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Stackhouse Family

    Sookie 

Sookie Stackhouse

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/stackhouse_sookie_7910.jpg
"I didn't have any say about being normal. We're born the way we are."
Played By: Anna Paquin

"I'm a fairy? How fucking lame!"

A telepathic waitress in a small-town restaurant and the protagonist of the series. Because of her ability, she has difficulty forming lasting human relationships. She becomes involved in a romantic relationship with a vampire, Bill, upon discovering that she can't read his mind. This relationship with a supernatural being causes controversy amongst the residents of her small town. Through Bill, she finds herself entering a world of creatures and supernatural conflict that surpasses even her worst nightmares.

Tropes

  • Action Girl: For all the trouble she gets into, she's still managed to:
    • Stake Lorena.
    • Decapitate a Serial Killer with a shovel.
    • Shoot a werewolf with a shotgun. Twice. Only the second time, it was Debbie and she shot her head clean off.
    • Stake a vampire with chopsticks.
    • Stake Bill when he's about to kill Eric. It doesn't work, due to him being possessed by the progenitor of the vampire race, but still.
  • Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: In the books, Sookie and Jason have a strained relationship, thanks in part to Jason being a Jerkass and barely being supportive of his sister. It gets bad enough that she ends up refusing to speak to him again at one point. In the show, while their relationship starts out bad in season 1, it does improve in the later seasons, and Jason is genuinely more supportive and more loving towards his sister.
  • Alien Blood: Sookie's blood might fit due to her being part-fairy.
  • The Alleged Car: Sookie has a spectacularly hideous yellow Honda Civic that's older than she is.
  • All Girls Want Bad Boys: Her love interests are Bill and Eric. Sam never was.
    • Alcide isn't, at least not until a drunken Sookie starts coming onto him in "We'll Meet Again".
    • In season 6, she finally admits to Warlow (and herself) that she's a 'danger whore' when it comes to men, right before they drink each other's blood and have sex.
  • All of the Other Reindeer: Sookie becomes a pariah a couple of times throughout the series and to top it all off she can hear the whole town's feelings.
  • Alliterative Name: Sookie Stackhouse.
  • Anguished Declaration of Love: With both Bill and Eric.
  • Awful Truth: See Offing the Offspring below.
  • Belligerent Sexual Tension: With Eric oh so much.
  • Berserk Button: Hurt anyone of Sookie's loved ones, especially her brother Jason, and watch Sookie explode.
    • Sookie doesn't like people talking trash about her to her brother. Just… don't.
  • Betty and Veronica: Sookie is the Archie for Bill's Betty and Eric's Veronica.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Piss her off, and she puts on her badass gloves.
  • Blessed with Suck: Due to being part fairy, one of her abilities is the ability to read minds or hear what others are thinking, even when she doesn't want to.
  • Brainless Beauty: Only appeared to be this in the beginning (she was practising Obfuscating Stupidity to mask her mind-reading powers).
  • Break the Cutie: It's easy to forget Sookie started out as a cheerful, open-minded virgin who lived happily with her grandmother and her cat.
  • Brother–Sister Team: Sookie and Jason develop this relationship over time. Jason comes to her aid against the Fellowship of the Sun in season 2, and they later team up in season 4 to rescue Tara from Moon Goddess Emporium. They also act as one another's support when things get tough, such as Sookie comforting Jason when he was worried about turning into a werepanther in season 4, or Jason comforting Sookie over the revelation in season 5 that Warlow is after her.
  • Dude Magnet: At least of a supernatural kind. It's one of her powers.
  • Dumb Blonde: Averted. Sookie is not particularly dumb but she did come off this way in the beginning.
  • Even the Girls Want Her: Judging by Pam's words.
  • Evil Laugh: Gives a pretty terrifying one when she flushes Talbot's remains down Fangtasia's garbage disposal.
  • The Fair Folk: Taken to a strange level, Sookie is Half-Fae and thus only has half their powers. In a sense she also has their mood swings, connection to nature, and the fae-realms.
    • She also seems to have some of their legendary Lack of Empathy. Notably, she is extremely indifferent to the things her supernatural friends and boyfriends have done and continue to do except to the extent that they affect her, her family or people she is close to.
  • Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Sookie is the Responsible Sibling to Jason's Foolish Sibling.
  • Genre Savvy: Seems to have hit this in season 5.
    Sookie: "It's not gonna change. You say goodbye and the next thing, you guys are back in my house and a three thousand year old vampire wants to suck my blood. Must be Thursday!"
    and
    Sookie: "First of all, I've seen enough horror movies to know you don't split up when you're in a big, scary asylum and there's a crazed killer on the loose. Second, I think it's fair to say my microwave fingers and the sun are about the only things around here that seem to have any effect on Russell. So the way I see it, it's me protecting you from him, instead of the other way around. Third, I got a headache, I gotta pee something fierce, so I'd just as soon get this over with."
  • Girl Next Door: Starts off as this archetype. She's a pretty, somewhat naive virgin in her mid-20s who lives with her grandmother and works as a waitress at a local bar, where her boss has an unrequited crush on her.
  • Good Is Not Soft: Sookie is generally a kind and caring person towards others, but DO NOT get on her bad side in any way.
  • Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Sookie's usual method of swearing, especially in early seasons. When she lets loose an F-bomb, you know shit just got real.
  • Half-Human Hybrid: She's part fairy.
  • The Protagonist: Sookie is the main character of the show.
  • Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Tara. They have been best friends since childhood.
  • Hot-Blooded: She definitely has a temper.
  • I Can Change My Beloved: In regards to both Bill and Eric.
  • I Just Want to Be Normal: She often gets tired of dealing with supernatural danger and drama. After the showdown with RenĂ© she's left with bruises, a shiner and a hoarse voice from being choked nearly to death, but she doesn't take Bill's regenerating blood because she just wants to feel human. She also often wishes she could turn off her mind-reading.
  • Immune to Mind Control: Vampire glamouring doesn't work on Sookie.
  • Interspecies Romance: With both Bill and Eric. Sookie is a human/fairy and Bill and Eric are both vampires.
  • Mayfly–December Romance: With both Eric and Bill. Bill is over a century older than Sookie and Eric is 900+ years older than Sookie. And with Warlow, who is canonically the oldest vampire on the show, having been turned in 3500 BC.
  • A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Read: Poor Sookie often views her unique attribute as a curse.
  • Morality Pet: Sookie is one of the few people that Jason’s Fetishized Abuser girlfriend Violet makes an effort to be kind and helpful toward in seasons 6 and 7 (especially when she’s upset about Bill and is in danger from Warlow). Notably, Violet never tries to go after Sookie to get at Jason after going Woman Scorned on him in spite of her willingness to target other innocent people to hurt Jason.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Gets quite a few nude scenes, especially around the middle of the series.
  • New Powers as the Plot Demands: The aforementioned force-field powers.
  • Nice Girl: Kind and tolerant of almost everyone until they give her a reason to dislike them. It's also very rare to hear her curse.
  • Official Couple: With Bill until season 3 finale.
    • Then with Alcide at the end of season 6 after he comes back to his senses.
  • Offing the Offspring: Halfway through season 6, she discovers that her parents were going to kill her on the night they were murdered by Warlow. The reason they did this was so he wouldn't turn her into a vampire once she came of age, but still...
  • Parental Abandonment: Both of Sookie's parents died when she was younger.
  • Pay Evil unto Evil: Was flushing Talbot's remains down the sink and forcing Russell to watch incredibly cruel? Yes. Can anyone really fault her for it after all the torment she and her loved ones had gone through at Russell's hands? Probably not.
  • The Protagonist: Sookie is the main character of True Blood.
  • Seen It All: By season 5, she has so much supernatural stuff in and out of Bon Temps.
  • Spotting the Thread: She becomes suspicious of Maryann when she first hears her thoughts - which are in Greek. She asks the latter where she's from, claiming she can't place her accent. Maryann claims she's from New Jersey, which makes Sookie even MORE suspicious.
  • Starcrossed Lovers: With Eric. - Alan Ball stated “of course they're going to come together, it's fated!"
  • Too Dumb to Live: Let's face it, Sookie's habit of charging headlong into danger would have resulted in her death several times over if she didn't have superpowered vampires and werewolves looking out for her.
  • Took a Level in Badass: She goes from needing Bill to rescue her from a couple junkies to staking vampires.
  • Trauma Conga Line: After four years the pattern is proven: Sookie gets beaten to a pulp, mauled by a bullmonster with giant claws, almost drained to the last drop and shot in the stomach. No season can pass without Sookie almost getting killed off in some horrible way.
  • Vampire-Werewolf Love Triangle: In the beginning, with Bill and Sam (not werewolf, but close enough). More recently it's developed to...

