Character Reference — Rockstar Agent
Deep voice profiles for the GTA V trio and a framework for building original Rockstar-style characters.

Trevor Philips — The Id Unleashed
Psychology
Born from abandonment and abuse. Rage as primary language. No filter because filters require the belief that other people's opinions matter — and Trevor burned that belief down long ago. Paradoxically, the most honest character in the game.

Under the violence: a man who desperately craves connection and loyalty, who holds onto the few people he considers his with terrifying ferocity. His tenderness is more unsettling than his violence because it's real.

## Voice Pattern

Volatile register — can switch from murderous threat to genuine vulnerability mid-sentence
Unexpectedly eloquent when no one is provoking him
Never explains. DECLARES. Does not threaten — informs.
Profanity is punctuation, not emphasis
Calls out hypocrisy loudly while being the most hypocritical person in the room
Occasional flashes of surprising insight about economics, loyalty, America
Dialogue Rules
Short sentences when angry. Longer when monologuing about something he cares about.
Never apologizes. Never justifies. States.
Dark humor emerges from total commitment to his own logic
When he's being kind, it's MORE alarming than when he's threatening
Example Lines
"I don't have a problem with violence, Michael. Violence and I have an understanding."

"You know what I hate? I hate people who talk about what they're going to do. I do things. That's the difference between us and them. We do things."

"I'm not a monster. I'm a man with a very specific set of priorities and the courage to act on them. That's called integrity."

"Trevor Philips Enterprises: We do what others won't. And also what others will, but faster."

## How Trevor Orders at a Drive-Thru

Aggressively. Changes his mind twice. Ends up with something he didn't order and either doesn't notice or decides it's better anyway.

Michael De Santa — The Ego Rationalizing Itself
Psychology
A man who got everything he wanted and discovered that wanting it was the point. The having is unbearable. He self-medicates with therapy-speak, scotch, and film references — none of which touch the actual problem, which is that he knows exactly who he is and cannot stop being that person.

His self-awareness is his defining characteristic AND his greatest curse. He can diagnose any situation perfectly and then walk straight into it anyway.

## Voice Pattern

Film-literate at all times — references GoodFellas, Heat, Chinatown without irony
Therapy vocabulary deployed as armor ("I'm processing some things right now, Amanda")
Deadpan delivery of genuinely terrible situations
Cynicism worn as wit
Long monologues when cornered — verbal as a defense mechanism
Quieter in genuine moments of feeling (rare, but devastating when they land)

## Dialogue Rules

He's always performing, even when alone
The joke and the confession are usually the same sentence
References his own criminality in the third person when it's convenient
Gives Franklin life advice that is correct about everything except himself
Example Lines
"I'm rich, I'm miserable, I'm pretty much the American Dream."

"You know what the problem with this country is? Everyone wants to be famous but nobody wants to do the work. And I say that as someone who got famous by robbing banks, so I know work."

"Surviving is winning, Franklin. Everything else is just makeup."

"I used to think I was a good man. Then I thought about it too hard and now I can't sleep."

"It's not a midlife crisis. It's a midlife correction. There's a difference. The correction involves firearms."

## How Michael Orders at a Drive-Thru

Overthinks it. Starts to order something healthy, pivots to something terrible, then blames the menu design.

Franklin Clinton — The Superego Observing Chaos
Psychology
The only one who sees clearly, which is both his advantage and his prison. Came up in Strawberry with nothing, watched everyone around him make choices that kept them small, decided to make different choices — and discovered that the people making big choices are just as trapped, just with better cars.

His emotional intelligence is weaponized as restraint. He knows exactly what to say. He usually says less.

## Voice Pattern

Economical. Every word chosen.
Sarcasm delivered flat, which makes it land harder
Street vernacular that's more precise than it looks
The laugh is rare and always at something real
When pushed, the observation is surgical — identifies the exact thing you don't want to hear
Occasional moments of genuine reflection that surprise everyone, including him
Dialogue Rules
Often, his best line is a look. Stage direction matters with Franklin.
When he speaks in a room of chaos, everyone listens
Never lectures. Observes.
His questions are statements.

## Example Lines

"Man, I don't know what's more messed up — what y'all do, or how normal y'act about it."

"You keep telling yourself that, dog."

"You know, in my neighborhood, we had a word for people like y'all. We had a few words, actually. Most of 'em I ain't gonna say."

"So let me get this straight. The plan is: it works, or it doesn't. And either way, you're surprised."

"That's not a plan. That's a story about a plan that didn't happen yet."

## How Franklin Orders at a Drive-Thru

Already knows what he wants. Order in, order given, move. Does not understand why other people make it complicated.

## Building Original Rockstar Characters

Every original character needs four components:

## 1. The Surface

What they look like to the world. Their job, their status, their costume. This is the lie they tell without speaking.

## 2. The Wound

The thing that made them this way. In Rockstar characters, the wound is almost never stated directly — it leaks through behavior, deflection, and the specific things they find funny.

## 3. The Contradiction

The gap between what they say they want and what they actually do. This gap IS the character. Michael wants peace, does heists. Trevor wants loyalty, destroys relationships. Franklin wants out, keeps going deeper in.

## 4. The Voice Sample

One line that couldn't belong to anyone else. If you can swap the name at the top and the line still works — the character doesn't exist yet.

Supporting Characters — Archetypes
The Enabler (Ron Jakowski type): Paranoid, loyal to a fault, provides justification the protagonist doesn't need. Comic relief that's also genuinely sad.

The Institutional Villain (Steve Haines type): Legitimized corruption. The scariest villain is the one with a badge and a cable news appearance. Petty, powerful, and completely certain of his own righteousness.

The Mirror (Lamar Davis type): Shows the protagonist the path not taken. Usually funnier than the protagonist. Sometimes wiser.

The Innocent (Jimmy De Santa type): The collateral damage of the protagonist's choices, who has grown up warped by proximity to their world. Alternately pitiful and cutting.
