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Protagonists
Alex Rider
- Break the Cutie: Poor Alex. Alex wasn’t a happy kid by any means by Scorpia Rising, but he’s much more broken by the start of this series.
- Child Prodigy: Subverted. Alex was before the start of the series, but this series explores the consequences of being a child prodigy. Namely, the immense pressure and shaky sense of self that Alex developed due to Ian’s intense training as a child.
- The Conscience: To Yassen. He convinces Yassen to not kill witnesses and even agents.
- Guilt Complex: Alex tends to see everything as his fault at the beginning, believing he’s being punished for his bad deeds. Justified, that if you killed a man because you were high on drugs and being poisoned so you were hallucinating, you’d feel pretty guilty. Later, he feels guilty because he thinks he’s a burden for Yassen. This is understandable, given Alex’s attachment issues and the fact that he felt like his uncle’s love was based on Alex’s usefulness.
- Heal the Cutie: Yassen does his best to give Alex this. While Alex will have to live with many of his conditions the rest of his life, by the end, he’s improved significantly.
- Important Haircut: More like lack thereof. Alex’s hair was forcibly cut by a villain in Crocodile Tears. On top of being humiliating, it probably also represented how little control Alex had of his life. In the series, Alex is not able to cut his hair, continuously growing it, even though he knows it’s irrational to get so upset about cutting hair. It probably subconsciously represents his body autonomy to him. Given MI6 essentially poisoned him to prevent him from growing, making him look like a little kid, it’s not surprising the only thing he has control over is a sticking point for him.
- It Sucks to Be the Chosen One: Played With. Alex’s saved the world (or large swaths of people) many times, but the work has left him severely traumatized and has given him serious self-esteem issues. However, while his employers’ claimed over and over that he was the only one who could do the jobs, as Yassen points out, it’s highly unlikely that his work couldn’t have been done by adults. Alex was really more an exploited child than a true Chosen One.
- Kindhearted Cat Lover: Alex adores Phyllis. The way Alex treats animals in general serves as a way to show how empathetic Alex is.
- Living Emotional Crutch: Yassen is Alex’s. In prison, Yassen is the best at handling Alex’s episodes, and keeping Alex functional, if not stable. As time goes on, the relationship develops from this to being Alex’s parent.
- The Load: Alex is terrified he’s this to Yassen. However, he begins to understand that Yassen likes solving Alex’s problems. Yassen does not see Alex as a burden because he cares about Alex. Additionally, in combat situations, Alex is actually pretty helpful to Yassen.
- Morality Chain: Alex serves as this to Yassen. Alex prevents Yassen from killing people multiple times. As time goes on, Yassen starts to connect with others based on Alex’s influence.
- Trauma Conga Line: The books have this in spades. This series plays with the trope, because it explores the psychological consequences of going through this.
- Un-person: MI-6 has done this to Alex, removing evidence he existed and his presence on social media. This is extremely upsetting to him, as social media was one of the only places he had pictures of Jack.
- You Can't Go Home Again: Alex no longer can go back to live in his house in London. Given Jack is dead, he both emotionally can’t go home again as well as physically can’t live there again as he’s a minor. Later, Alex and Yassen can’t go back to the UK because they’re fugitives and going home would put him in the MI-6’s clutches. The third book is about Alex and Yassen building a new home life elsewhere. At the end, Ian reveals he’s alive, so Alex does have the option to go “home.” However, he realized Ian was never his home, and he continues to live with Yassen.
Yassen Gregorovich
- Anti-Hero: Yassen might be a remorseless killer, but he’s the only person who is willing and able to save Alex from the MI-6’s abuse. Yassen is also a very positive influence on Alex.
- Chick Magnet: As Alex says: “Almost every waitress we’ve had under the age of fifty has tried to hit on you. Some of the men, too.” Too bad for them that Yassen’s not interested.
- Defrosting Ice King: Yassen starts as very stoic. He initially helps Alex due to empathy about Alex’s situation but still doesn’t seem to value others besides Alex at all. Through his growing attachment to Alex, he slowly learns how to act as a parent and cares about Alex like a parent would. Through Alex’s attachment to allies, he starts to appreciate the value of others, such as Briar. Eventually, he even becomes close friends again with his childhood friend, Dima.
