The Roy Family of Succession Ranked from Least to Most Immoral

     

     Over the course of the past week, I started to watch the critically-acclaimed HBO show Succession. The show tells the story of a billionaire entertainment company and the corruption and mishaps that surround it. The family the show centers on are completely despicable human beings who have no problem doing anything to get ahead in the business world. Although they are all terrible human beings, they are endearing at the same time, which makes the show so addicting to watch. I am going to rank the seven members of the main family members from least immoral to most immoral. I want to give a shout out to TVLine for giving the idea to me. I enjoyed reading your thoughts on each of the characters! Let's get to it...


7. Greg Hirsch 

     The only person from the family that is more of a good person than bad is Cousin Greg. He suffers the torment and verbal abuse of Tom, and the rest of his family sees him as someone who is unimportant to the company. He always wants what is best for every one most of the time, so his heart is usually in the right place. Though he follows Tom's wishes of destroying evidence documenting the company's cruising scandals, he feels guilty about it, and he finds it morally wrong. He requests a transfer from the department to disassociate himself from the scandal should it leak.  He manages to save a few of the documents that he was told to shred because of his guilt, and if you watched the season two finale, he finally uses them against Logan and the company. Greg comes in as the most moral Roy family member.


6. Marcia Roy

     Though Marcia is a very complex character, it is no secret that she represents the old-school traditional woman who has to listen to her husband and obey him even though he may be wrong. She is the third wife of the company's patriarch, Logan Roy. As I mentioned previously, she almost always takes his side, and she mostly serves as the barrier between Logan and his children. Though sometimes she is kept in the dark of things, she seems to have her say in some of Logan's personal matters. She almost never speaks up if she finds what her husband is doing is unethical, but she spoke up recently about her unhappiness in the marriage, but it was because it affected her and no one else. Though she herself has never covered up anything or done unethical deeds, Marcia is a very unlikable character who shows no care for anyone but herself and her husband.

5. Kendall Roy
     Kendall has had a very bumpy ride throughout the two seasons of the show. He is a recovering alcoholic and drug addict in season one until he relapses. The thing about Kendall is that he has a conscience and knows that what his father does is wrong, but he chooses to help his father out anyways, even if it does kill him that he has to do those things. Before he relapses, Kendall tries several times to take the business out of his father's hands after his father lies to him about handing the business over to him, but to no avail. After he relapses, he kills a waiter in a car accident where he tries to walk away from the scene, but his father knows about the accident and blackmails him to quit his persecution of him. In season two, he brutally guts a company without flinching or even showing remorse because "his dad told him to." In the finale of season two, after proving to be a loyal soldier, Kendall finally exposes his father after his father told him to take the fall for the cruise department scandal. It seems Kendall could be behind Marcia if he does right in season three. We shall see.

4. Siobhan "Shiv" Roy

     The only daughter to Logan Roy, Shiv is probably the favorite of all the children even though she definitely gets screwed by her father constantly. Shiv is manipulative, cunning, and persuasive in how she handles others. She is unfaithful to her husband, and she takes advantage of it by saying she wants an "open marriage" after her infidelity. She constantly manipulates her husband to get information out of him that involves the day to day operations of the company. When she wants to work for a Democratic presidential nominee, her father scolds her and attacks the nominee, Gil, but Shiv blackmails her father by threatening to bring up the cruising department scandal. In the penultimate episode of season two, Shiv gets the key witness in the scandal to drop her testimony saying that the trial will ruin her life with people threatening her. In the finale, Shiv manipulates her father into not firing Tom, but her brother instead. With that being said, Shiv, like Kendall, sometimes does seem to want to do right, and I think that she would be a great successor to her father. She would not be as corrupt and would do what she wants and not the dirty work of her father.


3. Roman Roy

     Roman is such an intriguing character. He is definitely the most crass and vulgar character on the show, and he demonstrates that in the pilot episode where he teases a poor Mexican family by telling them he'll give them a million dollars if the boy can hit a home run. The boy fails and Roman rips the check up right in front of the kid's face. Roman is genuinely a terrible person who has no problem tormenting and hassling someone who is in his way. He betrays his brother by not voting his unstable father out of the CEO position, making Kendall the only one to get his hands dirty. He cheated on his wife and when she divorced him, he did not flinch and instead smirked as she walked out of the door. Though he has never spearheaded any corrupt decisions, he is always in the know of what is going on and has no issues following through with orders unless it affects him in a negative way. At some points, you can see a tiny, minuscule drop of humanity in his heart, but it is never enough to redeem him.


2. Connor Roy

     Connor is probably one of the worst and most annoying characters on television right now. Every time he comes on my screen, I want to just put my hands through the screen and strangle him. He is not a character you love to hate; he is a character you hate to hate. Apart from being micro aggressive and rude to anyone that does not have the same political views as him, he is just a complete joke. He has an outburst at a company dinner party towards the cooks where he treats them terribly and fires them because some of the food is a bit cold. This really only began my hate for him. He wants to run for president and genuinely believes he can win when he is a misogynist and does not want to pay taxes. I loved on the season two finale when his father tells him that they all think he is a joke and that his presidential campaign is a joke. It was glorious. Honestly, there are no redeeming qualities about Connor, so let's just move on to our number one slot.

1. Logan Roy

     The most immoral Roy family member is none other than Logan Roy, himself. The man is just a complete slime ball and a dishonest person all around. The whole show revolves around him and the decisions he makes. He is the puppet master of all the scandals surrounding his business, and he is the one who made his children and family the way they are. He scolds his children by telling them they are worthless particularly Kendall when he says he is not a "killer" and is unfit to be the new CEO. He lies whenever he sees it to be necessary such as during the cruising department scandal where he says he had no knowledge of any wrongdoing, yet he signed off on the papers for the victims to keep quiet. He causes his son to start using, and he blackmails him that if he does not lay off, he will rat his son out for murder and as a result makes his son do his dirty work. Not only that, but when he wants to see his son's victim's family, he prays on Kendall's heartstrings by making him feel bad for his wrongdoing knowing that he is already depressed and sorry for his wrongdoing. He berates and mentally abuses the people he thinks tipped off Pierce by making them kneel on the floor and humiliate themselves. On the finale, after being manipulated by Shiv to not fire Tom, he fires his own son and tells him to take the blame for the scandal since he is the "face" of the investigation. Logan definitely rivals the other despicable TV show villains for one of if not the most ruthless and dishonorable men in TV history.