    Jason 

Jason Stackhouse

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/stackhouse_jason_4513.jpg
"Never really thought I was smart enough to get depressed."
Played By: Ryan Kwanten

"We gotta fix things, Andy. I ain't lettin' weird shit take over my town!"

Sookie's not-too-bright brother, who is vigilant in defending and protecting Sookie. He supervises a road crew during the day, and is known for bedding the women of Bon Temps at night.

Tropes

  • The Ace: Considering how good he is with a gun, he definitely qualifies for this.
  • Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: In the books, Sookie and Jason have a strained relationship, thanks in part to Jason being a Jerkass and barely being supportive of his sister. It gets bad enough that she ends up refusing to speak to him again at one point. In the show, while their relationship starts out bad in season 1, it does improve in the later seasons, and Jason is genuinely more supportive and more loving towards his sister.
  • Always Someone Better: To Luke, the fanatical Soldier of the Sun.
  • Amicable Exes: Becomes this to Jessica by the end of the show.
  • Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Despite the issues they sometimes have, and the way they start off in season 1, it's clear that Sookie and Jason care deeply for each other, and that Jason loves his sister. He has risked his life for her on several occasions, worked fiercely to protect her, and is overjoyed when Sookie returns from faerieland after missing her for a year.
  • Badass Normal: Niall points out that he has not inherited any special fae powers, and the royal fae bloodline skipped him. That being said, he's very athletic, very good with a gun, and is probably one of the few humans on the show to kill many vampires (all of whom were either Asshole Victims or were trying to kill him).
  • Berserk Button: DO NOT mess with his sister Sookie. He will fuck you up without hesitation.
  • Beware the Silly Ones: For all the jokes made about how stupid Jason is, this guy has no issue turning lethal if people he cares about are in danger. Franklin, Warlow, and plenty of other vampires find this out the hard way.
  • Big Brother Instinct: Towards Sookie, but also really to any woman, one of his better points.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Jason rescuing Sookie and Eric in 2.08, then again in 2.10, plays it straight.
    • Then subverted again when Jason and Andy try to go and kill Maryann only to make it barely through the crowd where both are almost immediately turned into zombies.
    • Jason arrives just in time to save Tara from Franklin. And it was awesome.
    • Jason risking his own life to save Jessica from walking out into the sun when Antonia cast her spell.
    • Jason and Niall successfully jump in at the last moment to save Sookie from Warlow.
  • Bound and Gagged: By Crystal Norris and later Steve Newlin and Violet.
  • Brainless Beauty: Jason is build like a regular Adonis, and his main traits are that he is kind of dimwitted and easy to manipulate.
  • Brother–Sister Team: Sookie and Jason develop this relationship over time. Jason comes to her aid against the Fellowship of the Sun in season 2, and they later team up in season 4 to rescue Tara from Moon Goddess Emporium. They also act as one another's support when things get tough, such as Sookie comforting Jason when he was worried about turning into a werepanther in season 4, or Jason comforting Sookie over the revelation in season 5 that Warlow is after her.
  • Blood Knight: After getting zapped by fairy magic, he becomes noticably enraged and is eager to kill the vampires at the Authority, especially after hearing that they bombed the True Blood factories and want to enslave humans. Although he does stop short of killing Eric, Nora, Tara, Jessica, and Pam.
  • Cartwright Curse: Every woman he had slept with onscreen in the first season died.
  • Clear My Name: Mistaken for Murderer in season 1.
  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Jason may be a fool at times, but whenever people he cares about are in danger, he'll stop at nothing to protect them, and you get to see a deadlier side to his character. It also helps that Jason's really good at shooting a gun (or improvising when the situation calls for it), and that many people underestimate Jason because they don't actually see him as a threat.
  • Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: In the first few seasons. He goes from joining the Church of the New Sun to wanting to be a cop.
  • Digging Yourself Deeper: When he admitted to Hoyt that he slept with Jessica (albeit after Jess and Hoyt broke up), Hoyt heartbreakingly asks, "How?" Jason, being Jason, responded by listing all the positions they had sex in. Hoyt promptly punches him in the face before clarifying what he meant.
  • The Ditz: Alternates between this and Brainless Beauty.
  • Duct Tape for Everything: When glamored by Steve Newlin.
  • Fantastic Racism: Zig-Zagged. After getting mistakenly zapped by faerie power, he shows noticeable hatred towards vampires, killing several of the Authority guards out of anger (and because they were trying to kill him). That being said, he does stop short of killing his vampire allies, and he eventually snaps out of it and recognizes that his behavior wasn't okay (as seen when he's talking to Sookie about it in season 6). This eventually disappears during season 6 when he comes to rescue Jessica from the Vampire Concentration Camps, and is disgusted by what the humans are doing to the vampires there.
  • Fire-Forged Friends: With Andy. They initally hated each other, but bonded in season 2 while attempting to take down Maryann.
  • Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Jason is the foolish sibling to Sookie's responsible sibling. This gets played with occasionally: There are several instances when Sookie gets herself into dangerous situations and it's Jason who has to come and save her.
  • Half-Human Hybrid: Like Sookie, he has faerie ancestry, although it's not as strong in him. It does explain his ability to attract women with little effort. Word of God also claims this is one of the reasons he's able to aim well with a gun.
  • Heterosexual Life-Partners: Has been this with Hoyt for almost their whole lives. Until near the end of season 4, when Jason hooks up with Jessica, which makes Hoyt end their friendship. Near the end of season 5, Hoyt has Jessica glamour his memories of Jason and Jessica out of his mind permanently before going to Alaska, throwing away any chance of reconciliation.
    • Starts to develop this with Andy around season 2. While Jason and Andy initially dislike each other, they bond after saving Sam from Maryann's followers and attempting to take Maryann down. This continues to develop in later seasons with Andy getting Jason a job as a cop and Jason later attempting to support Andy when he's struggling with his V addiction. By the end of the show, they are close friends.