- The Determinator: Yassen will do anything to keep Alex out of their enemies clutches, from fighting to not sleeping for days to constantly traveling, he’s nearly unstoppable.
- Genius Bruiser: Yassen might not be physically huge, but he’s definitely the muscle, able to fight his way out of practically anything. He also has excellent tactical skills and has extensive knowledge of transportation, weapons, and politics.
- Genocide Survivor: While it probably could be more described as democide than genocide, Yassen definitely has shades of this, given he’s one of the only survivors of his town. Yassen seemed pretty adjusted pre-democide from the few memories we see. Current Yassen, pre-Character Development, is emotionally “shut-down”, as Briar describes it. This was likely his response to the trauma. Very rarely will Yassen have a freakout, such as when he heard he had a living relative who wanted to contact him.
- Hitman with a Heart: Yassen, of course, considering he’s an ex-assassin who is the person saves Alex.
- Living Legend: Yassen is this to the intelligence community. For example, Ash described Yassen as a force of nature. When Alex sees Yassen in action on the cruise ship, he discovers how accurate this is.
- Nerves of Steel: Yassen never loses his cool in a tense situation, remaining completely flat.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Helping Alex sure brought a heap of trouble on Yassen’s head. Nonetheless, Yassen seems happier than he was in prison.
- One-Man Army: The CIA, the MI6, SCORPIA, and the SVR can throw as much resources as they’d like at extracting Yassen. He’ll only be caught if he’s in the mood. But don’t expect him to stick around.
- Papa Wolf: Mess with Alex and Yassen will end you. Alex amusingly decides Yassen is his “Mum” due to how protective (and naggy) he is. Of course, he’s being flippant, as it’s clear Yassen is much more of a father figure than Ian ever was.
- Pragmatic Hero: With Alex’s influence, Yassen begins to slide into this territory.
- Seen It All: Part of what makes him so effective at evading both SCORPIA and agencies is his extensive experience in the field and their internal politics. Very little they do ever surprises him.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: Yassen has some aspects of this, but he also is somewhat a subversion. Sure, he’s had fifteen years in a business that can’t be good for you psychologically. He is emotionally flat and is willing to do what’s necessary for their survival. However, his wariness is usually pretty reasonable for the situation, and he’s very functional. It doesn’t seem like Yassen even registers that trauma from his past affected him emotionally and, he’d certainly never be caught dead with an Thousand-Yard Stare. To be fair, his involvement in SCORPIA probably pales in comparison to some events in his past, though John’s possible grooming probably did not help Yassen grow emotionally.
- Sociopathic Hero: Yassen counts to some degree. He is able to kill with no remorse, but he’s dedicated to helping Alex. However, as Briar says, he’s not really a sociopath, but emotionally flat.
- Un-person: This was an asset to Yassen while he was an assassin. He’s not sure how he feels about this being undone.
- Unscrupulous Hero: While Yassen started as an Anti-Villain and a Nominal Hero, he becomes this as he begins to care about saving Alex. As time progresses, he starts to move toward Pragmatic Hero.
Others
Briar Wood
- Audience Surrogate: She definitely says things that the audience is thinking, like when she tells Yassen she’d love hear details of his Romantic Manipulation training. Us too, Briar, us too.
- Brutal Honesty: Seems to say whatever she’s thinking.
- Nice Girl: Besides that one incident, seems pretty reasonable, and is overall quite nice and helpful to Alex.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Briar’s much more competent than what others think of her. She clearly understands Alex the best, and is good at coming up with strategies for managing his various disorders. Her biggest problem at the prison was her initial apathy, and she uses this to her advantage when she betrays her employers to help Alex.
Derek Smithers
- Ascended Extra: While Smithers gadgets always made a big difference in the books, he wasn’t as actively involved in the plot as he is here. Here, in Malaise, he shares vital information that MI6 is poisoning Alex. In Dysthymia, he helps broker the deal with the Russians.
- Sacrificial Lion: Subverted, as he did risk his life for Alex, but luckily seems skilled enough to stay on the run.
Dimitry Nikulov (Dima)
- Good Parents: Loves Lada for who she is. This is a marked difference to any of the other adults in her family.
