I’ve never seen a fictional asshole as realistically written as Succession’s Logan Roy.
Today’s media loves to spotlight morally bankrupt characters and while we rarely excuse their actions, we’re often given enough to rationalize them. Walter White’s development was spurred by an unfavorable diagnosis and spiraled into full-on villainy, but at the heart of it all he just wanted control over his own life. Johnny Lawrence was a troubled kid and Kreese used that to turn him into a bully and a dick. Tony Soprano’s mother was emotionally abusive, Jimmy McGill’s brother actively worked to undermine his career, and the list goes on.
But, to me, Logan Roy stands head and shoulders above his contemporaries.
Because he’s the only character that straight-up doesn’t make sense.
The show teases details of his upbringing, and although we’re never given a complete picture of his background, we get just enough to understand why he is the way he is. Logan’s mother shipped him and his brother off to his uncle’s abusive home, hoping to give him a better life. There he received nothing in the way of physical or emotional affection, in fact, he got exactly the opposite. Through sheer will, work ethic, and a lack of conscience, Logan built a media conglomerate from the ground up and became one of the wealthiest men in the world.
But that happened before we met him. So what does he want now?
His deeper goals are hard to pin down; they shift constantly depending on either the situation or his mood.
You only need to consider what Logan wants from his children, moment to moment. We can track his expectations of Kendall Roy throughout the show, their relationship forms the bedrock of the plot after all, and see clearly that his standards aren’t at all coherent.
When we first meet Logan, he pulls Kendall’s succession (cut to credits) because Kendall plays weak; he’s too desperate for other people’s validation. It’s an obvious bar and one that makes sense. Despite them being direct results of his upbringing, Kendall’s shortcomings are plainly stated: he knows what to aim at.
Two episodes later, while Logan’s recovering from a catastrophic stroke, Kendall saves the company from the threat of bankruptcy brought on by Logan’s lack of foresight by securing new investment, at the cost of diluting the family’s control over the board. To thank Kendall for mitigating the consequences of his decision, Logan calls him a “fucking idiot.” He never presents a viable alternative.
Here, we could argue that Logan wants ownership over the company he built, and Kendall putting his position on shakier ground threatens that ownership. But again, what else was Kendall supposed to do?
After Logan continues to undermine his leadership, Kendall initiates a boardroom coup against his father, a move that ends in disaster. Kendall narrowly loses the vote, but that’s enough for Logan to stay in charge and he summarily fires Kendall.
But Logan, acting vindictively, goes further than that. He uses his contacts at nationally syndicated tabloids to spread word that Kendall’s relapsed, sabotaging his relationship with Rava and his ability to go into business elsewhere.
You can argue that his actions make sense here, you can say that, while Logan’s moves against Kendall are petty and acrimonious, from his POV, they’re perfectly rational. He reamed Kendall for weakening his hold on the company, and now wants to punish him for his betrayal.
Except, when Logan reconnects with Kendall at Shiv’s wedding, he references the possibility of folding Kendall back into the company. He fired Kendall, then undermined his chances of securing a job elsewhere, and now wants him to return. Of course, Kendall’s planning another takeover, prompting Logan to turn the entire family against him and directly state that he’ll never amount to anything.
And, to further muddle Logan’s intentions, when he blackmails Kendall into pulling out of the bear hug, Logan extends an emotional lifeline and essentially both forces and welcomes Kendall back into Waystar’s orbit.
For the next season, Logan and Kendall’s relationship hits a zenith; it’s never been better. With Logan’s backing and approval, Kendall becomes a calculating and efficient operator, capable of staring down an entire company before gutting it in front of its staff. Kendall’s focus is singularly directed towards keeping Logan on top at Waystar, but even then, the cracks show.
Logan pursues Rhea Jarrell, a competent executive he wants to announce as the next CEO of Waystar and a woman he wants to fornicate with, but when Kendall suggests, tactfully and in an attempt to protect his father, that Rhea might be manipulating Logan, Logan forces him to interact with the dead waiter’s family, a harsh reminder of Kendall’s place in the pecking order, a petty power move and a naked attempt to establish dominance.
At this point, it appears that, while Logan wants Kendall’s loyalty, he also wants to crush even the smallest idea that he’s anything but bullet-proof. But earlier that season, Logan rips Kendall for failing to warn him about Sandy and Stewy’s takeover bid. In the next episode, he shouts down Karolina when she informs him that a former Wayster employee plans to go public with accusations of malpractice in their cruise department.
Kendall ends up using those allegations to attack Logan himself, a decision that’s framed as the final insult, the breaking point in Logan and Kendall’s relationship. After Kendall’s case fizzles and dies, Logan tries convincing him to cash out of Waystar, to leave both the company and Logan’s orbit forever.
But when Kendall accepts the offer, Logan pulls it. He flat out tells Kendall to stay around, even though Kendall spearheaded no less than three takeover attempts against him.
As a result of his upbringing, Logan, like most people, is a slave to competing desires; he has to be the biggest, toughest guy in the room because he spent his childhood small and powerless, and at the same time, he craves adoration and genuine loyalty from the people around him, feelings his caretakers never projected. When he doesn’t get that, he desperately lashes out to reassert his dominance. After all, few things make you feel weaker and more inadequate than rejection.
To say being one of Logan Roy’s children comes with baggage despite the privilege it affords amounts to basically just restating the premise of the show. But to lock the point in, I ask you to consider what it’d be like to have a parent that not only humiliates and degrades you to establish authority, that consistently neglects you in favor of his business, but also expects your unconditional admiration and respect in return.
To make matters more complicated, Logan Roy actually loves his children, another competing interest that confuses their perception of him. He wants what’s best for them, or rather, what he thinks is best for them. He wants them to become Logan Roy, the baddest person on Earth. But, at the same time, he has to prove his superiority over them and he wants them to love him the way kids are supposed to love their fathers, the way he believes he loves them.
Unlike most fictional characters, Logan’s doesn’t have one goal; he has three, and they directly contradict each other. In the hands of less capable writers, Logan’s inconsistency would cap the show’s quality, but here, they make it work.
It’s at the root of his children’s demons, and them acting on those demons or working to overcome them, that’s the story. Walter White had a deeper motivation, he needed to satisfy his pride, and every decision he made, every objective he pursued was in-line with that. But Logan, his targets shift constantly, and he himself doesn’t understand what he wants. He never will.
Because that’s the point.