  • I Just Want to Be Special: He's actually disappointed when it turned out that he wouldn't turn into a werepanther after all, following his ordeal in Hotshot.
  • Iron Woobie: Jason really gets put through a lot of shit when you think about it: He loses his grandmother and girlfriend to a serial killer that he once considered a friend and gets blamed for it despite not having done it. He's indoctrinated into a cult, and almost gets killed because of it. He's led to believe his sister is dead for almost a year before she returns. He takes care of a werepanther tribe for a year, and he is repaid for it by getting gang-raped by Crystal and the other women of Hotshot. In the aftermath, he's left blaming himself for what happened to him, and gets no comfort or sympathy for it (Hoyt even makes an insenstive comparison between Jason's gang-rape and his girlfriend problems with Jessica). Then, we find out later that only was Jason raped by a teacher when he was a teenager, but his parents were killed by a vampire who wants Sookie all to himself. All through this, Jason is forced to suck it up and push through.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: While Jason has his instances when he isn't always nice, he demonstrates repeatedly that he cares for other people and wants to improve as a person. He works to protect Sookie, and even becomes supportive of her relationships with Bill, Eric, and Alcide as time goes on. He does risk his life on several occassions to protect the people he loves. At one point, he even looks after a whole werepanther tribe at the request of Crystal when he could have easily walked away at any point. He's also able to apologize when he messes up, which is more than can be said for other characters on this show who act like Jerkasses and barely acknowledge how awful their behavior was.
  • Knight in Sour Armor: Starts to fall into this as things constantly go wrong for him. He comes to believe he deserves to have bad things happen to him, and develops a more cynical attitue as a result. He's also reluctant to get involved with anything doing with vampires or the supernatural, but he will get involved if he needs to and steps up to protect others regardless of his feelings, with some examples including taking care of Crystal's werepanther tribe for a year when she disappeared, or working with Sookie, Lafayette, and Jesus to rescue Tara in season 4, or working to protect Sookie from Warlow. And these are only a few examples.
  • Ladykiller in Love: Spends a lot of time really getting around, but also spends a lot of time as this in committed relationships that are doomed with bad luck or bad judging of character. In the last couple of episodes, he meets Brigette and in the show's distant finale ends up marrying and fathering three children with her in a case of Last Girl Wins.
  • Laser-Guided Amnesia: Steve Newlin makes him forget they ever had their brief meeting in the first episode of season 5.
  • Mr. Fanservice: How many times has he been seen naked or shirtless?
  • Muggle Born of Mages: His sex appeal is pretty much the only thing he inherited from his faerie ancestors, while Sookie and nearly all other Stackhouses had faerie powers. He's later outright told that the faerie genes skipped him.
  • Naked First Impression: We first meet Jason in a raunchy sex scene with Maudette Pickens.
  • No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Jason spends an entire year taking care of the werepanther tribe after promising Crystal he would do so. He had multiple opportunities to walk away from them during that year (especially since he didn't know if he would ever see Crystal again), and he chose to stay and take responsibility for them regardless. How is he rewarded? He gets captured by Felton, chained to a bed, repeatedly bitten by Crystal and Felton to turn him into a werepanther against his will, and is gang-raped by all the women in Hotshot (including Crystal) so they'll get pregnant with werepanther children. When Jason finally escapes captivity and confronts Crystal for the last time, he makes it VERY CLEAR to Crystal that he's done with her and the tribe, and is never coming back to Hotshot.
  • Plucky Comic Relief: Probably one of the funniest characters on the show.
  • Rape as Backstory: It's revealed in season 5 that Jason had a sexual relationship with a teacher when he was 13 years old, which makes what happened to Jason statutory rape. It's heavily implied that this relationship led Jason to believe that his only worth as a person was in sex and nothing else, which influenced his promiscuity and his relationships with women later in his life.
  • Romance and Sexuality Separation: Jason has a lot of casual sex, but finds carrying on an actual relationship to be difficult.
  • Running Gag: The third season had one where he claimed to be a cop, only to be forced to admit he wasn't one yet.
  • Sanity Slippage: As of the season 5 finale, he is hallucinating the ghosts of his parents which are rapidly goading him into becoming harsher and more racist against vampires, including Jessica, who he clearly had feelings for before the appearance of the "ghosts". Whether or not this is due to the bump on the head, the faerie Elder's energy blast, or something else entirely is currently unknown.
  • Shirtless Scene: Has plenty of these. Nobody is complaining.
  • Sleeps in the Nude: Sleeps in the nude with a Modesty Bedsheet.
  • Those Two Guys: With Andy after he became cop.
  • Too Dumb to Live: It runs in the family. Although with Jason, it's played for laughs.
  • Took a Level in Badass: After being trained by the Fellowship of the Sun and becoming a cop. He's able to put his training to good use on several occasions, like shooting Franklin dead when he's about to rape and kill Tara, staking Felton from a tree, and taking on the Authority vampires when they try to kill him.
  • Unknown Rival: Luke. Not that Jason wasn't really aware of it; he just didn't play along.
    • Jason develops this with Warlow in seasons 5 and 6 when he finds out that Warlow killed his parents.
  • What You Are in the Dark: Played for laughs in the season 2 finale. Jason invokes this trope to Andy when the latter is upset about not getting recognition for helping to take down Maryann, and Jason tells him that they both know they tried to save the town and that's more important than getting fame.
    • Played straight in regards to the werepanthers: After Crystal is taken by Felton and she has Jason promise to look after her people, Jason honors her last request and spends an entire year delivering food and supplies to the community. At any point, Jason could have broken his promise to Crystal and walked away by claiming they weren't his problem anymore, and he didn't. If anything, it shows a selfless and noble side to Jason.
    • In season 2 when Steve tries to have Jason killed (due to mistaking him as a spy for the vampires), Jason makes a run for it. However, when Sarah Newlin later informs him that they have Sookie prisoner at the church, Jason immediately goes back for her at the risk of getting killed. It really is a CMOA!

