Succession: 10 Least Morally Corrupt Characters, Ranked

In Succession, where nearly every character is morally corrupt, the Roys and their associates occasionally surprise us with moments of good.

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Who could possibly be the least morally corrupt character in HBO’s Succession? Considering most of the show’s characters are pretty terrifying and do some awful things, it’s difficult to judge – for example – whether Roman’s careless demand for a failed rocket launch that almost took multiple lives is ethically worse than Kendall’s accidental murder of the waiter at Shiv’s wedding.

In spite of all the plotting and conniving, there are many moments in Succession where characters surprise the audience by simply being good. On the other hand, some characters talk the talk while others walk the walk, making the latter category at least a degree less morally corrupt than the former.

10 Logan

Logan falls in the latter category. By mere virtue of the fact that he’s consistent in his principles, as twisted as they may be, he is less morally corrupt than characters such as Shiv, who labels herself a feminist yet attempted to dissuade a sexual assault victim from testifying for the sake of her wealthy family’s company.

Meanwhile, Logan leads his life with the apparent belief that business is a no-holds-barred game to be won. This is why he seems to watch the TV with admiration when Kendall exposes Logan and Waystar’s coverup of the cruise line scandal; even though he has just been hugely betrayed by his son and now faces prison, he respects ruthlessness as a skill and a necessary part of the game.

9 Tom

Often, Tom can be found either sucking up to Logan or bullying Greg. This desire to fit in with the Roys is shamelessly on display in how he navigates the workplace, talks at the dinner table, and even in the details of how Tom dresses.

However, Tom makes this list because of the surprising moment where he didn’t sell out Greg during Logan’s sadistic game of Boar On The Floor, where the business titan forced his colleagues to act like pigs in order to sniff out who in the group spoke to a writer working on a Logan Roy biography. Given everything the audience had known about Tom and his ruthless social-climbing up to that point, it was impressive that he ultimately chose to stick by his friendship with Greg.

8 Kendall

It says something about the characters on Succession that a character who possibly committed involuntary manslaughter and fled the scene can be considered one of the least morally corrupt. There’s a stark difference, however, between the way Kendall and Logan reflect on the situation.

Having engaged in the cover-up so as to prevent Kendall from going through with the planned takeover of Waystar, Logan seems to have zero guilt over his own actions. He even refers to the victim as an NRPI (No Real Person Involved). Meanwhile, Kendall has at the very least been haunted by his role in the waiter’s death, and Logan’s own perspective on the ordeal (as well as the cruise line scandal) leads the viewer to question whether Kendall is unique among the other elitist characters on the show in caring about the tragic, yet peripheral, consequences of his actions.

7 Frank

Among Waystar’s crooked executives, Frank seems to stand out as the most honest. It’s one of the reasons why between him, Gerri and Karl, Frank is the only councilman that Kendall contacts to join his side after blowing up Logan.

Frank, who is also Kendall’s godfather, has essentially been more of a father figure to Kendall than Logan himself. Additionally, Frank is among the few who actually followed through on voting against Logan during the Vote of No Confidence.

6 Nan Pierce

In contrast to the Roys and Waystar, the Pierce family champions themselves and their company as a morally-grounded enterprise. While they wear all white, the Roys wear all black – signifying the difference in how they think and choose to present themselves.

At the same, as the heads of their families, Nan Pierce and Logan aren’t so different. In negotiating the Roy family’s purchase of her company, PGM, Nan makes demands that Shiv is named Logan’s successor as she is more politically aligned with the Pierce family values. When Logan refuses this, Nan claims there can no longer be a deal. However, she changes her mind once she sees that Logan is committing to his stance and agrees to let the Roys buy her company, regardless of their politics.

5 Rhea

Bouncing between the Roy and Pierce families in season two, Rhea found herself being slowly introduced to the inner workings of the opposing Roy family. Earning Logan’s respect, she was able to successfully carve a place for herself in Waystar.

Despite being named Logan’s successor, however, Rhea ultimately turns down the Roy family almost as soon as she joins them when she and Shiv are tasked with coercing a sexual assault victim into not testifying. Prioritizing morals over ambition in such a way is a rare occurrence on Succession.

4 Marcia

What’s unclear to the audience, and to the skeptical Roy kids, is whether Marcia is a gold digger, genuinely in love with Logan, or a bit of both. Though Marcia is certainly one of the many low-key villains on Succession and able to play the manipulation game just as well as the rest of the family, she’s also among the characters who aren’t afraid to cross the line if it means maintaining her dignity.

When Logan increasingly ignores Marcia and seems to cheat on her with Rhea, Marcia begins to see their flirty relationship for what it is. Countering Logan at a dinner party and leaving him during the presentation of a plaque in his honor, Marcia demonstrates that she’s not afraid to embarrass Logan or even leave their marriage for that matter after he’s publicly embarrassed her through his relationship with Rhea.

3 Uncle Ewan

As Logan is preparing to present a plaque in their mother’s honor at his 50th-anniversary celebration, Uncle Ewan’s personality can be summed up by how quick he is to remind his brother that Waystar is an “empire of s***” and that he’s surprised Logan hasn’t died from shame yet. To say the least, Ewan represents the closest thing the Roy family has to a moral compass.

Although Ewan is the most self-aware when it comes to the true nature of his brother’s money, he’s still very much a Roy in that he’s often plotting to take down his own family. Not only does he hint at bankrolling the cruise line victims, but he also attempts to hook Greg up with an attorney whose agenda is more anti-capitalism-focused than actually-helping-Greg-focused.

2 Lisa Arthur

The high-powered attorney that Kendall and Logan fight over in the first episode of season three, Lisa is sought after by the two for her reputation as a feminist lawyer. Naturally, she gravitates towards Kendall’s side which is looking to expose Logan and Waystar for their role in the cruise line scandals.

However, Lisa’s commitment to Kendall’s team isn’t all but confirmed quite yet. When Shiv meets with her in order to persuade her to join Logan’s team, Lisa turns her down but implies that she may switch sides if she doesn’t find herself impressed with Kendall’s position. As it stands, it’s too early to call how Lisa’s character arc will play out on the show.

1 Rava

Since Rava stands out as the only character on the show who isn’t trying to take down someone else in every scene she’s in, she could be considered the least morally-corrupt character on Succession. Similar to Frank, she’s unique on the show for being seemingly normal and not displaying behaviors akin to a villainous caricature.

As Kendall’s ex-wife, Rava is more concerned about his wellbeing as the father of her children than she is about, for instance, beating someone else out for a higher position at Waystar. Though she still benefits from Waystar via her husband’s child support, she’s the recurring character most removed from its inner machinations.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/succession-least-morally-corrupt-characters-ranked/