The Millennium Trilogy/Characters

The Millenium Trilogy is a series written by the late Stieg Larsson.

Mikael Blomkvist

 * Anti-Hero: Type II; has moments of Type III.
 * Author Avatar: Middle-aged journalist created by ... a middle-aged journalist.
 * Badass Bookworm
 * The Charmer
 * Ethical Slut
 * Good Is Not Nice
 * Guile Hero
 * Hero With Bad Publicity: Starts out as one
 * Hollywood Pudgy: In the Swedish movie version.
 * Jerk With a Heart of Gold
 * Manipulative Bastard: A heroic example.

Lisbeth Salander

 * A Cup Angst
 * Anti-Hero: Type IV.
 * Ax Crazy: At her worst.
 * Badass
 * Bi the Way
 * Depraved Bisexual
 * Big Eater: it's mentioned constantly that despite her tiny size, she seems to live solely off of massive amounts of junk food.
 * Bifauxnen
 * Black Hole Sue: She quickly steals the main character's job with her god-like memory and god-like hacker superpowers, beats up two Hell's Angels in unharmed combat,, every good character cannot help but like and assist her, while every villain cannot help but hate her. By the start of the second book the entire Millenium Trilogy turns into a story about her childhood and how she fights and ultimately successfully blackmails the entire Swedish government, while personnally getting all the villains punished.
 * Broken Bird
 * Bunny Ears Lawyer
 * The Chessmaster
 * Combat Pragmatist
 * Dark Action Girl
 * The Determinator
 * Double Standard Rape (Female On Male): The way she sleeps with Blomkvist for the first time both in the movie and in the book would be interpreted as rape-ish, at least, if the roles were switched. Especially since in the book she basically uses emotional blackmail stating that if they don't have sex their working relationship will suffer and in any case Blomkvist had slept with strangers before.
 * Averted in the American film.
 * Fiery Redhead: Though she dyes it black.
 * In the American film, the shade of her eyebrows implies she is a natural blonde.
 * Freudian Excuse: Suffered for years at the hand of an abusive father, before being falsely labelled insane by his government friends for daring to fight back.
 * Goth
 * Guile Hero: With definite shades of Magnificent Bastard.
 * Hates Being Touched
 * Master of Disguise
 * No Social Skills
 * Playful Hacker / The Cracker: Somewhere in-between, as she mainly uses her skills to technically break the law in order to investigate, and expose or punish, serious corruption. She also stole a few billion SEK from a financial swindler.
 * Psychotic Smirk
 * The Stoic
 * Tranquil Fury
 * Undying Loyalty
 * Vapor Wear: Most scenes in the movies where she's nude either begins with her taking her clothes off or ending with her putting them on. Never once is she shown to have any undergarments on during any of those scenes. It's especially clear when she's being undressed by her on-again/off-again girlfriend in the second movie.
 * When She Smiles: Exhibit A
 * The Woobie

Hendrik Vanger

 * Cool Old Guy: Pretty much one of the only members of the family who isn’t a prick.
 * Magnificent Bastard: Of the non-evil variety.
 * Rich Idiot With No Day Job: Subverted; he’s rich but he does do his best to help Mikael, and when he was younger he basically was the company.

Martin Vanger

 * Affably Evil
 * Bitch in Sheep's Clothing
 * Complete Monster
 * Depraved Bisexual: Only targeted women previously but is open to new things.
 * Devil in Plain Sight
 * Foe Yay / No Yay: With Mikael.
 * Karmic Death (in the movie, when Lisbeth leaves him to die essentially denying him the mercy he denied all his victims)
 * Parental Incest: Strongly implied.
 * Serial Killer
 * The Sociopath
 * Villain With Good Publicity

Gottfried Vanger

 * Abusive Parents: To his children. Harriet manages to turn out okay. Martin….not so much.
 * Asshole Victim
 * Complete Monster
 * Devil in Plain Sight: The dude was known to have issues even before he was outed as a killer.
 * The Fundamentalist: Part of his MO
 * Politically-Incorrect Villain: In addition to being a serial killer he’s also a Nazist / racist anti-semite.
 * Posthumous Character
 * Serial Killer

Peter Teleborian

 * Bitch in Sheep's Clothing
 * Complete Monster: Lisbeth calls him one of the most evil men she's ever met. Considering the kind of guy's she's dealt with, that's saying a lot. He's a systematic torturer, manipulative liar, and paedophile, greatly enjoying his power to prey on, control, abuse, and completely destroy the lives of the most vulnerable in society, particularly traumatised children.
 * Laser-Guided Karma: Is taken down because he ultimately winds up believing his own lies about Lisbeth. As a result he underestimates her intelligence, leading to her exposing him as a pedophile.
 * Mind Rape: Almost literally, come to think of it...
 * Morally-Ambiguous Doctorate
 * Smug Snake
 * Villain With Good Publicity
 * Villainous Breakdown: Experiences this after Gianinni rips him a new one in court.

Alexander Zalachenko
Lisbeth's father and a gang lord specializing in drugs and smuggling in underage Russian girls into Sweden for sex slavery.


 * Abusive Parents: Oh so very much
 * Complete Monster
 * Good Scars, Evil Scars Apparently when Lizbeth knew him he was a good-looking man. The one time she got the better of him... changed all that.
 * Laser-Guided Karma: Is killed by his handlers after trying to double cross them one time too many.
 * Manipulative Bastard
 * Screw the Rules, I Have Connections
 * Smug Snake