    Adele 

Adele Stackhouse

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/AdeleStackhouse_2728.jpg
"You are a man in this family, but I am the oldest person here and this is my house. You better respect me, boy."
Played By: Lois Smith

"You're always careful, Sookie, about what counts and I can depend on that."

Jason and Sookie's paternal grandmother. She raised Jason and Sookie following their parents' deaths. Sookie keeps living with her after becoming an adult and later inherits Gran's house. She is portrayed as a kind-hearted, motherly figure, with even Tara Thornton's mother crediting her for raising Tara when she couldn't.

Tropes

  • Cool Old Lady: Is more liberal towards Sookie dating a vampire than two generations younger Jason and Tara.
  • Hidden Depths: She is one of the few characters who supports Sookie's relationship with Bill, and is greatly interested in Bill's historic knowledge of Bon Temps, as she is head of the Descendants of the Glorious Dead, an organization devoted to honoring the memory of the Civil War.

Bellefleur-Fowler Family

    Andy 

Sheriff Andy Bellefleur

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bellefleur_andrew_8792.jpg
"I just want to say that I’m sober, and I’m lonely, and I can be good to someone if they let me."
Played By: Chris Bauer

A police detective in Bon Temps who is somewhat incompetent at his job and is regularly disrespected by the town's citizens. He is a recovering alcoholic.

