarcastically say "The guy's got an answer for everything." It seems Stabler believes that having a satisfactory answer for all of a detective's questions is evidence that a person must be guilty of something.
* IronicName: He has a tendency to be both uncontrollable and unpredictable.
* JackBauerInterrogationTechnique: Is prone to tweaking suspects. In the episode "Pandora", he's working on apprehending a child pornographer in Prague. The US frowns upon roughing up suspects. [[IAmNotLeftHanded Prague is not in the US.]]
* KarmaHoudini: He has sent innocent people to prison, beaten confessions out of suspects, harassed and insulted people he knew were innocent because he just didn't like them, thrown childish temper tantrums in the squad room, and suffered zero consequences.
* KickTheSonOfABitch: You can't deny that a lot of the perps Stabler brutalizes have it coming. Considering their crimes it sometimes seems as if they get off easy.
* KnightTemplar: Some of the suspects he inflicted physical violence on turned out to be innocent. He also sent one innocent man to prison who, even after everyone realized he was innocent, has no way of ever getting out.
* LanternJawOfJustice: Courtesy of Christopher Meloni, who's got a chin to rival Jay Leno.
* LetMeAtHim: Stabler should probably be the ''TropeNamer''.
* ManlyFacialHair: Prior-service Marine-turned-NYPD detective. Even after he reveals himself as a cop to Reggie, he still keeps the beard (as he was still under cover).
* MeaningfulName: Back in Season 1, Stabler was this because he was the level-headed one and Benson was the hot-headed one.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: At the end of an episode dealing with an abusive parent, Stabler said he had this moment after hitting one of his daughters as a toddler over some spilled juice. [[spoiler:At the end of the episode "Smoked", this was exactly the look on his face after shooting a girl who shot the men responsible for her mother's death, plus an innocent bystander, causing him to retire.]]
* NeverTrustATrailer: His return and new spin-off are advertised with a voice-over of him saying "The world has changed and so have I." Within a few minutes of his return, he's forced his way into an interrogation he has no business being part of, and almost immediately tries to beat a confession out of the (innocent) suspect. In the second half of the crossover, his new superior calls him out on his crap and his response is "I was a damn good cop then, and I'm a damn good cop now." Clearly, he hasn't changed in the slightest.
* NobleBigotWithABadge: He's somewhat closed-minded about sexual orientation and transgender issues, although not hateful about it. Possible result of a Catholic upbringing.
* OnceDoneNeverForgotten: His admitting that he occasionally fantasizes about killing perps is almost always brought up when his ability to competently do his job is brought up.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:P-W]]
* PapaWolf: Bringing up his children in an argument is a surefire way to piss him off. Going after his family is a surefire way to get the snot beat out of you.
* ParentsAsPeople: Don't get us wrong - Stabler loves his kids. He is, however, far from a perfect parent, and he knows it.
* PlatonicLifePartners: With Olivia, until his departure. They are partners and very good friends. The closeness of their relationship sometimes causes friction with their colleagues, but never threatens Stabler's relationship with his wife and four [[spoiler:(later five)]] children. Their relationship does occasionally cause some marital friction. Kathy sometimes finds it difficult to deal with the fact that Elliot confides in Liv instead of her. There are also the unfortunate times when Liv has to be the go-between (when Elliot is undercover and unreachable, for example) and Kathy clearly objects to being kept out of the loop of her own husband's life. Still, it doesn't come up nearly as often as you'd expect and Elliott and Liv really are just friends. Kathy does seem to have accepted the relationship after [[spoiler:she gets back together with Elliott]], at one point referring to Liv jokingly as Elliott's "work wife."
* PutOnABus: Starting Season 13. Forced to shoot and kill a teenage girl to stop her from killing someone is pretty much enough for him to retire for nine years.
** [[spoiler:He returns in Season 22, joining the NYPD's Organized Crime Control Bureau as a lead-in to the SpinOff series ''Law & Order: Organized Crime''.]]
* QuipToBlack: Tied with Munch for these.
* RatedMForManly: Though in this case, [[MrFanservice it's more for the benefit of the viewing ladies.]]
* RedOniBlueOni: He is the Red to Benson's Blue.
* ReasonYouSuckSpeech: Gets a pretty scathing one from Fin after he dumps Fin's phone in "Cold":
-->'''Elliot''': Look, the situation got a little heated and I want to say I'm sorry about that.
-->'''Fin''': You're a bulldog, Stabler. Quick to assume, slow to admit when you're wrong. Makes for a good cop, but a lousy human being...
-->'''Olivia''': Fin, hear him out.
-->'''Fin''': Stay out of it, Liv. That being said, I know what it cost you.
-->'''Elliot''': Appreciate that.
-->'''Fin''': I'm not done. The problem is you will still be the same rat bastard tomorrow, and nothing you say will ever change that.
* SecretKeeper: He and Olivia are the only ones who knew about Alex only FakingTheDead and being in WitnessProtection. They kept their silence until the act was forced to be dropped over a year later.
* SemperFi: Served as a Marine during [[UsefulNotes/TheGulfWar Desert Storm]] and has a Marine Corps tattoo on his arm. One suspect even refers to him as a "Jarhead cop."
* SexWithTheEx: He and Kathy have occasional hookups during their separation. Their youngest child Eli was a product of one of these.
* StrictlyProfessionalRelationship: He always works with a woman, usually Benson. Once he was partnered with a man. It didn't go so well. He was briefly romantically involved with Dani Beck while separated from his wife. He took it fairly hard when she quit. It's also implied that he may have slept with Jo Marlowe when they were partnered together.
* TallDarkAndSnarky: Not quite as tall as Munch, but just as snarky.
* TemporaryBlindness: Goes blind for an episode in "[[MeaningfulName Blinded]]".
* TookALevelInKindness: {{Downplayed|Trope}}. Losing Kathy left him solemn and morose, but it also made him more caring about his remaining family and the people close to him, as well as more open about his feelings. He ''still'' has a temper and ''could'' go off the handle if pushed far enough, but such incidents are much rarer now, helped by the changing political climate making his actions while part of SVU no longer acceptable and blatant police brutality, forcing him to keep his temper in control even when people push him.
* {{Transplant}}: He is set to return as the lead star of ''Law & Order: Organized Crime''.
* {{Tuckerization}}: Named after the series creator's son.
* UltimateJobSecurity: Despite an entire career of ignoring warnings and orders given by Cragen, beating suspects, acting abrasive to detectives and attorneys he's assigned to work with, and using outright torture to extract confessions in investigations, Stabler is never fired. He only leaves the show when he chooses to resign.
* UsedToBeASweetKid: As his mother stated.
* WaistcoatOfStyle: He sports one while at OCCB, something he never wore while he was in SVU. Sometimes it's as part of a three-piece suit, others it's with five-pockets as part of a casual outfit.
* WhatTheHellHero: Has been on the receiving end on quite a few of these.
[[/folder]]