Tropes

  • The Alcoholic: His drinking becomes more and more prevalent as the series progresses and he feels increasingly out of his depth.
  • Badass Normal: One of the non-powered human characters.
  • Bad Cop/Incompetent Cop: Though it seems to fluctuate by varying degrees.
  • Big Damn Heroes: He and the other cops save Sookie and Hoyt from Bud Dearborne and Sweetie Des Arts.
  • Butt-Monkey: In season 2 and 4 especially. Both times he's struggling with addiction (variously with alcohol and V).
  • The Cassandra: In season 2, mostly because what he's trying to convince his fellow police officers of sounds ridiculous, and partially because he's almost continually drunk throughout the season.
  • Clueless Detective: Though sometimes (surprisingly) not.
  • Cowboy Cop: Has grown into this.
  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: He may be a blustering fool, but he can be pretty awesome when he has to be.
  • Cynical Mentor: To Jason. He really doesn't want to take Jason under his wing, but he sees the advantage to having a young, athletic guy to run down all the crazies showing up in Bon Temps lately. That and he just feels bad for him.
  • Dude, Where's My Respect?: Resents the fact that people call Bud Sheriff Dearborne, but no one calls him Detective Bellefleur.
  • Fan Disservice: You get a nice big shot of him lying naked on his stomach in the first episode of Season 5, and yes, you see his ass and everything.
  • Fantastic Drug: He becomes addicted to V in season 4, but by season 5 has successfully kicked it.
  • Fire-Forged Friends: Becomes this with Jason in season 2 when they both try to take down Maryann.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Despite being bullish, aggressive, irritable and grumpy Andy really is just trying to do his job and help people.
  • Not Now, Kiddo: Tries to do this with Jason but it never seems to work. Jason just annoys him anyways.
  • Outliving One's Offspring: His faerie daughters first go missing, with Jason bringing up the fact that faeries are like 'catnip' to vampires. Becomes awfully realized as he storms into Bill's mansion and finds three of his daughters dead and one barely alive.
  • Pet the Dog: During season 1, Andy constantly projected his issues on Jason and looked for any excuse to try and put Jason in prison because he hated him and believed Jason was responsible for Rene's killings. When Andy is finally given an opportunity to lock Jason away for good at the end of season 2 after Jason shoots Eggs in the head out of a mistaken belief that he was going to kill Andy, Andy chooses to cover for Jason. This is likely due to them becoming Fire-Forged Friends during the Maryann crisis and realizing that Jason's intentions were about protecting him.
  • Properly Paranoid: Often looks insane just because he's one of the few people who actually know what's going on.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: From time to time though not at all in Season 4. One piece of viral marketing in the form of an interview with him is a good example of how reasonable he can be.
  • Those Two Guys: With Jason, despite much initial conflict.
  • Too Many Babies: Maurella leaves him with four fae babies.
  • Took a Level in Badass: He helps fight Maryann's forces with a broken arm and goes through absolute hell.
  • Took a Level in Kindness: Andy gradually comes into his own after being made Sheriff, even developing a genuine if vitriolic friendship with Jason.

    Arlene 

Arlene Bellefleur (née Fowler)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bellefleur_arlene_2062.jpg
"I'm sorry you fell in love with a serial killer, alright, but honestly, who here hasn't?"
Played By: Carrie Preston

"Vamp club not all it was made out to be, huh?"

A waitress at Merlotte's. A four-time divorcee, she is a single mother of two. While she has a good heart, she is often apt to resort to bigotry (directed at vampires) and openly disapproves of Sookie's relationship with Bill. Arlene often makes remarks that have distinctly racist undertones, though this often appears to be unintentional.

Tropes

  • Arbitrary Skepticism: In Season 5, she dismisses Terry's talk of the fire demon as nonsense. Holly, a witch, calls her on it.
  • Butt-Monkey: She simply can't catch a break, though this might be because she's hilarious when she's high-strung.
  • Catchphrase: "I've got kids!" She usually says this when she's chewing someone out.
  • Character Development: Goes through the most out of any character, from an ignorant bigoted waitress to a thoughtful, more open-minded restaurant owner. Lampshaded in the second to last episode as she comments on Sookie's surprise that she's started a relationship with a vampire, Keith ("you don't have to tell me how strange it sounds").
  • The Chew Toy: See Butt-Monkey
  • Single Woman Seeks Good Man: She's a divorced mom with two kids who just can't seem to catch a break.
  • Spared by the Adaptation: Arlene is murdered in Dead Ever After. She has a much happier outcome in the show, having taken over Merlotte's and renaming it Bellefleur's.

    Terry 

Terry Bellefleur

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bellefleur_terrence_6999.jpg
"I don't like feeling the pressure."
Played By: Todd Lowe

"Your Mama just gets a little crazy sometimes, which means we just have to love her that much harder."

An Iraq war veteran who works as one of the cooks at Merlotte's and he's a cousin of Detective Andy Bellefleur. He shows clear signs of post-traumatic stress disorder, but despite his unusual behavior is a gentle soul. He is one of the few who are kind to Bill, and he finds him to be a kindred soul as Bill is a veteran like him.

Tropes

  • Dies Wide Open: With Arlene at his side.
  • Driven to Suicide: He asks another Marine buddy to kill him in a way he won't see coming.
  • Go Out with a Smile: He's just had his old demons from the war glamored away, and as he slips away Arlene tells him to think of all the good things in his life.
  • The Dog: Often, when the writers want to get the point across that a character is being a complete Jerkass, they do so by having that character be mean to Terry.
  • Henpecked Husband
  • Instant Death Bullet: After he paid another Marine to kill him in a way he wouldn't see coming.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: In Season 5.
  • Nice Guy: Even with his dark past, he is still the most consistently good member of the cast - he never puts his own feelings first, always protects others, feels obligated to stay with Arlene, and happily raises a baby whose father was a psychotic Serial Killer.
  • Papa Wolf: Threatening Arlene's kids, who he thinks of as his own, triggers a pretty serious Berserk Button in him.
  • Properly Paranoid: He often has a vague suspicion that something is wrong when something really is wrong, only to be falsely reassured that everything is ok by someone who knows for a fact that there's a problem but wishes to conceal said problem.
    • On more than one occasion he's been the first person to notice a problem.
  • Sanity Slippage: Since coming back from Iraq, and then kicks into overdrive after Patrick's death.
  • Shell-Shocked Veteran: He's odd and always a little worried, due to PTSD from his time at war.
  • Token Good Teammate: What he seemed to be in Iraq.
    Terry: (on a dying woman) We can still save her!
    Patrick: I said DEAD CHECK HER!

    Adilyn 

Adilyn Bellefleur

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bellefleur_adilyn_359.jpg
Played By: Bailey Noble

The surviving Halfling daughter of Andy Bellefleur and Maurella.

Tropes

Cleary Family

    Holly 

Holly Cleary

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cleary_holly_3808.jpg
"There ain't no spell that can't be undone if you got the juice."
Played By: Lauren Bowles

A waitress at Merlotte's introduced in the third season. She is friendly, a single mother of two, and also a devout Wiccan.

Tropes

  • Big Damn Heroes: When Marnie comes back and possesses Lafayette with the intention of killing Eric and Bill, she saves them by using Wiccan magic to create a shield to protect them against Marnie, and helps summon the spirits of the dead to take Marnie back to their plane.
  • Determinator: Never gave up when trapped by Marnie.

    Rocky 

Rocky Cleary

    Wade 

Wade Cleary

Played By: Noah Matthews

  • Not Blood Siblings: Wade develops feelings for his new stepsister Adilyn in the seventh season and they end up having sex and becoming a couple.

Other Humans

    Hoyt 

Hoyt Fortenberry

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Hoyt_3223.jpg
"You can tell a lot about someone by the way they smile."
Played By: Jim Parrack

  • Abusive Parents: His smothering, controlling mother who often borders on emotional abuse.
  • The Big Guy: One of the tallest of the cast. This is deconstructed a little bit; he had a massive growth spurt in middle school that left him so unbalanced, he had to walk with a cane for months.
  • Boy Meets Ghoul: He dated baby-vampire Jessica for a while.
  • Calling The Old Woman Out: When he told his mother off for disapproving of his relationship with Jessica, after Maxine cancelled his cell phone service and made it look like he dumped Jess.
  • Evil Matriarch: His mother. No, seriously.
  • Face–Heel Turn: Season 5 has him briefly joining an anti-supernatural hate group, but he quits when they try to make him kill Jessica.
  • Heterosexual Life-Partners: Has been this with Jason for almost their whole lives. Until near the end of season 4, when Jason hooks up with Jessica, which makes Hoyt end their friendship. Near the end of season 5, Hoyt has Jessica glamour his memories of Jason and Jessica out of his mind permanently before going to Alaska, throwing away any chance of reconciliation.
  • Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: The 6"5" Hoyt briefly dates 5"0" Summer, nearly a foot and a half shorter.
  • It's All About Me: Has shades of this. When Jason is telling Hoyt about being kidnapped and gang-raped by Crystal's werepanther tribe, Hoyt proceeds to make a dickishly insensitive comparision between that and his current girlfriend problems with Jessica. Later on, when Jessica decides to break off her relationship with Hoyt because she is no longer happy with him and doesn't want to keep pretending to be, Hoyt makes the entire breakup all about him and tries to paint Jessica as an ugrateful bitch for not appreciating everything he's given to Jessica. It gets bad enough that at one point, he considers murdering Jessica for breaking up with him and sleeping with Jason. What's egrigious is he never actually grows out of this mentality. When he comes back in season 7, he still continues to make everything about himself, which ends up alienating his new girlfriend Brigette.
  • Laser-Guided Amnesia: He specifically requested Jessica to erase every memory of her or Jason from his mind before he moved to Alaska.
  • Love Triangle: With Summer and Jessica. Except he actually hates Summer. And now with Jessica and Jason.
  • Manchild: Deconstructed and ultimately played straight. Hoyt grew up under a mother who was bigoted in every sense of the word (racist, sexist, homophobic, etc) and smothered him well into adulthood in an attempt to keep him in her life after her husband committed suicide. The result is that Hoyt is emotionally stunted. While he's physically a 28 year old, he's mentally a kid because of the way Maxine's treated him for most of his life, which has impacted how he's able to relate to the world. While he's initially nice and means well, this mentality is ultimately a handicap for Hoyt because it makes it hard for him to process hard truths and disappointments in life without reacting in an extremely childish manner (like when Hoyt finds out what really happened to his dad, or when Jessica ends their relationship). When that happens, a nastier side to his character comes out that's a lot like a little kid throwing a temper-tantrum. Except in this case, it's a grown-ass adult who's doing it. The result is he falls into a Never My Fault mentality where it's easier to blame others for things that go wrong in the same way his mother does. This is ultimately taken to the extreme at the end of season 5 when he ends up joining a Hate Group after his relationship with Jessica deteriorates and alomst considers murdering her because of how angry he is. While he ultimately doesn't go through with it, he still chooses not to learn anything from his recent experiences and instead opts to glamour all his memories out of his head, which prevents him from having any Character Development. And while it's unpleasant to watch, it does make sense Hoyt would behave like this considering how he was raised. It's also implied in season 4 that part of the reason Jessica lost interest in their relationship is because she felt like she became a Replacement Goldfish for Hoyt's mom in that he expected her to do the stuff his mom used to do for him, and Jessica was having none of that.
  • Nice Guy: He initually appears to be this.......
  • Put on a Bus: He puts himself on a bus, moving to Alaska in season 5 after realizing he's tired of dealing with everyone he knows and their issues.
  • Took a Level in Jerkass: Big time in seasons 4 and 5. Let's just say that while there are plenty of guys out there who go through bad break-ups, most of them don't join Hate Groups like Hoyt does, or express a desire to see their ex-girlfriends dead. They also don't sit there while they ex-girlfriend is tied up and in danger of being killed while proceeding to slut shame them and justify why it's okay to kill them.

    Bud 

Sheriff Bud Dearborne

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Bud_830.jpg
"This town's a hell of a mess and I'm man enough to know I can't shoulder it myself."
"Every time we clear one murder, two more spring up. It's like crab grass."

The sheriff of Renard Parish and an old friend of Sookie and Jason's deceased parents. While he is well respected in the town of Bon Temps, he goes out of his way to show his distaste for vampires and vocally objects to Sookie's relationship with Bill.

Tropes

  • Clueless Detective: Though usually just because he doesn't understand the full scope of the situation.
  • Cynical Mentor: To Andy Bellefleur in the first season though eventually gives up on it because he's getting too old for this.
  • The Dragon: To Sweetie Des Arts, whose nickname is ironically "The Dragon".
  • Face–Heel Turn: See Adaptational Villainy.
  • Fantastic Racism: Even before his Face–Heel Turn in season 5, Bud was established as being bigoted against vampires, and was convinced Bill was behind the murders occuring in Bon Temps in season 1. One could even argue that Sweetie didn't corrupt Bud so much as brought the bigotry out of him and gave him free license to act however he wanted to.
  • Genre Savvy: Or at least demonstraits it on a few occasions.
    • "Every time I solve one murder two more pop up, it's like crab grass!"
  • The Sheriff: Of Bon Temps until his retirement.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: At the end, he wanted to wipe out all vampires and other "supes" like shifters so that normal humans wouldn't have to fear being their victims any more. With vampires you can sort of see why he'd eventually get frustrated enough to turn into a full-blown bigot, since he'd seen his share of vampire-committed crimes. With the others, not so much.

    Lettie Mae 

Lettie Mae Daniels (née Thornton)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Lettie_Mae_3485.jpg
"You can't come home. I'm not gonna let you."
Played By: Adina Porter

Tara's abusive, alcoholic mother. During the first season, she persuades Tara to fund an exorcism to expel a demon that she is convinced lives inside her. She blames the demon for her actions, claiming he targeted her for her closeness with Jesus. Tara reluctantly agrees to pay for Lettie Mae's exorcism, after which Lettie Mae visually and mentally improves and develops into a faithful member of the local Christian community. The woman that performed the exorcism, Miss Jeanette, is exposed as a fraud and later killed by Maryann, but Lettie Mae refuses to believe her exorcism was unreal.

Tropes

  • Abusive Parent: To Tara, who she abuses physically, verbally, financially and emotionally.
  • Alcoholic Parent: Lettie Mae is a massive alcoholic, but she eventually gets over it with help of a bullshitting con-woman.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Granted, we see the bitch first. But as soon as her 'demon' is gone, she's going to church in fancy hats and looking down on her daughter...whom she mercilessly abused.
  • Holier Than Thou: Despite being a child-beating, borderline mentally ill alcoholic for much of her life, Lettie Mae stills considers herself to be morally superior to her daughter, who isn't a child-beating alcoholic.
  • Hot for Preacher: She seduces and eventually marries Rev. Daniels.
  • Jerkass: Lettie Mae is a vile human being, both convinced that she's especially close to and loved by God while traumatising everyone who comes near her with her sometimes violent and always selfish actions.
  • I Have No Daughter!: Disowns Tara after finding out she's a vampire, ultimately choosing her social standing as a preacher's wife over a relationship with her daughter.
  • It's All About Me: Lettie Mae's first thought is usually, 'how will this affect poor Lettie Mae?'
  • Moral Myopia: It's perfectly fine to viciously and violently abuse your daughter and treat her like garbage, but it's acceptable to hold moral superiority over everybody else including said daughter.
  • Never My Fault: A firm believer in this.

    Ginger 

Ginger

Played By: Tara Buck

A human that waitressed at Fangtasia.

Tropes

  • Ascended Extra: She's been promoted to a regular character after sporadic appearances throughout the series.
  • Butt-Monkey: Ginger is repeatedly pulled into horrible, traumatizing situations and she's been glamoured for so long that she's a barely held-together mess of a human being.
  • Dumb Blonde: Nan refers to her as being hardly able to remember where she lives, having been glamoured so much.
  • Granola Girl: Prior to meeting Eric and Pam.
  • Hidden Depths: When she started working for Eric and Pam, she was a Granola Girl college student. She even had the idea for Fangtasia. Then came decades of glamoring her brains out...

    Eggs 

"Eggs" Benedict Talley

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/talley_benedict_4284.jpg
"We're all luckier than we can imagine."
Played By: Mehcad Brooks

"You know it took me a long time to stop looking over my shoulder too. But there's good people in this world. Sometimes, good shit happens."

A guest of Maryann Forrester's who has a less than reputable past; he gradually begins a romantic relationship with Tara Thornton.

Tropes

  • Character Death: Eggs is killed by Jason when he confronts Andy with a gun.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: Although the details remain vague, he drops a few snippets of information about his past that includes foster homes and a great deal of violence.
  • The Dragon: For Maryann.
  • Gang Banger: Before Maryann took him in.
  • Mind-Control Eyes: His eyes turn black when Mary-Ann controls him.
  • Mr. Fanservice: One of the show's biggest examples.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: He's horrified when he discovers that Maryanne used him to do her dirty work, even though everyone—even the police—insist that he isn't a killer and was acting under her mind control.
  • Mysterious Past: It's never revealed where he comes from, what his life was like before Maryann or how Maryann took him in.
  • Nice Guy: He's a genuinely good-natured man who shows kindness to just about everyone.

    Nicole 

Nicole Wright

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/wright_nicole_6279.jpg
"They're coming for you next!"
Played By: Jurnee Smollett

A key member of a band of well-meaning (if Too Dumb to Live) liberal advocates. The gang models itself after the civil rights activist Freedom Riders of the 1960s, a group of progressive protesters who rode buses from state to state, challenging racial segregation and Jim Crow travel laws.

Tropes

  • Messy Hair: As the picture shows. The werewolves even remember her as "the one with the crazy hair."
  • Too Dumb to Live: She is deeply and powerfully stupid. Nicole has made it her mission to unite supernatural creatures in the name of racial harmony, but to do this she confronts a group of werewolf rednecks, talks down to them and videotapes them while making it clear she intends to 'out' them whether they like it or not.
  • Wide-Eyed Idealist: She thinks that she'll unite all supernatural creatures and that they'll do this willingly. Even the average person living in the show's world should know how incredibly stupid this idea is, especially considering how she goes about it.

    Patrick 

Patrick Devins

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/devins_patrick_4237.jpg
Played By: Scott Foley

an Iraq war veteran who was Sgt. to Private Terry Bellefleur, and not a resident of Bon Temps.

Tropes

  • Arbitrary Skepticism: In a world flooded with vampires, he chooses not to believe in the existence of a rampaging fire demon even though he saw it with his own eyes.
  • False Reassurance: Blaming what happened in Iraq on other things such as the situation they were in and the drugs they had taken.
  • I Have Your Wife: He pulls this on Terry with Arlene, although it backfires on him.

    Rev. Daniels 

Rev. Daniels

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/daniels_2386.jpg
Played By: Gregg Daniel

The pastor of one of the churches in Bon Temps, and a respected member of the community. In Season 3, he begins a romantic relationship with a seemingly reformed Lettie Mae, and by Season 4, the two are married. He and Lettie Mae are sought out by Arlene and Terry in Season 4 to rid their home of the evil spirits that they believe are targeting their baby, Mikey. In Season 6, he performs the service at Terry's funeral at Arlene's request. Reverend Daniels is also a leading supporter of Sam's decision to pair up humans with vampires in an attempt to ensure mutual protection and security.

Tropes

  • Ascended Extra: He was fairly minor, existing mostly in relation to Lettie Mae, but for the final season he's a regular character and gets a lot more personality.
  • Crisis of Faith: Daniels admits that after losing his daughter and subsequently his wife, he lost faith in God, humanity, his marriage and himself.
  • Large Ham: During some of his sermons. Privately, he's more reserved.
  • Rousing Speech: He has a talent for these.

    Amy 

Amy Burley

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/AmyBurley_5370.jpg
"I am an organic vegan and my carbon footprint is miniscule."
Played By: Lizzy Caplan

Jason's bohemian, V-addicted love interest. Hailing from Storrs, Connecticut, she meets Jason in vampire bar Fangtasia. After learning he is looking for more V to use, she comes to his house and uses V together with him. She starts a relationship with Jason, who thinks that she might be "the one", and becomes a waitress at Merlotte's.

Tropes

  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Amy charms just about everyone she meets, but the reality is that she's an extremely selfish and ruthless individual.
  • Character Death: She's one of Rene's many victims.
  • Death Is Dramatic: Her death is pretty important to the plot, is it give evidence for Jason as the murderer.
  • Functional Addict: At first, then we really see how far she's willing to go to fulfill her addiction.
  • Granola Girl: She's an 'organic vegan'.
  • Hypocrite: For all her ranting about being a vegetarian earth-conscious hippie, she's much more willing to kill than Jason.
  • Ivy League for Everyone: She went to the really fancy-shmancy Wellesley College.
  • Manipulative Bitch: She plays Jason like a fiddle.
  • Mysterious Past: We really have no idea why she was hanging around Bon Temps in the first place, or if anything she said about her past was true.

    Dawn 

Dawn Green

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/DawnGreen_8025.jpg
Played By: Lynn Collins

Sookie's co-worker who has an on-again/off-again relationship with Jason.

Tropes

  • Character Death: She's murdered off-screen by Rene Lenier/Drew Marshall.
  • Hypocrite: She criticizes Jason for his promiscuous lifestyle even though she engages in the exact same behavior as he does.
  • Sacrificial Lamb: Despite being credited as a regular character, Dawn is killed early on to establish that nobody is safe from the Serial Killer.
  • We Hardly Knew Ye: Dawn is sadly short-lived, dying not long into the series.

Other Witches

    Lafayette 

Lafayette Reynolds

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/reynolds_lafayette_4133.jpg
"It ain't possible to live unless you crossin' somebody's line."
Played By: Nelsan Ellis

"Well, hey there sweetness. You ready to party?"

A short order cook at Merlotte's, a drug dealer, a member of Jason Stackhouse's road crew, and Tara's cousin.

Tropes

  • Ascended Extra: In the first season, he had a much smaller role, and by the third his is one of the main stories.
  • Badass Boast: When he confronts a group of drunk assholes who claim that the food he made has AIDS in it.
    Layfayette: Bitch, you come in my house, you gon' eat my food the way I FUCKIN' MAKE IT! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?! Tip your waitress.
  • Deadpan Snarker: In one of his most famous scenes, he has to deal with three homophobic diner patrons who don't want to eat food prepared by a gay man.
    Drunk Redneck: I'm an American, and I got a say in who makes my food.
    Layfayette: Oh baby, it's too late for that. Faggots been breeding your cows, raising your chickens, even brewing your beer long before I walked my sexy ass up in this motherfucker. Everything on your goddamn table got AIDS.
  • Demonic Possession/Grand Theft Me: Done to him by angry spirits who got some unfinished business, thrice.

    Jesus 

Jesus Velasquez

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/HeyZeus_8891.jpg
"You can’t trade magic like fucking pokemon cards!"
Played By: Kevin Alejandro

A nurse at the mental institution where Lafayette's mother is a patient. On their first meeting, he seems to take an immediate interest in Lafayette, followed by a personal visit to Merlotte's to spend time with Lafayette while he is at work. Although they like each other, he leaves once he finds out Lafayette is a drug dealer. When Lafayette calls Jesus to help with his mother, their attraction is once again ignited and they spend the night together. Jesus reveals himself to be a "brujo" (or "witch") to Lafayette and encourages him to develop his own wiccan talents.

Tropes

  • Hospital Hottie: He's a nurse working at the psychiatric center where Lafayette's mom lives. And he's hot.
  • Meaningful Name: Blood magic or no blood magic, he's one of the few members of the cast who is consistently kind, loving, and compassionate. He then allows himself to be sacrificed in the hopes that doing so will keep a then-possessed Lafayette from being harmed. And then he returns as a spirit, still just as full of love and compassion as ever.
  • Nice Guy: Out of all the characters on the show, he's one of the kindest. He willingly goes out of his way to help others when they're in trouble, and, unlike his grandfather, he uses his magic in benevolent ways.
  • Sexy Mentor: He is trying to get Lafayette to use his powers as a medium.
  • Twofer Token Minority: Actually a threefer, being gay, Latino, and Wiccan.

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